Concerns in Europe January June 2001
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- International Court of Justice
- The United Nations Committee against Torture meets to consider Greece’s third period report
- New cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment
Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001 37
Amnesty International September 2001 AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
International Court of Justice
(update to AI Index: EUR 01/001/2001) On 27 June the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague ruled in favour of Germany against the USA in the LaGrand Case, declaring that the USA was in breach of its obligation under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to Germany and two German nationals by failing to inform them of their right to seek consular assistance upon their arrest. Two German citizens, brothers Karl and Walter LaGrand, were convicted of committing a murder during a robbery in Arizona in 1982 and were executed in Florence prison, Arizona, in February and March 1999. Germany was only informed of their conviction in 1992 by the brothers themselves. The ICJ also ruled with an overwhelming majority that, by failing to take all measures at its disposal to ensure that Walter LaGrand was not executed pending the final decision of the ICJ in the case, the USA had breached an Order of the Court of 3 March 1999. The USA executed Walter LaGrand on the same day the interim injunction was issued.
G R E E C E
The United Nations Committee against Torture meets to consider Greece’s third period report
In May the United Nations Committee against Torture considered Greece’s third periodic report submitted under Article 19 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. In its conclusions, the Committee noted that the report was submitted with two years’ delay, and did not fully conform with the Committee guidelines for the preparation of state party periodic reports, by failing to include new relevant case law, or details of complaints regarding alleged acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Committee expressed concern on a number of points, including the following: “evidence that the police sometimes use excessive or unjustifiable force in carrying out their duties particularly when dealing with ethnic and national minorities and foreigners”, “the harsh conditions of detention in general and, in particular, the long-term detention of undocumented migrants and/or asylum-seekers awaiting deportation in police stations without adequate facilities” and the “severe overcrowding in prisons which aggravates the already sub-standard material conditions”. The Committee made several recommendations to the Greek authorities, among them: that urgent measures be taken to improve conditions of detention in police stations and prisons; that measures, including training, be taken to ensure that in the treatment of vulnerable groups, in particular foreigners, ethnic and national minorities, law enforcement officers do not resort to discriminatory practices; and that steps be taken to prevent and punish trafficking of women and other forms of violence against women.
Under amendments to the constitution adopted in April, the death penalty was abolished except for “offences committed in time of war and related to it”. (Greece has commuted death sentences to life imprisonment since 1974.) An interpretative note was added to the constitution, relating to clause 6 of Article 4 (dealing with the duty of Greek citizens to bear arms in defence of their country), which states: “[This clause] does not exclude the provision by law of the obligation to offer other services, within or without the armed forces (alternative service) by those who have proven conscientious objection to performing armed or general military service” (see also the section on conscientious objectors, below).
Andreas Kalamiotis, a Rom who is a Greek citizen, alleged that on 14 June police arrested and beat him outside his home in Pevkakia in Aghia Paraskevi, a suburb of Athens. At the local police station police officers allegedly racially abused him and threatened to plant drugs on him. He was released the following day after being accused of resisting police officers and threatening them. He subsequently brought charges against the police officers he alleged had ill-treated him.
There were also reports that migrants from Albania had been ill-treated by police in the course of periodic “sweep operations” in which police rounded up and expelled migrant workers lacking official permission to reside and work in Greece. In February a 16-year-old Albanian migrant worker, Refat Tafili, was arrested in the Athens area during one such operation, when police carried out a raid in the house where he was staying. Police allegedly pushed him to the ground and kicked him. He was later released after losing consciousness in a police cell. Relatives brought him to hospital where he was found to have a ruptured spleen, and was operated on. A week later police came to the hospital and arrested him in order to expel him from Greece. Despite his poor health, he was detained for five days, before being urgently re- admitted to hospital - where he spent a further 10 days - with an infection and internal bleeding. Following intervention by the Ombudsperson his appeal against expulsion was granted. An internal police investigation into this incident was started, but by the end of June had not reached any conclusion. In March a police officer on Lesbos island was reportedly charged with torture and attacks on human dignity after he beat and severely injured Arian Hodi, a legal migrant worker from Albania. Arian Hodi had previously made a complaint against a police officer after being denied access to a shopping centre in the town of Mytilene because of his Albanian origin. Yüklə 1,36 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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