ʷ¼

XClose

Sustainable Development Goals

Home
Menu

Preventing torture in Chile through policy and legal reform

Research on torture prevention in Chile is informing legal and policy reform to reduce violence against prisoners and hold perpetrators to account.

SDG Case study g16.1 Chile torture

8 October 2020

Since2010,DrParEngstrom(UCL Institute of Americas)has been working withhumanrights organisations and local stakeholders in Chile onmeasuresto prevent torture.

“Torturehas been usedin Chileto quell political and social conflict”explains Dr Engstrom.“Sincethe fall of the military regime in 1990,reports of torture have declined, butpolicestillsometimesviolently represssocial protestand theauthoritieshave historically failed to prosecutetorture practices.”

In 2014Dr Engstromwas commissioned by theAssociationfor the Prevention of Torture (APT), anon-governmental organisation based in Geneva,toconduct research for a global study on torture interventions.

“My researchisdesigned to measure the effectiveness of a wide range of possibletortureprevention measuresand so contribute to policy and legal reform to reduce the incidence of torture,”he explains

By interviewing and surveying key stakeholders, includingstate officials,helookedathow torture and other ill-treatment in Chile,has evolved in the past25 years.“This helped me to identify which torture prevention mechanisms wereworking and how these could bepromoted and strengthened to preventfurther ill-treatment,” he explains.

Dr Engstromfound that specific policy interventions, such as legal safeguards, independent monitoring and criminal sanctioning,reducedthe risks of torture of vulnerable groups. Hewent on to explorehow the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) could be implemented in Chileand worked with a range of local stakeholders and the APT toencourage reforms.

“I’m delighted thatwe are now seeing concrete policy and institutional changes in torture prevention mechanisms in Chile,” he adds.

“In 2016 a new Chilean law defining the offence of torture was finally adopted andthroughAPT’s advocacy and lobbying,aNational Torture Prevention Mechanismfor Chile has beenagreed and is currently being implemented.”

Related links

&;