UNCAT ‘alternative’ report

UK GOVERNMENT IS FAILING IN ITS DUTY TO PREVENT TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT

The United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) is undertaking a five-year review of the UK’s record of upholding the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment. This country prides itself as a global leader in the fight against torture, but at home and abroad, it is failing to live up to the reputation it sets itself.

Liberty is on the steering committee of a broad coalition of 80 civil society organisations which has presented a 102-page “alternative” report to UNCAT in Geneva.

The report reveals that not only is the UK failing to make meaningful progress, but is also taking backward steps in a number of crucial respects, eroding its commitment to the prohibition on torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.

It contains alarming evidence and damning case studies, including developments over the past five years across several of Liberty’s key areas of work, including:

IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM

• The UK remains the only country in Europe with no limit on how long it keeps people in immigration detention, despite substantial evidence of the damage this does to those people’s mental and physical health. The Government has ignored the
• UNCAT’s previous calls, echoed by Liberty and many others, to impose a 28-day limit.
  Torture survivors and others who have suffered ill-treatment – including children – continue to be placed in immigration detention, even when they have been found to be “at risk” (i.e. particularly vulnerable to harm in detention).

USE OF FORCE

• The use of tasers by police rose 43 per cent between 2011 and 2016. They cause serious pain, long-term injury and death, and are three times more likely to be used against black people.
• Police use of spit hoods has also sharply risen and been linked to deaths as well as degrading treatment, and discrimination.

ILL-TREATMENT IN PUBLIC FACILITIES

• An increasing number of people are being detained under the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act. We have concerns over the high use of seclusion and restraint, including the use of prone, mechanical and chemical restraint and a recent survey of 92 care home units in England found significant evidence of abusive and neglectful behaviour.
• England and Wales continue to have the highest level of child incarceration in Western Europe and far too many children continue to be detained inappropriately, with self-harm by children in detention rising by 40 per cent to nearly 1,800 incidents in the last year.

VICTIMS OF CRIME

• People at risk of serious violent crime are being put at risk by police forces who share information on victims with immigration enforcement. Many victims, particularly people without secure immigration statuses, are discouraged from reporting crime and continue to suffer abuse and exploitation.
• This focus on immigration enforcement means police are not fully informed of ongoing crime. This runs counter to the police’s overarching duty to investigate serious crime and uphold public safety.

The causes of these disturbing developments are varied. The Government’s hostile environment policy has contributed to an increase in ill-treatment of migrants both at the hands of the state and private actors. Conditions in prisons and mental health facilities have deteriorated due to added strain on resources and police use of dangerous tools such as tasers and spit hoods has risen dramatically.

Meanwhile, the future of the Human Rights Act – the most effective means by which people can enforce the rights UNCAT monitors – remains uncertain.

The UK must engage with the UNCAT review in a meaningful, open and transparent manner. It must take seriously the concerns raised both by the Committee itself and by the broad civil society coalition and implement its recommendations.

The prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment is absolute in international law. The UK must offer nothing short of a complete commitment to its obligations to end such abuse.