Thematic Advocacy
Submissions, written statements and oral statements
Tabel of Contents
Accountability
Joint submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Consultation on thematic report on accountability, May 2021
In this joint submission the authors address the perennial question of accountability. Addressing the mandate’s questionnaire, the submission at hand is centred and structured in two important respects: experiences (practice and its challenges); and, recommendations (for future directions).
- (Coming soon) Joint submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Consultation on thematic report on accountability
Detention
Submission to the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women and girls for their report on women deprived of liberty to the Human Rights Council’s 41st session in June 2019
This report analyses the causes of deprivation of liberty of women from a gender perspective. It provides an understanding of the ways in which women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by deprivation of liberty, owing to structural discrimination throughout their lives. While deprivation of women’s liberty manifests differently in different contexts, there is a common underlying cause: the persistence of patriarchal systems. Patriarchy shapes gender stereotypes and forms of discrimination that normalize them.
Joint Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee
The content of this submission aims to reflect on the structure of the draft General Comment. Read the full submission below:
Refugees and migrants
Joint Observations to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers regarding Draft General Comment No. 5 (2020) on migrants’ right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention, November 2020
The Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture (‘DIGNITY’) and the Redress Trust (REDRESS) provide these comments to the Committee on the draft General Comment No. 5 (2020) on migrants’ rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention (CMW/C/32/R.2). Read the submission below.
Gender
Submission to the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women and girls for their report on women deprived of liberty to the Human Rights Council’s 41st session in June 2019
The present report analyses the causes of deprivation of liberty of women from a gender perspective. It provides an understanding of the ways in which women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by deprivation of liberty, owing to structural discrimination throughout their lives. While deprivation of women’s liberty manifests differently in different contexts, there is a common underlying cause: the persistence of patriarchal systems. Patriarchy shapes gender stereotypes and forms of discrimination that normalize them. Read the full report below.
Women in the Criminal Justice System and the Bangkok Rules’ (pp 217-38) in ‘Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice
This publication is a follow-up to the report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in March 2016 (A/HRC/31/57). The report examined how the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment in international law must take into account the unique experiences of women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons. Read the full publication below.
Report to the Human Rights Council
In his 2016 report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur examined the gender perspectives of torture and the applicability of the prohibition of torture to the experiences of women, girls and LGBTI persons. DIGNITY contributed to this report via participation in an expert consultation (November 2015) and presentation on Gender Perspectives on Torture: An Overview of the Major Challenges in Law and Practice. Read the full presentation below.
Police
Extra-custodial use of force: Submission on Torture and Extra-custodial use of Force to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for his thematic report to the HRC (2017)
In this submission, DIGNITY and University of Edinburgh, has responded to the Special Rapporteur on Torture’s questionnaire on the use of Extra-Custodial Force. We have mainly focused our responses onthe first question in the questionnaire: In what circumstances, if any, does the extra-custodial use of force by State agents amount to torture or CIDTP?
Torture
Submission for the HRC37 resolution on the negative impact of corruption on the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (adopted by HRC, March 2018)
The proposed text is based on the recognition that torture/ill-treatment and corruption are inextricably linked; where there are higher levels of corruption, more instances of torture and ill-treatment are usually found. Corruption prevails in non-custodial settings and in the context of deprivation of liberty, as documented in scientific literature and by international monitoring bodies, such as the CPT and SPT. Read the full submission below.
Extra-custodial use of force: Submission on Torture and Extra-custodial use of Force to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for his thematic report to the HRC (2017).
In this submission, DIGNITY and University of Edinburgh, has responded to the Special Rapporteur on Torture’s questionnaire on the use of Extra-Custodial Force. We have mainly focused our responses onthe first question in the questionnaire: In what circumstances, if any, does the extra-custodial use of force by State agents amount to torture or CIDTP?
Report to the Human Rights Council
In his 2016 report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur examined the gender perspectives of torture and the applicability of the prohibition of torture to the experiences of women, girls and LGBTI persons. DIGNITY contributed to this report via participation in an expert consultation (November 2015) and presentation on Gender Perspectives on Torture: An Overview of the Major Challenges in Law and Practice. Read the full presentation below.
Torture and health professionals: Submission for HRC 10 resolution on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: The role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel (A/HRC/10/L.32, adopted by HRC, March 2010)
In this submission DIGNITY has commented and proposed some changes to the HRC’s draft resolution about the role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel, when it comes to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Articles about torture
- Therese Maria Rytter and Andrea Huber, Women in the Criminal Justice System and the Bangkok Rules, Chapter in the Book: Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice, published by Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law: Anti-Torture Initiative at the Washington College of Law at the American University (2018).
- Rytter, T.M. & Huber, A. (2018). 'WPS and the Convention against Torture', in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security. pp. 715-724.
- Elna Søndergaard; Protocol on Medico-Legal Documentation of Sleep Deprivation
- Elna Søndergaard; Development of interdisciplinary protocols on medico-legal documentation of torture: Sleep deprivation
- Ergun Cakal, Debility, dependency and dread: On the conceptual and evidentiary dimensions of psychological torture, in Torture Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, 2018.
- Ergün Cakal: Befogging reason, undermining will: Understanding sleep deprivation as torture and other ill-treatment in international law