Does torture prevention work?

Richard Carver writes:
“Yes” is the short answer, which will save you ploughing through the 670-odd pages of Lisa Handley’s and my new book. Of course, the actual answer is slightly more complicated (since there are some torture prevention measures that really don’t work) but this first multi-country study has come up with a clear finding of the importance of detention safeguards in preventing torture. This means that ensuring detainees are only held in official custody, are allowed to notify their family of their arrest, have access to an independent lawyer and doctor, and are brought promptly before a judge will all significantly reduce the risk of torture.

The book brings together research from 12 country research teams, as well as quantitative data from a total of 16 countries across a 30-year period. This video explains more about the methods we used and what we found. Over at International Law Observer I have written a series of three blog posts discussing the findings (the first two posts are already online here and here).

The most exciting part is that this is a piece of academic research that really could influence practice. Lisa and I have presented our findings to a British government Wilton Park conference, the UN Sub-committee for the Prevention of Torture and the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture, as well as to conferences in Norway, the Netherlands, Mexico and Oxford. I have been consulted by the medical NGO Freedom from Torture as part of their strategic planning process and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (who funded the research) have already incorporated our findings into their strategic plan.

With launch events planned this year for London, Washington DC (hosted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture), Geneva, Vienna, Kyrgyzstan and South Africa, there is a real possibility of using the lessons of the research to influence government policy, as well as informing the strategies of anti-torture campaigners.