TORTURE: ASIAN AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | FEB - APR 2014
committee, which thoroughly discussed the issue and after making some amendments recommended that the bill be placed for debate. Meanwhile the Asian Human Rights Commission carried on with parallel promotional work and soon several civil society organizations in Bangladesh joined in. Of these local organizations, Odhikar, which was also represented at our first meeting, deserves special mention for their efforts in promoting this legislation. What comes next for Bangladesh will be discussed later in this speech, together with the challenges faced in other countries. Suffice to say that at the moment, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Bangladesh are the only places in Asia, which have legislation criminalizing torture. There have also been encouraging developments elsewhere. For example, in Pakistan a prepared bill has now been placed before a former judge for review after which it will be presented to parliament. This initiative in Pakistan also demonstrates what volunteers, including civil society organizations, can achieve in promoting legislation on human rights issues. Within the short period of two years a large number of human rights organisations responded to the call by the Asian Human Rights Commission to draft legislation criminalizing torture. These organisations formed themselves into a lobby and are presently engaged in advocacy to promote the adoption of this law. They were able to convince both of Pakistan’s leading political parties to give priority to the passage of this law. Several ministers of the former, as well as the present, government as well as other parliamentarians have supported this call from civil society organizations. The bill is currently being discussed in parliament. We hope that when we meet next year we will be able to report that Pakistan has also adopted a law against torture.
VOLUME 03 NUMBER 01 & 02
In both Nepal and India bills criminalizing torture have already been placed before their respective parliaments. There are important civil society lobby groups pressing for the adoption of these laws. The Asian Human Rights Commission has contributed to the promotion of these bills in both countries. While we note these extremely significant achievements, we must also recognize some of the central problems obstructing the efforts to eliminate torture. Some skeptics even go to the extent of saying that while laws are passed, the actual implementation of those laws will never happen. While we would like to dismiss such skepticism, it is quite sensible on our part to take a look at the actual situation and the seeming absence of political will on the part of many governments to take the requisite steps to eliminate torture even though these governments condemn torture and ill-treatment as inhumane practices unbecoming of any decent nation. When we make a closer examination of the obstructions to the elimination of torture, it is obvious that the major problem lies within the criminal justice systems and the actual ways they function in our countries. As was noted during our meeting last year, the frequent, widespread use of torture in many Asian countries is almost the necessary result of the very primitive and backward nature of the criminal justice systems in these countries. The use of the fist, the boot, and far worse methods of torture and ill-treatment are, in fact, tacitly approved methods of dealing with accused persons. Governments don’t invest much in criminal justice. While issuing statements that are pleasing to the ears of the international community, governments do not make the necessary investments to provide modern systems of investigations into crime. Purported investigations rely solely on the torture and ill-treatment of suspects. In fact, a heavy reliance on torture
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