Torture: Does the government care?

Many of you will have heard the news this morning that the United Nations has heavily criticised the South African government for failing to eradicate torture. Earlier this week there were two reports of torture at the hands of the police.

In one report, a member of the South African National Defence Force alleged that he was kidnapped and tortured by the South African Police Service staff who were questioning him about a fraud investigation. In the second report a suspect in a murder case alleged that he was beaten and tortured in his jail cell while awaiting his hearing. In short, those entrusted with protection and the law have harmed others, and failed to uphold the very law they are responsible for enforcing.

What does torture mean though? The 1984 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defines torture as

Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

— Convention Against Torture, Article 1.1

South Africa ratified this protocol in 1998. According to the CLC paper on the subject: “It obliges states not to expel or repatriate people to a country where they are in danger of being tortured; to prosecute or extradite perpetrators of acts of torture; to review systematically rules and methods of interrogating suspects; to investigate allegations of torture impartially and not to allow to as evidence statements made under torture.”

So South Africa is compelled to act against those it believes to be involved in committing torture. If the perpetrators in the above news stories were found to have committed acts of torture, they would need to be prosecuted accordingly. According to the Victim Empowerment South Africa Project, South Africa does have pending legislation on torture in the form of The Criminalisation of Torture Bill, 2003. Unfortunately, 2003 was a long time ago.

The complaint levelled now is a fair one. What happened to that bill? And what impact might it have had on these, and other victims of torture? In any other country where the police were accused of torture, and the state didn’t criminalise the activity, there would be cause for serious suspicion that torture was in fact a common modus operandi. Do we have a justice system based on police brutality?

I’m hoping for the best, and believe that these are isolated incidents. What do you think?