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Mr Silvio Gonzato
Director
Human Rights and Democracy Division
European External Action Service
Brussels, 19 November 2014
Revision of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy
Dear Mr Gonzato,
We are writing to you with regard to the forthcoming revision of the European Union (EU) Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy. As organisations working against torture and ill treatment, we welcome the opportunity to share with you our key concerns around the EU and member states’ responses, and to put forward recommendations for the new Action Plan below.
1. Go beyond silent diplomacy on torture
Today, the EU and its member states do not yet make full use of all the public diplomacy tools at their disposal when it comes to torture. EU and member states’ foreign policies regularly consider torture and ill treatment too sensitive a subject to discuss publicly or even explicitly in bilateral exchanges with third country governments. As a result, torture is sometimes left off the agendas of human rights dialogues, or addressed only in passing or through other related issues (e.g. arbitrary detention), despite the fact that action against torture appears as a priority in some seventy EU Human Rights Country Strategies.
We recommend that the revised Action Plan should:
Ensure that the EU and its member states make full use of all available measures including both confidential and bilateral approaches, as well as clear public statements, demarches and CouncilConclusions, to ensure concrete, pro-active and relevant responses to torture and ill treatment.
Make torture and ill treatment a standing item on the agendas of all EU human rights dialogues with third countries worldwide.
2. Act against torture using existing EU policy tools, and strengthen the EU’s capacity to stop
torture
We recommend that the revised Action Plan should:
Ensure the dissemination of the EU Guidelines on Torture among EU and member states’ staff at headquarters and field levels, as well as civil society in the EU and in third countries. In all cases,
specific support should be provided regarding the links between the EU Guidelines on Torture
and other Guidelines that may be complementary, such as the EU Guidelines on Human Rights
Defenders
Strengthen EU and member states’ capacity to respond pro-actively to threats or violence
directed at human rights defenders for documenting and reporting on torture, or other work
against torture and ill treatment
Ensure that all human rights training for EU staff and member states’ staff includes explicit
training on preventing and responding to torture, and on the consequences of torture, with a
view to adopting an integrated approach for action against torture
Reinforce monitoring and reporting on the occurrence of torture in third countries, including in
the EU Annual Report on Human Rights, with a view to strengthening measures taken to combat
it, including in individual cases
Establish regular and transparent reviews and assessments of EU and member states’ action
under the EU Guidelines on Torture, including meaningful stakeholder engagement and regular,
systematic and public field reporting in order to encourage transparency and exchanges with
civil society on measures undertaken
Identify good practices by EU and member states to prevent and respond to torture and ill
treatment in third countries; and ensure that these best practices are documented,
disseminated and reproduced elsewhere, in regular consultation with civil society actors.
3. Tackle torture more effectively with a holistic approach
To tackle torture effectively, the EU and its member states must ensure that their policies and
actions address the full cycle of the fight against torture.
We recommend that the revised Action Plan tackle all elements of the fight against torture including
prohibition, prevention, prosecution, redress, reparation and rehabilitation, and should:
Actively promote the global ratification and effective implementation of the United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture (UNCAT)
Match this by following up on the recommendations of the UN Committee Against Torture, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and supporting standing invitations to the Special Procedures of the UN
Support and promote the ratification of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture (OPCAT) and its effective implementation within the EU and third countries, by ensuring
the establishment or designation of independent and effective national preventive mechanisms
(NPMs), while also encouraging states to fully cooperate with international and regional preventive mechanisms
Include the concept of holistic rehabilitation and victim participation in defining efforts against torture; EU and member states’ officials should visit rehabilitation centres and organisations working with torture victims on the ground, including during high level visits
Ensure that EU member states fully support torture prevention and rehabilitation through the
UN Special Fund of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, and the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture.
4. Ensure EU credibility by acting against torture at home and abroad
In order to be credible and convincing actors against torture and ill treatment worldwide, the EU and its member states must ensure that their own internal practices are in line with their recommendations for third countries, in the spirit of the wider EU and member states’ engagement on ensuring greater internal-external coherence on human rights.
We recommend that the revised Action Plan:
Amnesty International
Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT)
International Federation of Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture
(FIACAT)
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)
World Organisation against Torture (OMCT)
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