Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, released the final report on his mission to Moldova

March 18, 2009, Chisinau—Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, presented his final report to the United Nations Human Rights Council wherein he noted the commitment of the Government of Moldova to uphold and promote human rights and, hence, progress made since independence in 1991. He also welcomed initiatives under way to prevent torture, in particular the creation of a national preventive mechanism under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The report is based on a joint visit by the Special Rapporteur on torture and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Yakin Erturk, to the Republic of Moldova, including the Transnistrian region, in July 2008.

Based on discussions with public officials, judges, lawyers and representatives of civil society, interviews with victims of violence and with persons deprived of their liberty, often supported by forensic medical evidence, the Special Rapporteur concluded that ill-treatment during the initial period of police custody is widespread. He also discovered serious allegations of torture in some police stations. A number of cases of ill-treatment were reported to the Special Rapporteur in institutions under the Ministry of Justice, mainly in terms of inter-prisoner violence. While recently some torture cases have reached the courts, the Special Rapporteur found that, overall, most mechanisms for complaints are ineffective.

Further, the Special Rapporteur found that conditions in police cells do not conform to international standards and are not suited to holding people for long periods. Detention in such conditions for up to several months, as practised in the Republic of Moldova, amounts to inhuman treatment. The conditions of detention in institutions under the Ministry of Justice vary. Some institutions, in particular the pre-trial facility in Chişinău, were severely overcrowded. Other institutions located outside the capital had an acceptable amount of space for each prisoner. However, the Special Rapporteur was concerned about the standard use of quarantine cells for newly arrived detainees, most of which were not in line with international standards. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur received numerous complaints about the restricted access to medical care and the poor quality of food.

With regard to the state’s legal framework, the Special Rapporteur welcomed the fact that torture has been criminalized and that safeguards are, by and large, provided for by the legislation. In order for the safeguards to be effective, however, the special Rapporteur found that various players in the criminal law cycle must live up to their responsibilities and denounce cases of torture.

In the light of the above, the Special Rapporteur recommended that the Government of the Republic of Moldova implement fully its obligations under international human rights law. In particular, he urged the Government to equip the recently created national preventive mechanism with the necessary human and other resources and to view it as an aid in the collective effort to discover what really happens in places where persons are deprived of their liberty. He also recommended that the penitentiary system be conceived in a way that truly aims at the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders. Further, it was recommended that accessible and confidential complaints mechanisms, effective and independent criminal investigation and prosecution mechanisms against alleged perpetrators of torture should be established. Other recommended steps included reducing the time limits for detention in police custody to 48 hours, strengthening safeguards to make them effective, and transferring temporary detention isolators from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice.
With regard to the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, the Special Rapporteur was particularly concerned about the lack of complaints and monitoring mechanisms. He therefore recommended the activities of the national preventive mechanism be extended to the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova. Further, he recommended that torture should be criminalized and the death penalty abolished de jure. Additionally, the practice of solitary confinement for persons sentenced to death or to life imprisonment should be stopped immediately.

The Special Rapporteur called upon the international community to assist the Government of the Republic of Moldova in its fight against torture by providing financial and technical support.

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For more information pls contact Ludmila Tiganu, Communications Officer, at 269 112 or Edwin Berry, Human Rights Advisor, at 269 130, email: edwin.berry@undp.org

The full text of the report you can find HERE.