Convention Against Torture

As a cursory note, the current estimate of torture after the Second World War has
not seen any decrease. It has been estimated that at least 90 % of the countries
today still engage in torture for whatever purpose it may serve and this is in spite
of strong international movements against torture and maltreatment of prisoners,
detainees, and political dissidents.

Just recently, subjects of Islamic caliphates were subjected to torture and were
eventually killed for mere religious and political disagreement.

Democratic countries such as the United States has also contributed in the fair-
share of Torture especially during the fall of Taliban in the occupied zones in
Afghanistan, and this torture has been systematic to the point it was described as
endemic.

Sadly, torture wasnt done in the black sites of detention cells and holding prisons
alone, for after the paranoia following the 9/11 bombing attack, the US has used
euphemisms like enhanced interrogation technique and the same were used in a
widespread manner.

All these are still occurring past the convention in 1987.

Group 3:
Chesca Cabral, Kirsten Habawel, Romeo Lanzarrote, Charmaine Tancasis, Byron Francis Yao
I. Convention Against Torture

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment, commonly known as the United Nations (UN) Conventions against Torture is
categorized as an international human rights treaty with the primary aim of preventing torture
and other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It was adopted in the year 1984 and
entered into force in 1987. There are 161 States that are party to the convention, while 9 remain
as signatory. 27 on the other hand, are not parties to it.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) enlist the
Conventions against Torture as part of its instrument in protecting persons subjected to detention
or imprisonment.

According to the Association for the Prevention of Torture, the Convention against
Torture is the most comprehensive international treaty dealing with torture. It sets out a
definition of torture and obliges States to take preventive measures against such conduct. It is
said that by the adoption of the convention, it has since reached the status of a customary law.

Main Parts and Provisions

The first part of the Convention lists down the general principles of the said treaty. Art. 1
of the convention 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. Said act does not include pain or suffering arising
only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Art. 2 provides that States that are party to the Convention must commit and take up
measures to prevent torture in its jurisdiction. Art. 2 also significantly provides that no
circumstance whatsoever may justify torture. The instances mentioned in Art. 2 are in cases of
war, threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency.

Art. 3 on the other hand, provides for the term refouler or refoulement. Refoulement is
the returning, extraditing, or refouling of any person to a state where there are substantial
grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. The same article
provides that for the purpose of determining whether such grounds exist, the competent
authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the
existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violation of
human rights.

Art. 4 requires that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law, and that such
shall apply to an attempt to commit torture, and to an act by any person which constitutes
complicity. Articles 5-9 provides for the jurisdiction of State over persons who are alleged to
have committed the crime of torture and the procedure to be followed thereafter. Art. 10 is the
provision that requires States to ensure that all law enforcement personnel, civil or military,
medical personnel, public officials and other persons who may be involved to be educated and
informed regarding the prohibition against torture. The requirement as to keeping interrogation
rules, instructions, methods and practice, and custody procedure, up-to-date and compliant with
UN standards is enshrined under Art. 11. Likewise, Art. 12 provides that prompt and impartial
investigations be conducted wherever reasonable ground to believe that torture was committed
under its jurisdiction.

The Convention also provides for the rights of the victims to complain and to have their
case investigated promptly and impartially, receive redress, and adequate compensation. These
are provided under Art. 13 and 14. Art. 15 provides that statements obtained through torture be
deemed inadmissible. Finally, Art. 16 requires States to prevent other acts of cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in Art. 1, when
such acts are committed with the consent of public official / person acting in an official capacity.

The second part of the Convention lists down the provisions on the reporting and monitoring
mechanism. The third part on the other hand are the provisions on the amendment, ratification
and entry into force of the Convention.

II. History of Torture in the Philippines

The Philippines has been subject to various colonizers throughout its long history and in
consequence this has led to many conflicts between the local population and the conquerors. The
colonizers through force, would usually subject the local Filipinos to various ways and means of
torture in order to gather information or even just to instill fear in the population. Some notable
records of torture in the Philippines was during the American Annexation of the Philippines.

PhilippineAmerican War:
This topic Cartoon on the May 22, 1902 cover of Life magazine depicting American
application of the water cure while Europeans watch. The caption reads: "Chorus in background:
'Those pious Yankees can't throw stones at us anymore.'" Water cure was among the forms of
torture used by American soldiers on Filipinos during the PhilippineAmerican War.
President Theodore Roosevelt privately assured a friend that the water cure was "an old Filipino
method of mild torture. Nobody was seriously damaged whereas the Filipinos had inflicted
incredible tortures on our people. "The president went further stating "Nevertheless, torture is not
a thing that we can tolerate." However, a report at the time noted its lethality; "a soldier who was
with General Funston had stated that he helped to administer the water cure to one hundred and
sixty natives, all but twenty-six of whom died".

Lieutenant Grover Flint during the PhilippineAmerican War: A man is thrown down on
his back and three or four men sit or stand on his arms and legs and hold him down; and either a
gun barrel or a rifle barrel or a carbine barrel or a stick as big as a belaying pin, that is, with an
inch circumference, is simply thrust into his jaws and his jaws are thrust back, and, if possible,
a wooden log or stone is put under his head or neck, so he can be held more firmly. In the case of
very old men I have seen their teeth fall out, I mean when it was done a little roughly. He is
simply held down and then water is poured onto his face down his throat and nose from a jar;
and that is kept up until the man gives some sign or becomes unconscious. And, when he
becomes unconscious, he is simply rolled aside and he is allowed to come to. In almost every
case the men have been a little roughly handled. They were rolled aside rudely, so that water was
expelled. A man suffers tremendously, there is no doubt about it. His sufferings must be that of a
man who is drowning, but cannot drown.

In his book The Forging of the American Empire Sidney Lens recounted: A reporter for
the New York Evening Post (April 8, 1902) gave some harrowing details. The native, he said, is
thrown on the ground, his arms and legs pinned down, and head partially raised "so as to make
pouring in the water an easier matter". If the prisoner tries to keep his mouth closed, his nose is
pinched to cut off the air and force him to open his mouth, or a bamboo stick is put in the
opening. In this way water is steadily poured in, one, two, three, four, five gallons, until the body
becomes "an object frightful to contemplate". In this condition, of course, speech is impossible,
so the water is squeezed out of the victim, sometimes naturally, and sometimes as a young
soldier with a smile told the correspondent "we jump on them to get it out quick." One or two
such treatments and the prisoner either talks or dies.

The Americans who were very young in the ways and means of imperialism and
colonization during the Philippine- American War resorted to various means which were barbaric
in order to appease the local Filipino population. Torture was thus employed regularly by their
armed forces against the local Filipinos in order to subjugate the local population

Japanese Occupation
The outset of World War II also brought the Imperial Japanese Army into the Philippines.
The Japanese committed many atrocious war crimes during this period of its occupation of the
Philippines. Torture was a normal method used by the Japanese Army to extract information
from the guerillas or the local civilian population. A favorite weapon used by the Japanese is
their bayonet or Katana which they used to impale or hack their victims. The Massacre of Manila
is one of the great atrocities done by the Japanese against the Filipinos during World War II. The
Japanese began killing and torturing countless Filipinos at the end of the war when the
Americans began closing in on Manila. A reported minimum of 100,000 Filipinos died during the
massacre.

Martial Law

The outset of Martial Law also brought countless reports of torture and beatings done by
the Philippine Constabulary forces against those who opposed the regime of President Ferdinand
Marcos. Amnesty International has estimated that around 70,000 people were imprisoned and
around 34,000 were tortured.

Various ways and means of torture were used which included electric shock treatment,
water cure, the an Juanico bridge treatment, truth serum injection, Russian roulette, beating,
pistol or rifle butt beating, strangulation, emotional and psychological abuse. Many survivors of
these tortures would attest to the absolute gravity and despicableness of the abuse doled out by
Marcos Regime during Martial Law.
 Look back in the Philippine Constabulary:
The martial law years came to be remembered by some as a time of strict discipline, but
to hundreds of victims of the Marcos years, it was a dark period of human rights abuses. Marcos'
orders gave the military the authority to arrest and detain anyone going against the government
or deemed subversive. In General Order No. 62, issued in October 1977, Marcos allowed the
defense secretary and his authorized law enforcement officials to issue an arrest, search and
seizure order (ASSO) for various offenses ranging from robbery and arson to murder and
kidnapping.

The victims who were picked up during that time remember being detained on trumped
up charges or unclear allegations. But arresting and detaining known oppositionists were not the
only tasks of the military and the PC then. Various historical and personal accounts point to them
as the ones behind the torture and killing of hundreds.

Former congressman Neri Colmenares was one of those arrested and tortured by
members of the PC. When he was arrested as an 18-year-old activist, he was strangled and made
to play Russian Roulette a torture method where a bullet is loaded into one chamber of a
revolver, the cylinder spun, and the victim forced to pull the trigger to his own head. A young
doctor, Dr Juan Escandor, was tortured by the PC his skull broken open and stuffed with trash.

In "Dark Legacy: Human rights under the Marcos regime," historian Alfred McCoy wrote
about elite torture units during the Martial Law years whose officers were "the embodiment of an
otherwise invisible terror."
The most notorious of these units were the 5th Constabulary Security Unit (CSU) and the
Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (MISG). The 5th CSU was known for the capture of
communist leaders, such as Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison. The
dreaded unit became infamous for its use of various torture methods, such as water cure, electric
shocks, and psychological torture.

Torture has thus long been used and adopted as a means to an end by various colonizers
and some governments in order to extract information or spread terror in the Philippines. This
atrocious and inhumane method goes against everything decent and good in this world and must
be terminated.

Municipal Laws Relating to Torture

Part I Article 2(1) of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment mandates every party of this convention to take effective legislative,
administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its
jurisdiction

Accordingly, the Philippines as a signatory to the convention, adhered to such provision; and so
the following discussion will be an enumeration of the municipal laws and its corresponding
implementation.
A. 1987 Constitution
Article III Bill of Rights
Section 12 (2) No torture, force, violence, threat, intimidation, or any other means which
vitiate the free will shall be used against him. Secret detention places, solitary,
incommunicado, or other similar forms of detention are prohibited.
4) The law shall provide for penal and civil sanctions for violations of this section as well
as compensation to and rehabilitation of victims of torture or similar practices, and their
families

SECTION 19. (1) Excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel, degrading or inhuman
punishment inflicted. Neither shall death penalty be imposed, unless, for compelling
reasons involving heinous crimes, the Congress hereafter provides for it. Any death
penalty already imposed shall be reduced to reclusion perpetua.

(2) The employment of physical, psychological, or degrading punishment against any

prisoner or detainee or the use of substandard or inadequate penal facilities under
subhuman conditions shall be dealt with by law.

B. Revised Penal Code (Act 3815)

Art. 235. Maltreatment of prisoners. The penalty of arresto mayor in its medium
period to prision correccional in its minimum period, in addition to his liability for the
physical injuries or damage caused, shall be imposed upon any public officer or
employee who shall overdo himself in the correction or handling of a prisoner or
detention prisoner under his charge, by the imposition of punishment not
authorized by the regulations, or by inflicting such punishment in a cruel and
humiliating manner. If the purpose of the maltreatment is to extort a confession, or to
obtain some information from the prisoner, the offender shall be punished by prision
correccional in its minimum period, temporary special disqualification and a fine not
exceeding 500 pesos, in addition to his liability for the physical injuries or damage
caused

C. Anti-Torture Act of 2009 (RA 9745)

This law is a breakthrough law concerning torture and other cruel and degrading
punishment. It is specially enacted pursuant to the Convention and our Constitution. It covers
that all persons suspects, detainees and prisoners shall not be tortured or be cruelly and
degradingly punished to elicit information. The Act listed and defined some of the Acts of
Torture1. Accordingly, any information elicited through torture shall be inadmissible in evidence.
1 (a) Physical torture is a form of treatment or punishment inflicted by a person in
authority or agent of a person in authority upon another in his/her custody that causes
severe pain, exhaustion, disability or dysfunction of one or more parts of the body, such as:
(1) Systematic beating, headbanging, punching, kicking, striking with truncheon or rifle butt
or other similar objects, and jumping on the stomach; (2) Food deprivation or forcible
 Meanwhile, cruel of degrading punishment are those acts not enumerated in the acts of
torture. The applicability of the provision against cruel or degrading punishment does not
suspend even in times of war or international instability.
Prohibited detention places and the like are also prohibited because those places may be utilized
to carry out the torture and punishment.
This Act penalizes all the perpetrators, which penalties are based on the classification
under the Revised Penal Code.

Implementation: The Act provides preventive and corrective measures to the victims of torture.
An Oversight Committee, headed by CHR Commissioner, was created to oversee the
implementation of this Act.

a. Persons shall not be expelled, returned, or extradited to another State when there are
reasonable grounds to believe that he shall be subject to torture upon arrival to that
country

b. Victims of torture shall have a right to claim compensation not exceed P10,000.00 and
other financial relief as may be available to them.

c. DOJ, DOH, DSWD shall form a rehabilitation program for victims.

feeding with spoiled food, animal or human excreta and other stuff or substances not
normally eaten; (3) Electric shock; (4) Cigarette burning; burning by electrically heated rods,
hot oil, acid; by the rubbing of pepper or other chemical substances on mucous membranes,
or acids or spices directly on the wound(s); (5) The submersion of the head in water or water
polluted with excrement, urine, vomit and/or blood until the brink of suffocation; (6) Being
tied or forced to assume fixed and stressful bodily position; (7) Rape and sexual abuse,
including the insertion of foreign objects into the sex organ or rectum, or electrical torture of
the genitals; (8) Mutilation or amputation of the essential parts of the body such as the
genitalia, ear, tongue, etc.; (9) Dental torture or the forced extraction of the teeth; (10)
Pulling out of fingernails; (11) Harmful exposure to the elements such as sunlight and
extreme cold; (12) The use of plastic bag and other materials placed over the head to the
point of asphyxiation; (13) The use of psychoactive drugs to change the perception,
memory, alertness or will of a person, such as: (i) The administration of drugs to induce
confession and/or reduce mental competency; or (ii) The use of drugs to induce extreme
pain or certain symptoms of a disease; and (14) Other analogous acts of physical torture;(b)
"Mental/Psychological Torture" refers to acts committed by a person in authority or
agent of a person in authority which are calculated to affect or confuse the mind and/or
undermine a person's dignity and morale, such as: (1) Blindfolding; (2) Threatening a
person(s) or his/her relative(s) with bodily harm, execution or other wrongful acts; (3)
Confinement in solitary cells or secret detention places; (4) Prolonged interrogation; (5)
Preparing a prisoner for a "show trial", public display or public humiliation of a detainee or
prisoner; (6) Causing unscheduled transfer of a person deprived of liberty from one place to
another, creating the belief that he/she shall be summarily executed; (7) Maltreating a
member/s of a person's family; (8) Causing the torture sessions to be witnessed by the
persons family, relatives or any third party; (9) Denial of sleep/rest; (10) Shame infliction
such as stripping the person naked, parading him/her in public places, shaving the victim's
head or putting marks on his/her body against his/her will; (11) Deliberately prohibiting the
victim to communicate with any member of his/her family; and (12) Other analogous acts of
mental/psychological torture.
Subsequently, the acts Implementing Rules and Regulations were released. It provided for
mechanisms and institutions as low as the Barangay level to receive complaint and assist victims
in filing of the complaint.

D. Act Creating Board of Claims for Victims of Unjust Imprisonment and Victims of Violent
Crimes and for Other Purposes (RA 7309)
The Board is under the supervision of DOJ, composed of one chairman and two appointed
members by the Secretary of the Department. It is a response to correct the injustice done to an
individual. Any person who is a victim of torture shall be allowed to claim compensation or
monetary retribution. The amount of which shall not exceed P1,000 per month based on the
number of months in detention, which shall not exceed a total claim of P10,000.2

E. Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 (RA 10368)

This law is specially enacted for the victims during Martial Law whose human rights were
violated. Human rights violation included Torture, which is defined similarly in RA 9745. As
such, this law provides for a mechanism of monetary and non-monetary reparation for said
victims. The amount of reparation shall be in proportion to the gravity of human rights violation
committed on the victim.

There will be an independent and quasi-judicial body to be known as the Human Rights
Victims Claims Board, attached to the CHR to oversee the applications.

F. Human Security Act of 2007 (RA 9372)

The law actually applies to the act of terrorism but finds also application to prohibit
torture to elicit information or confession on persons who are, who is suspected or who has
committed terrorism. Clearly, no justification can be made to inflict torture or cruel or degrading
punishment upon any individual be it a notorious criminal or not. Penalty for said offense shall
be 12 years and one day to twenty years of imprisonment

2 Section 3. Who may File Claims. - The following may file claims for compensation before
the Board: (d) any person who is a victim of violent crimes. For purposes of this Act, violent
crimes shall include rape and shall likewise refer to offenses committed with malice which
resulted in death or serious physical and/or psychological injuries, permanent incapacity or
disability, insanity, abortion, serious trauma, or committed with torture, cruelly or
barbarity.Section 4. Award Ceiling. - For victims of unjust imprisonment or detention, the
compensation shall be based on the number of months of imprisonment or detention and
every fraction thereof shall be considered one month; Provided, however, That in no case
shall such compensation exceed One Thousand pesos (P1,000.00) per month. In all other
cases, the maximum amount for which the Board may approve a claim shall not exceed Ten
thousand pesos (P10,000.00) or the amount necessary to reimburse the claimant the
expenses incurred for hospitalization, medical treatment, loss of wage, loss of support or
other expenses directly related to injury, whichever is lower. This is without prejudice to the
right of the claimant to seek other remedies under existing laws.
 Section 24 No Torture or Coercion in Investigation and Interrogation No threat,
intimidation, or coercion, and no act which will inflict any form of physical pain or
torment, or mental, moral, or psychological pressure, on the detained person, which shall
vitiate his free-will, shall be employed in his investigation and interrogation for the
crime of terrorism or the crime of conspiracy to commit terrorism; otherwise, the
evidence obtained from said detained person resulting from such threat, intimidation, or
coercion, or from such inflicted physical pain or torment, or mental, moral, or
psychological pressure, shall be, in its entirety, absolutely not admissible and usable as
evidence in any judicial, quasi-judicial, legislative, or administrative investigation,
inquiry, proceeding, or hearing

G. Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other
Crimes Against Humanity (RA 9851)

Torture and Inhuman Treatment has been included in the list of war crimes and of crimes
against humanity, which is punishable under this Act. This act, however, only finds applicability
during the times of armed conflict. Nonetheless, it is another manifestation that armed conflict is
not a justification to commit torture and inhuman treatment to civilians and to combatants.
Perpetrators in this law shall be penalized of reclusion temporal in its medium to maximum
period and a fine ranging from P100,000 to P500,000 with corresponding accessory penalties
under the RPC.

H. The Rule on the Writ of Amparo

This is a remedy available to any one whose right to life, liberty, and security is violated
or threatened with violation. Those rights basically include all the rights under the Bill of Rights,
necessarily an individual is entitled to protection against being tortured.

This rule applies to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. During enforced
disappearances, victims were said to be detained by public authorities, tortured, and inflicted
cruel punishment. And so, petitioning for the Writ of Amparo is directing the authorities or
perpetrators to release the victim. Any clerk of court refusing to issue the Writ despite order to
issue one shall be held in contempt.

The basis for which the rule was adopted by the Philippines is the number of enforced
disappearances. Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012 (RA10353) was in fact
enacted pursuant to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment. The act penalizes commanding officers or any public authority who
caused, headed, or participated in conducting the act of enforced disappearance.

III. Analysis and Recommendation

There is a need now to revisit the political implications of the existence of torture and its known
prevalence throughout incidents of armed conflict or mere state to non-state conflict as a tool for
extracting information and psychological warfare.

The United States now calls this as an enhanced interrogation technique 3 which they used
against their detainees to extract information or to create paranoia and inflict psychological
trauma. But the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak states that an estimate of 90
% of countries still engage in torture4 and the conventions have not effectively deterred the use of
the same technique in handling their detainees and prisoners especially when the need arises for
information extraction. Nowak added that the practice was not parallel to the country

According to the political theorist and sociologist Max Weber, the State has an unlimited power
being that it is the only institution that has a monopoly for the use of legitimate force. The state
runs its agents through the concept of sovereignty and it has the power to manifest its control to
any of its subordinates with minimal restrictions. This is because in the modern composition of a
state, as promptly discussed in the Montevideo Convention in 1933, the state through its
sovereignty is the highest entity in a political territory.

What must be pointed is that there is a necessity to increase civil society networks and linkages
and to increase transparency on the side of the government. This necessity partakes of any form,
from post-operation reports to accessibility of detainees to local and international non-
governmental organizations who are in the nature of this management. It is important as well to
create links with established watchdogs and to open up information to the private sector for
counter comparison and cross-analysis of data which must include datasets of laws, number of
detainees, reason for detainment and length, and claims of torture on their part.

The curbing of the powers of the state through the active participation of adamant citizenry is a
way to improve and stabilize the conditions of treating prisoners and detainees and anyone who
are under the power of a countrys armed forces or the police forces.

Rehabilitation programs should also be funded by the state especially so that there was a rise in
engaging to torture as a method after World War 2. In the Philippines for example, a support
system must be provided to the torture victims during the martial law era beyond the monetary
compensation in order for them to fully recover both physically and mentally. This will also
encourage social activity that may stir awareness.

Lastly, special bodies should be made to permanently address issues of torture and maltreatment
in order to aid the cause of preventing proliferation of any forms of torture and inhumane
treatment against any person.

3 Enhanced interrogation techniques were used by the Central Intelligence Agency and the
Defense Intelligence Agency in handling their detainees and prisoners in black sites
4 Manfred Nowak quoted by World Without Torture in his statement before the International
Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims