Experts: Torture is a stain on the image of Kazakhstan

From January to June 2019, 53 people addressed to the Kazakhstan’s Coalition of non-governmental organizations against torture and cruel treatment on the facts of torture, and 95 people – on the facts of cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment. At the same time, according to the speakers, despite the help and support to those who apply, only 3% of the total number of appeals reaches the court. Such statistics were cited by members of the Coalition at the briefing in Almaty.

The main reason for this low rate lies in the difficulty of determining the degree of harm to health, the mechanism and the limitation of bodily harm during the forensic examination.

In this regard, a project is being developed in the Republic to identify, record and document facts of torture and cruel treatment of people based on the standards of the UN Istanbul Protocol.

The project is being developed by the Public Fund “Aman-Saulyk”, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Kazakhstan, and the Coalition of Kazakh NGOs against torture and cruel treatment, together with the Ministries of Health and Justice.

“The project experts developed recommendations for recording and documenting the facts of torture and cruel treatment based on the standards of the Istanbul Protocol,” said Bakhyt Tumenova [the president of the PF “Aman-Saulyk”] at the briefing. “This project carries prevention. We plan to launch a pilot project first, and then distribute it to all regions of Kazakhstan. Those, who commit torture and violence, will know that the entire network in this regard is ready. The evidence base for forensic examination will be more complete. Cruel treatment can be not only in prison, it can be in homes for senior or disabled citizens, as well as in kindergartens. Torture is a big national problem, it’s a stain on our state that has signed the Convention against torture.”

Participants of the press conference noted that one of the international obligations of Kazakhstan, noted, in particular, in the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, is the prevention, recording, documentation and investigation of any display of torture and cruel treatment.

At the same time, the speakers emphasized that a special role and responsibility in this process put on the medical workers. It is they who, in most cases, are the first to face with victims of torture and cruel treatment, record and document these cases.

“There are no forensic medical department at medical universities of the country, and attending forensic medical courses is optional; many doctors are not able to fill out these protocols correctly,” the chairman of the Public Council of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan Nadejda Petukhova summarized. “In 2010, the Ministry of Health developed the order in which doctors in the hospital and outpatient departments need to fill out protocols on issues related to violence and torture. For the forensic expert, the process of correctly filling out the protocol plays an important role when the process of describing from bruises to fractures and the psychological state of the victim is ongoing. We want to create pilot projects in Almaty and Almaty region, so that doctors learn to fill out these protocols, and that there is a digital provision of electronic passports so that monitoring can be done. For this, it is necessary to make changes to the information system so that it can record torture and cruel treatment data.”

Recall that the Istanbul Protocol was submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on August 9, 1999.

“Over the past two decades, the world has learned a lot about torture and its consequences, but prior to the development of this manual there were no guidelines for documenting them,” the introduction to the protocol says. “The Guidelines for the effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment [Istanbul Protocol] are intended to serve as international guidelines for assessing the state of persons alleging that they have been subjected to torture and cruel treatment; investigating cases of alleged torture and presenting the results of such assessment and investigation to a judicial or other investigative authorities. This document includes principles for the effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment.”