Afghanistan made progress against torture in detention centres, but govt needs to do more: UN report

The Afghanistan government's policies to prevent ill-treatment of detainees, linked to ongoing conflict, in the war-torn country's prisons were having an effect, but they were far from sufficient as torture of prisoners is likely still widespread in these jails, the UN has said.

Based on interviews with more than 600 detainees and published jointly by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), their latest report on the treatment of prisoners in 77 facilities in 28 out of 34 provinces indicates that an average of nearly one in three, provided "credible and reliable" accounts of suffering.

In the previous reporting period, covering 2015 and 2016, the ratio was closer to four in 10, it said noting that an "encouraging reduction" in the level of abuse since 2016 have been witnessed.

Beatings was the most common form of torture and ill-treatment, according to the report, which also noted that "the vast majority" of detainees held for alleged links to extremist group ISIS (also known as Daesh) or other opposition forces, said they had been tortured or ill-treated to force them to confess - and that the treatment stopped once they did so.

Significant differences in the treatment of detainees were found depending on the jail where they are held, with one Afghan National Police (ANP) facility in Kandahar, linked to a 77 per cent torture rate - well above the 31 per cent ANP average.

Tahe Kandahar findings included allegations of "brutal" forms of torture such as "suffocation, electric shocks, pulling of genitals and suspension from ceilings", the UNAMA and the OHCHR said, while underlining that abuse allegations in ANP detention centres had fallen - from a 45 per cent average since 2016.

The report, which finds that youngsters are at higher risk of suffering mistreatment, discusses how detainees' rights are violated in other areas.

These include a lack of legal safeguards to prevent torture, difficulties in gaining access to lawyers and the continued absence of accountability for perpetrators, with very limited referrals to prosecution.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, said the report's findings demonstrated that the embattled Government's policies put in place to combat torture and ill-treatment were having an effect, but they were far from sufficient.

"A year ago, on this day, the Government of Afghanistan committed itself to the prevention of torture by acceding to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture," Bachelet said.

"I urge the Government to work swiftly to create a National Preventive Mechanism to ensure independent, impartial scrutiny of the treatment of detainees. A well-resourced watchdog of this sort, which is able to make unannounced visits to places of detention and raise awareness of what constitutes torture and ill-treatment according to international human rights law, can go a long way towards the ultimate goal of fully eradicating torture."