The prevention of torture in police custody and the essential role of independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty was the focus of a training, organised in Dushanbe 15-17 December 2015 by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, with support from the Swiss Cooperation Office.
The first two days of the training were delivered by the APT for some 30 representatives of the Tajik police and the Tajik Home Ministry, as well as the Ombudsman’s office and civil society representatives from the NGO Coalition against Torture, which jointly monitor places of detention in Tajikistan since 2014. The training was carried out with the active support of Laurent Walpen, former Chief of the Geneva police and former member of the Swiss National Preventive Mechanism, and of two Tajik human rights lawyers from the Coalition against Torture, Kayum Yusufov and Khudoydod Yormatov.
The training focused on safeguards in police custody and on the effective monitoring of deprivation of liberty by law enforcement officials. It highlighted the need for effective implementation of international and national standards protecting the rights of detained persons, and the importance of unhindered access of independent detention monitors to all places, persons and information, in confidentiality.
The activities of the Tajik working group for monitoring places of detention, composed of representatives from the Tajik Ombudsman office and from civil society organisations from the Coalition against Torture, were introduced at a dedicated session of the training. The APT hopes that this important pilot monitoring endeavour will pave the way for ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and its effective implementation by Tajikistan in the future.
