DUSHANBE, June 26, Asia-Plus — The International Day in Support of Torture Victims is marked on June 26. This is a day created by the United Nations General Assembly to demonstrate solidarity to all whose mind, body or spirit have been impacted by torture.
In this connection, Tajikistan’s Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law of Tajikistan (BHR) expressed its solidarity to torture victims and calls on the legislative and judicial bodies of the country to bring the national legislation into compliance with the provisions of the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and include a separate article “Tortures” in the country’s Criminal Code and work out an efficient mechanism of immediate and thorough investigation into torture claims.
BHR also calls on Tajik authorities to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 2002 and which is in force since June 22, 2006. OPCAT provides for the establishment of a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to be overseen by a Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Tajikistan ratified CAT on July 21, 1994 and the Convention came into force for Tajikistan on February 10, 1995.
According to the BHR analytic center head Zylfiqor Zamonov, Tajikistan has joined some international legal acts banning use of tortures, however, the problem of criminal persecution of officials using tortures and support for torture victims have still remained unsolved in the country.
“The country’s criminal code does not yet provide for the separate article for tortures that not only complicate detection of scale of use of tortures in the country but also causes impunity of officials and law enforcement officers,” Zamonov said, “Human rights activists also note that the other problem is lack of an efficient investigation into torture claims.”
