Tuesday, October 11, 2011

UN Report: Systematic Torture of Afghan Detainees


10 October 2011 – A new United Nations report released today cites evidence of the “systematic” torture and mistreatment of detainees in Afghan detention facilities, including of children, and provides recommendations which it hopes will spur the necessary reforms.

The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is the result of extensive interviews from October 2010 to August 2011 of 379 pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners at 47 facilities of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Afghan National Police (ANP) in 22 provinces.

The mission found “compelling” evidence that 125 detainees, or 46 per cent, of the 273 detainees interviewed who had been in NDS detention experienced interrogation techniques at the hands of NDS officials that constituted torture, and that torture is practiced “systematically” in a number of NDS detention facilities throughout Afghanistan,” states the report.

Read it all here.



1 comment:

George Patsourakos said...

There should be no torture or mistreatment of detainees in Afghan detention facilities.

The Geneva Convention and the United Nations Charter forbid torture and mistreatment of detainees. Consequently, torture of detainees is a violation of international law.