Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
or Punishment
A. Introduction
2. The Committee appreciates the third periodic report submitted by the State party
under the simplified reporting procedure. The Committee welcomes the dialogue with the
State partys delegation and the replies provided to the concerns raised by the Committee.
B. Positive aspects
* Adopted by the Committee at its fifty-seventh session (18 April-13 May 2016).
GE.16-08815(E)
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Children in Armed Conflict, Strengthening the Council for the Welfare of Children and for
other Purposes, on 2 August 2013;
(k) The Committee commends the services provided by foreign service
personnel to Filipinos overseas, including migrant workers and victims of trafficking.
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overcrowding. The Committee is concerned at the huge backlog of cases in the judiciary
and at the preponderant role of the Department of the Interior and its impact on the
independence of the judiciary, whose role appears reduced as a result. It is also concerned
at the insufficient number of judges (arts. 2 and 11).
14. The State party should:
(a) Urgently release those persons whose pretrial detention exceeds the
maximum penalty for the offence;
(b) Review the legality of the pretrial detention of all persons thus detained;
(c) Urgently deal with the backlog of cases in the courts;
(d) Amend legislation and take all measures necessary to shorten the
duration of pretrial detention, which should be used as an exception and for limited
periods of time;
(e) Ensure that pretrial detention is regulated clearly and is subject to
judicial supervision at all times in order to guarantee fundamental legal and
procedural safeguards;
(f) Strengthen the independence of the judiciary, ensure that vacancies are
filled as a matter of urgency, strengthen the capacity of the judicial system and ensure
that it clears the backlog of existing cases;
(g) Ensure that all pretrial detainees are brought before a judge without
delay and expedite the cases of persons held under the Comprehensive Dangerous
Drugs Act;
(h) Consider replacing pretrial detention with non-custodial measures, in
accordance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial
Measures (the Tokyo Rules);
(i) Ensure that redress and compensation are provided to victims of
unjustified prolonged pretrial detention.
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acts of torture or ill-treatment are immediately suspended from their duties and
remain so throughout the investigation, while ensuring that the principle of
presumption of innocence is observed;
(d) Establish a database on the number of investigations, prosecutions,
convictions, sanctions and compensation granted to victims of torture and members of
their families, and report these figures to the Committee in its next report.
Coerced confessions
17. While noting that the Anti-Torture Act provides for the inadmissibility of any
confession, admission or statement obtained as a result of torture, the Committee is
concerned at numerous reports of confessions extracted under torture and ill-treatment by
law enforcement officers. It is also concerned at the reported shortage of police officers and
the lack of capabilities to conduct investigations (art. 15).
18. The State party should:
(a) Take immediate and effective measures to guarantee that coerced
confessions or statements are inadmissible in any proceedings, except when invoked
against a person accused of torture;
(b) Review cases of convictions based solely on confessions, since many of
these may have been based on evidence obtained through torture or ill-treatment and,
as appropriate, provide prompt and impartial investigations and take appropriate
remedial measures;
(c) Ensure that persons convicted on the basis of coerced evidence or as a
result of torture and ill-treatment are afforded a new trial and adequate redress;
(d) Ensure that law enforcement officials, army personnel, judges,
prosecutors and lawyers receive training on how to detect and investigate cases in
which confessions are obtained under torture;
(e) Ensure that officials who extract such confessions, including persons
liable under the principle of command responsibility, are brought to justice,
prosecuted and punished accordingly;
(f) Provide the Committee with information on any cases in which
confessions were deemed inadmissible on the grounds that they were obtained
through torture and indicate whether any officials have been prosecuted and punished
for extracting such confessions.
Blindfolding
19. The Committee is concerned at reports that persons detained by security forces are
blindfolded. It is also concerned at the reported insistence of public prosecutors on positive
visual identification, which prevents victims of torture who were blindfolded from
identifying the perpetrators, even if their allegations are consistent with physical and
psychological symptoms of torture and visible or permanent physical injury (arts. 2, 11 and
16).
20. The State party should:
(a) Increase awareness among the security forces about the prohibition of
blindfolding under section 4 (b) (1) of the Anti-Torture Act;
(b) Sanction all instances of blindfolding;
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Conditions of detention
27. The Committee is concerned at the persistence of appalling conditions of detention
prevailing in the State party, both in police lock-up cells and the jails and detention
facilities run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which do not meet minimum
international standards and may constitute ill-treatment or torture. It is particularly
concerned at the persistence of critical and chronic overcrowding in all detention facilities,
some of which may be operating at 380 per cent of capacity. Conditions in all places of
deprivation of liberty include dilapidated and small cells, in some of which detainees are
forced to sleep while sitting or standing, unsanitary conditions, inadequate amounts of food,
poor nutrition, insufficient natural and artificial lighting and poor ventilation, which cause
inter-prisoner violence and the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, the
incidence of which is extremely high. The Committee is particularly alarmed at information
that tuberculosis eradication programmes were not a priority in the past because they were
seen as irrelevant to the maintenance of security. The Committee is concerned about sexual
violence against detained persons and about the treatment of detainees belonging to
minorities (arts. 2, 11 and 16).
28. The State party should make public the findings and implement scrupulously
the recommendations of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment arising from its visit to the country
in 2015.
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Training
35. The Committee is concerned that public officials involved in the implementation of
the Anti-Torture Act lack adequate training and information regarding the prohibition of
torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in accordance with section 21 of
the Act. It is also concerned that most government doctors lack specific training on the
Istanbul Protocol). The Committee regrets the absence of specific methodologies to monitor
and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the training provided (art. 10).
36. The State party should:
(a) In coordination with medical and legal professional associations and
individual experts, ensure that all municipal doctors and public prosecutors receive
training on how to identify signs of torture and ill-treatment, to document alleged
torture cases and to establish evidence that can be used in legal or administrative
proceedings against those responsible for acts of torture through the use of the
Istanbul Protocol;
(b) Ensure that all personnel involved in the implementation of the
rehabilitation programme receive adequate training in the provision of specialized
rehabilitation services for victims of torture;
(c) Ensure that all training is implemented as part of a comprehensive
government plan for further building the capacity of public officials involved in the
implementation of the Anti-Torture Act and that the outcomes of the trainings are
measured on the basis of indicators, which shall include improved performance of
public officials in their respective roles in implementing the Anti-Torture Act;
(d) Develop and implement specific methodologies to monitor and assess the
effectiveness and impact of such training on the reduction in the number of cases of
torture, violence and ill-treatment.
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(b) Designate a specific lead coordinating agency at the country level for the
implementation of the rehabilitation programme and make clear and adequate
budgetary provisions for the programme to function as a specialized service;
(c) Ensure that the programme offers specialized rehabilitation services that
are appropriate, available and promptly accessible, in accordance with general
comment No. 3, and ensure that access is not conditional on the filing of formal
administrative or criminal complaints;
(d) Establish a programme for monitoring and evaluating the impact of the
rehabilitation programme that includes a system of data collection in order to identify
the number of victims and their specific rehabilitation needs;
(e) Take the steps necessary to prevent, in a comprehensive manner and to
the extent possible, the abduction and military recruitment of children by armed
groups, to facilitate their reintegration into society and to provide them with as a
rehabilitation that is as full as possible and that is specifically designed for their needs.
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Follow-up procedure
43. The Committee requests the State party to provide, by 13 May 2017,
information on follow-up to the Committees recommendations on pretrial detention
and overcrowding, the measures taken with regard to torture and ill-treatment and
steps taken to close all secret places of detention (see paras. 14, 16 and 22 above). In
that context, the State party is invited to inform the Committee about its plans for
implementing, within the coming reporting period, some or all of the remaining
recommendations in the concluding observations.
Other issues
44. The Committee reiterates its recommendation that the State party consider
making the declarations under articles 21 and 22 of the Convention recognizing the
competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from
individuals subject to its jurisdiction.
45. The Committee invites the State party to consider ratifying the core United
Nations human rights treaties to which it is not yet party.
46. The State party is requested to disseminate widely the report submitted to the
Committee and the present concluding observations, in appropriate languages,
through official websites, the media and non-governmental organizations.
47. The State party is invited to submit its fourth periodic report by 13 May 2020.
For that purpose, and in view of the fact that the State party has agreed to report to
the Committee under the simplified reporting procedure, the Committee will, in due
course, transmit to the State party a list of issues prior to reporting. The State partys
replies to that list of issues will constitute its fourth periodic report under article 19 of
the Convention. The State party is also invited to submit its common core document in
accordance with the requirements contained in the harmonized guidelines on
reporting under the international human rights treaties (HRI/GEN.2/Rev.6).
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