Protection of detainees: ICRC action behind bars

International Review of the Red Cross

Volumn 87, Issue 857, 2005, Pages 83-122

  Aeschlimann, Alain ^a  

^a Central Tracing Agency   (Switzerland)

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EID: 84939193301     PISSN: 18163831     EISSN: 16075889     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1816383100181202     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. See on this subject Vivien Stern, A Sin against the Future: Imprisonment in the World, Penguin Books, London, 1998.
2. See in particular François Bugnion, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protection of War Victims, ICRC, Geneva, 2003.
3. See in particular Jacques Moreillon, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protection of Detainees, Henry Dunant Institute, Editions L’ Age d'Homme, Lausanne, 1973.
4. Articles 123 and 126 Third Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war of 1949 (GC III)
5. Articles 76, 140 and 143 Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in times of war (GC IV).
6. Internal disturbances are characterized by a profound disruption of internal law and order, resulting from acts of violence which do not, however, have the characteristics of armed conflict. They do not necessarily imply armed action, but consist of serious acts of violence over a prolonged period or a situation of latent violence. For a situation to be qualified as internal disturbances, it is irrelevant whether there is State repression, whether the disturbances are prolonged or of brief duration but with long-lasting or intermittent effects, whether they affect part or all of the national territory, or whether they are of religious, ethnic, political, social, economic or any other origin. They include riots or isolated and sporadic acts of violence (see Article 1 (2) of Protocol II additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 (AP II GC)) whereby individuals or groups of individuals openly make known their opposition and their demands. They may also include struggles between factions or against the authorities in place, or acts such as mass arrests, forcible disappearances, detention for security reasons, suspension of judicial guarantees, the declaration of a state of emergency or the proclamation of martial law, see Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, ICRC, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Geneva, 1987, pp. 1354–1356 (N. 4471–4479)
7. Agreement of 26 November 1997 on the organization of the international activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 829, March 1998, p. 175
8. Marion Harrof-Tavel, “Action taken by the International Committee of the Red Cross in situations of internal violence”, International Review of the Red Cross, May-June 1993, No. 294, p. 204.
9. In particular, on the basis of Article 4 of the Convention against Torture, but also under the provisions of the Geneva Conventions concerning grave breaches and other serious violations of international humanitarian law (Articles 40, 50, 129 and 146 of GC I, II, III and IV respectively).
10. See in particular Pascal Daudin and Hernan Reyes, “How visits by the ICRC can help prisoners cope with the effects of traumatic stress”, in International Responses to Traumatic Stress, Baywood Publishers, New York, 1996, pp. 219–256.
11. For definitions, see: Paul Bonard, Modes of action used by humanitarian players: criteria for operational complementarity, ICRC, Geneva, 1999
12. Sylvie Giossi Caverzascio, Strengthening Protection in War: A Search for Professional Standards, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 2001, pp. 29–33
13. Humanitarian Protection: A Guidance Booklet, Hugo Slim and Luis Enrique Eguren, ALNAP, London, 2005 (forthcoming).
14. See “Action by the International Committee of the Red Cross in the event of breaches of international humanitarian law”, International Review of the Red Cross, January-February 1981, No. 220, pp. 76–83; see also reference 42.
15. This was particularly the case in Ethiopia with the translation into Amharic of the manual “A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management: Handbook for Prison Staff”, Andrew Coyle, International Centre for Prison Studies, London, 2002.
16. The ICRC organizes courses at various levels (particularly basic courses and courses for instructors) with the main objective of creating a national long-term capacity to continue the same type of training. It seeks essentially to familiarize participants with the laws, ethical codes of conduct and professional standards in force, and places a very strong emphasis on respect for the physical and moral integrity of suspects during arrest and detention. It is careful not to teach techniques (e.g. for interrogation) in fields where it is not competent and could not get involved without compromising its principles of action, especially its neutrality. For police and security forces, the basis for these courses is found in the publication “To Serve and Protect: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law for Police and Security Forces”, ICRC, Geneva, 1998.
17. For the armed forces the ICRC has published a training guide: The Law of Armed Conflict: Teaching File for Instructors, ICRC, Geneva, 2002.
18. On this subject see in particular “Addressing the Needs of Women affected by Armed Conflicts: An ICRC Guidance Document”, ICRC, Geneva, 2004, pp. 113–160.
19. These conditions are: 1) the existence of large-scale and repeated violations; 2) the ICRC delegates have directly witnessed such violations, or their existence and extent and respective data have been established by means of reliable and verifiable sources; 3) the ICRC's confidential approaches to end these violations have had no impact or results; 4) a public statement by the ICRC would be conducive to the interests of the persons concerned. Cf. “Action by the International Committee of the Red Cross in the event of breaches of international humanitarian law”, International Review of the Red Cross, January-February 1981, No. 220, pp. 76–83.
20. “Excerpts from the executive summary of the ‘Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the treatment by the Coalition Forces of prisoners of war and other protected persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq during arrest, internment and interrogation’”, Wall Street Journal, 7 May 2004.
21. “Red Cross finds detainee abuse in Guantánamo”, A. Lewis, New York Times, 30 November 2004
22. “Iraq: new war, old tactics?”, Newsweek, 24 January 2005.
23. See also Philippe de Sinner and Hernan Reyes, “Activités du CICR en matière de visites aux personnes privées de liberté. Une contribution à la lutte contre la torture”, in Antonio Cassese (ed.) La lutte Internationale contre le terrorisms Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 1991, pp. 153–171
24. Pascal Daudin et Hernan Reyes, “How visits by the ICRC can help prisoners cope with the effects of traumatic stress”, in International Responses to Traumatic Stress, Baywood Publishers, New York, 1996, pp. 219–256
25. Hernan Reyes, “Visits to prisoners by the ICRC”, in Torture Supplementum No. 1, 1997, pp. 28–30
26. Marina Staiff, “Visits to detained torture victims by the ICRC (I): Management, documentation, and follow-up”, Torture, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2000, pp. 4–7.
27. These efforts were first made within the ICRC's role as the driving force behind IHL. The Statutes of the Movement stipulate (in Article 5 (2) lit g) that one of the major functions of the ICRC is “to work for the understanding and dissemination of knowledge of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts and to prepare any development thereof” (in Article 5 (2) lit g). In February 2003, the ICRC accordingly organized an international conference of governmental and non-governmental experts which examined the question of missing persons and adopted a declaration (see the ICRC report “The missing and their families: Summary of the conclusions arising from events held prior to the International Conference of Governmental and Non-Governmental Experts” (19–21 February 2003), (ICRC/The Missing/01.2003/EN-FR/10) and the “Acts of the Conference” (The Missing/03.2003/EN-FR/90)).
28. See United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Istanbul Protocol: Manual on the Effective Investigation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Professional Training Series No. 8, United Nations, New York and Geneva, 2001.
29. See Pier Giorgio Nembrini, Eau, assainissement, hygiène et habitat dans les prisons, ICRC, Geneva, 2004.
30. See Dermot Maher, Malgosia Grzemska et al., Guidelines for the Control of Tuberculosis in Prison, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1998.
31. See the part Development of the legal framework and the ICRC visiting procedures (reference 11)2.
32. For a commentary on these minimum rules, see Making standards work, an international handbook on good prison practice, Penal Reform International, London, 2001.
33. An institution such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has adopted a different approach and has published the standards it recommends and on which it bases its work. They appear in reports drawn up by the CPT after its visits and made public if the State concerned agrees. See Rod Morgan and Malcolm Evans, Combating Torture in Europe, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, 2001.
34. Article 122 GC III
35. with regard to civilian internees see Articles 106 and 138 GC IV.
36. The right to know is stipulated in particular in Article 32 AP I GC. It also derives from Articles 69 and 70 GC III
37. Articles 25 and 26 GC IV
38. Article 5. (2) lit.(b) AP II GC.
39. See in particular “The International Committee of the Red Cross and the torture”, International Review of the Red Cross, December 1976, No. 189, pp. 610–617.
40. See also Philippe Sinner and Hernan Reyes, “Activités du CICR en matière de visites aux personnes privées de liberié: Une contribution à la lutte contre la torture”, in Antonio Cassese (ed.), La lutte Internationale contre le terrorisme, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 1991, pp. 153–171.
41. Article 13 (1) GC III (referring to prisoners of war)
42. Article 27 (1) GC IV (referring to protected civilians).
43. See. also Article 31 and/ 32 GC IV (prohibition of coercion respectively of corporal punishment and torture)
44. Articles 11 and 75 AP I GC.
45. Article 3 common GC (1) (1) lit. a and d.
46. See also Article 4 AP II GC.
47. Provided for in particular in Articles 5 to 9 of the United Nations Convention against Torture, Articles 49 and 50 GC I
48. of the First Geneva Convention, Articles 50 and 51 GC II
49. of the Second Geneva Convention, Articles 129 and 130 GC
50. of the Third Geneva Convention III, Articles 146 and 147 GC IV
51. of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 85 AP I.
52. See Knut Doermann, Elements of War Crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICRC/Cambridge, 2003, pp. 44–70.
53. See for instance the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights: “The five techniques [wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, deprivation of food and drink] were applied in combination, with premeditation and for hours at a stretch; they caused, if not actual bodily injury, at least intense physical and mental suffering to the persons subjected thereto and also led to acute psychiatric disturbances during interrogation. They accordingly fell into the category of inhuman treatment within the meaning of Article 3 (…). The techniques were also degrading since they were such as to arouse in their victims feelings of fear, anguish and inferiority capable of humiliating and debasing them and possibly breaking their physical or moral resistance”; Ireland v. the United Kingdom, ECHR, 18 January 1978, para. 167.
54. See in particular Hernan Reyes, “Torture and its consequences”, in Torture, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1995, pp. 72–76.
55. See The Istanbul Protocol, Torture (note 47), a basic reference text in terms of the documentation of torture.
56. On the same or other closely related issues, see also Camille Giffard, The Torture Reporting Handbook, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, Colchester, 2000, p. 159
57. Michael Peel and Vincent Iacopino (eds.), The Medical Documentation of Torture, London and San Francisco, 2002, p. 227
58. F. Sironi, Bourreaux et victimes: Psychologic de la torture”, Odile Jacob, Paris, 1999
59. Hernan Reyes, “ICRC visits to prisoners”, in Torture, Vol. 3, No. 2,1993, p. 58
60. “Visits to prisoners by the ICRC”, in Torture Supplementum No. 1, 1997, pp. 28–30
61. “The role of the physician in ICRC visits to prisoners”
62. Marina Staiff, “Visits to detained torture victims by the ICRC (1): Management, documentation, and follow-up”, Torture, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2000, pp. 4–7
63. “Visits to detained torture victims by the ICRC (II): The psychological impact of visits and interviews with detained torture victims”, in Torture, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2000, pp. 41–44.
64. See Amnesty International, Combating Torture: A Manual for Action, London, 2003
65. Walter Kälin, “The struggle against torture”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 324, 1998, pp. 433–444.
66. Notably Article 71 GC III
67. Articles 25, 107 and 116 GC IV.
68. Articles 82 to 88 and 99 to 107 GC III.
69. Articles 31, 33, 66 to 75 and 117, 118 and 126 respectively GC IV.
70. Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Article 6 AP II.