La società civile invita a fermare la tortura in Africa e in Europa
I rappresentanti delle organizzazioni della società civile provenienti dall’Europa e dall’Africa, compresi i membri di FIACAT, si sono incontrati il 28-29 ottobre a Banjul, in Gambia, nell’ambito del 7 ° Seminario della società civile dell’Unione africana – Unione europea in materia di tortura in Africa e in Europa. Quest’anno l’Unione africana e l’Unione europea hanno deciso di concentrarsi sulla lotta contro la tortura, i maltrattamenti e il risarcimento per le vittime in entrambi i continenti, nelle relazioni intercontientali e multilaterali.
Di seguito il comunicato prodotto a margine dell’iniziativa e il documento con le raccomandazioni finali inviate alle istituzioni europee e africane.
Civil society recommends actions to tackle torture in Africa and Europe
Torture and ill-treatment are a reality on both continents and committed in a range of contexts, including in the fight against terrorism, general policing, detention, imprisonment, as well as during conflict. Torture and ill-treatment are cross-cutting issues in practically all human rights work, including freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, rights of women and minorities, protection of human rights defenders, enforced disappearances, rights of refugees and migrants and the shrinking space for civil society. Perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment frequently benefit from impunity and victims on both continents struggle to obtain full redress.
This was the first AU-EU Civil Society Seminar specifically focusing on eradicating torture and ill-treatment and ensuring redress for victims on both continents, in inter-continental relations and at multilateral level. It is a strong and encouraging sign of the commitment of both the EU and AU on this crucial issue.
Following discussions on the prevention of use of torture, provision of rehabilitation services to
victims, the prosecution and sanction of torture, as well as the fight against torture and impunity
in foreign policies and cooperation, the participants agreed that the problem is not the absence
of Human Rights standards but the lack of implementation.
The civil society worked on a set of recommendations that was presented in the AU-EU human
rights dialogue on 31st October in Banjul.
They particularly encourage the EU and AU to:
• Address torture and ill-treatment in a comprehensive manner (prevention, accountability
and rehabilitation).
• Organise a joint conference, in collaboration with regional and international mechanisms,
to share good practices and experience on monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty
and support the development of other means of sharing.
• Elaborate a joint programme to provide sustainable capacity building and technical
assistance to public agents (such as police officers, prosecutors, judges), lawyers and
National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs).
• Encourage their Member States to establish strict human rights vetting, training and
monitoring mechanisms to ensure migrants are not subjected to torture or other forms of
ill-treatment, and to include the same safeguards in all their migration bilateral agreements.
The complete list of recommendations will soon be available on the web site of the Africa-EU
partnership