Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Gabon.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Gabon. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Gabon U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/gabon/
[accessed 19 July
2021] DISAPPEARANCE There was one
report of a disappearance during the year. On August 16, two Omar Bongo
University students active in the Human Rights League were reported missing.
They remained missing at year’s end. TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT There were reports
of torture in prisons where unidentified personnel employed torture. For
example, on January 29, the attorney of Patrichi
Christian Tanasa, the former director of the Gabon
Oil Company, stated in a press conference that his client was tortured by
three hooded men who beat and sexually molested him at the Libreville Central
Prison. Impunity was a
problem in the security forces. Nevertheless, the government took some steps
to identify, investigate, and prosecute officials and punish human rights
abusers. In April authorities established a national hotline to report abuses
by security force members. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
were harsh and potentially life threatening due to
low-quality food, inadequate sanitation, lack of ventilation, gross
overcrowding, and poor medical care. Conditions in jails and detention
centers mirrored those in prisons. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
Approximately two-thirds of prison inmates were held in pretrial detention
that sometimes lasted up to three years. There were instances in which the
length of pretrial detention exceeded the maximum sentence for the alleged
crime. Freedom House Country
Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/gabon/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 12 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Prison conditions
are harsh, and facilities are severely overcrowded, with limited access to
proper medical care. Torture is specifically outlawed by the constitution,
but detainees and inmates continue to face physical abuse, including those
detained for political reasons during 2017. Violent crime and ritual killings
remain serious concerns. In the postelection
clashes of 2016, the authorities used indiscriminate and often deadly force
against political opponents and protesters, causing a number of fatalities.
Members of the security forces involved in these and other alleged abuses
apparently enjoyed impunity in 2017. Gabon Human Rights Amnesty
International USA www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/africa/gabon [accessed 22 Jan
2014] GOVERNMENT - Gabonese
citizens have only limited ability to criticize or change their government. A
number of opposition members were arrested arbitrarily without warrants after
protesting the conduct and result of the election. Gabonese human rights
activists and opposition party members claim the Gabonese military killed
several dozen people in the city of Port-Gentil, an opposition stronghold, following
the announcement of the election results on 2 September 2009. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=gabon+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 1 January 1, 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61570.htm [accessed 28 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61570.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – Although the
constitution prohibits such practices, security forces sometimes beat or
tortured prisoners and detainees to extract confessions. Unconfirmed reports
from the African immigrant community asserted that police and soldiers
occasionally beat noncitizen Africans during operations to round up and
deport illegal immigrants. During the year, the UN High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed that it received reports from its regional offices
that security forces continued to harass and extort refugees. Unlike in the
previous year, there were no reports that police raped women in their
custody. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil
Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/gabon [accessed 28 January
2013] LONG URL
ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 12 May
2020] The judiciary is
not independent. However, rights to legal counsel and a public criminal trial
are generally respected. Judges may deliver summary verdicts, and torture is
sometimes used to produce confessions. Prison conditions are marked by
beatings and insufficient food, water, and medical care. Arbitrary arrest and
long periods of pretrial detention are common. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
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