The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture of the INDDHH presented its report and recommendations a few days ago to strengthen the guarantees in the first moments of detention.
It proposes to initiate administrative investigations for a hundred complaints of alleged police abuse made by the Association of Public Defenders. It proposes creating a registry of cases of torture and/or mistreatment and rejects the extension of up to 4 hours of the time in which detainees can be interrogated without the police having to notify the prosecutor or judge, as established in the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC). The recommendations are addressed to the Ministry of the Interior, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), and the Attorney General’s Office.
The objective is to contribute to the prevention of torture by reducing risk factors and eliminating possible causes.
Report
From the monitoring it emerges that the Uruguayan State “fails to comply with the obligation to guarantee access to a lawyer to all detained persons.”
The report reiterates the recommendation made in 2019 and 2021 regarding compliance with the guarantee of legal assistance.
On the other hand, the INDDHH recommends “modifying the classification of the crime of torture by incorporating it into the Criminal Code as an autonomous crime, in accordance with the provisions of articles 1 and 2 of the Convention against Torture and in general with international human rights standards. humans”.
Within this framework, it proposes “to create and put into operation a national registry of cases of torture and/or mistreatment.”
On the other hand, the Human Rights institution “reiterates the need to regulate and expand the incorporation of video body cameras to film police operations in support of the rights of detained persons and police personnel themselves.”
It is proposed to “implement indirect prevention measures such as reporting, investigation and documentation of the cases that have occurred, prosecution, appearance in court and punishment of the perpetrators, as well as reparation to the victims.”
irregular procedures
Likewise, the report presented by the Association of Public Defenders before the SCJ on situations that would have occurred in 2020 and part of 2021 is included in the study.
“It is about a hundred allegedly irregular police procedures in which the guarantees of the detainees would have been violated. These situations were repeatedly described as: police abuse, police mistreatment, illegal detention, search without warrant, injuries and lack of medical care.
All situations were brought to the attention of the magistrates.
The INDDHH urges the competent authorities of the Judiciary, the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior to order “administrative investigations in order to address the alleged irregularities denounced by the Association of Public Defenders.”
