Spotlight: Preventing torture and ill treatment in Africa's prisons

ISS and the Omega Research Foundation are providing tools to protect inmates from torture inflicted by law enforcement equipment.

Published on 29 June 2016 in Impact

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the UK-based Omega Research Foundation are working with government officials and civil society to help protect the rights of prisoners and reduce torture in detention.

Each year thousands of incidents of assault and torture of inmates and pre-trial detainees by prison officials are recorded in African countries. Rigorous monitoring and reporting is essential to protect their rights in line with domestic laws and regional and international standards.

‘Building on past work with the ISS in this area, we felt it was important and timely to bring together people and organisations that monitor places of detention, and provide them with the tools to identify abuse related to the use of particular kinds of law enforcement equipment,’ says the Omega Research Foundation. Government officials, oversight bodies, lawyers and journalists from Kenya, Malawi and South Africa were trained to identify law enforcement and security equipment and the medical, legal and human rights implications of their use.

The use of electric shock equipment remains problematic in South Africa

‘In South Africa, certain kinds of security equipment are authorised for use in correctional centres that are banned in other parts of the world. By partnering with ISS, we hope to shine a spotlight on this important issue and convince policymakers that it’s time to prohibit the use of such equipment that can be used to perpetrate torture’, says Omega.

The use of electric shock equipment remains problematic in South Africa. The country is one of the few globally that allows the use of body-worn electric shock devices, such as stun belts, in correctional centres. Other types of electric shock devices like stun shields and stun guns are also frequently misused.

The training workshop is part of a broader initiative funded by the European Union Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights to raise awareness about the manufacture, trade and use of law enforcement and security equipment that could facilitate torture and ill treatment in Africa.

‘The training highlighted the pressing need to carry out an audit of law enforcement equipment used in Kenya and identify those that can facilitate torture’, says Steve Ogolla, Human Rights Officer at the International Commission of Jurists in Kenya.  

The ISS and the Omega Research Foundation plan to host a meeting later this year of African government officials responsible for regional trade controls. The aim of the meeting will be to raise awareness about equipment that could facilitate torture and ill treatment, as well as states’ domestic and international legal obligations in this regard. Prohibiting and/or exercising restraint in the use, transfer and trade of equipment that may lead to human rights violations is key.

For more information contact:

Noel Stott, ISS: [email protected], +27 82 828 6070

Picture: ©Jacqueline Cochrane/ISS