Safeguards to prevent torture, criminal investigations, and investigative interviewing were the three main topics discussed during the two-day roundtable organised by the APT and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in December in Geneva. The Expert Roundtable on Good Practice in Police Custody gathered 28 senior police officers from 22 countries, as well as other experts on safeguards, criminal investigations, and investigative interviewing.
Practitioners and experts heard presentations on the preventive value of legal and procedural safeguards in police custody, in particular on the rights of access to a lawyer and to a medical doctor, as well as on the main principles governing criminal investigations and police interviews. They also had the opportunity to discuss about the specific challenges they face in different contexts around the world, and ways to overcome them, and to exchange good practices.
This first roundtable, jointly organised by the APT and the ICRC, was also the occasion for APT to launch its new animation video – "Changing Police Mindsets - From Coercion to Justice," produced with the Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI) – on the key importance of non-coercive interviewing of suspects and the implementation of safeguards during the first hours of police custody.
