Guide To Jurisprudence On Torture And Ill Treatment PDF Download

This paper explores the international jurisprudence related to effective investigation of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Effective investigation is a positive obligation that states have towards victims of human rights violations. Failing to fulfil it means denying protection to the victims, which impairs their right to obtain redress. However, investigating torture and ill-treatment is not an obligation of results, but of means – the state must take all necessary and reasonable steps that may lead to identifying the perpetrator and establishing the relevant facts. For the investigation to be regarded as effective, it should in principle be capable of leading to identification of those responsible and to the establishment of the facts. The paper covers the standards of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the UN treaty bodies: the Committee against Torture (CAT) and the Human Rights Committee (HRC). It contains selected highlights of the jurisprudence on effective investigations developed by these bodies. In addition, this note also briefly describes the admissibility criteria for individual complaints on torture and other ill-treatment submitted to the ECtHR and the UN treaty bodies. It contains practical recommendations on how to raise the chances to get a complaint on ineffective investigation of torture admitted by the ECtHR. These recommendations were collected through personal interviews with lawyers practicing before the ECtHR. The purpose of this publication is to provide a summary of key international standards on effective investigation of torture and ill-treatment from a practical point of view. To this end, it provides specific examples of what shortcomings in investigations would be considered in violation of the standard of effective investigation. These examples can be used by lawyers and civil society activists to build cases in the international jurisdictions that consider complaints on torture and ill-treatment, in particular the UN and European Court of Human Rights. The paper was inspired by the discussions on key challenges in building successful litigations on effective investigation of torture and other ill-treatment faced by DIGNITY’s civil society partners working in Ukraine. However, it is may also be relevant for the use in other countries under the jurisdiction of the ECtHR and/or the UN Committee Against Torture and the UN Human Rights Committee.