Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Latvia.htm
|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Latvia. 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: Latvia 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/latvia/
[accessed 26 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The law prohibits
such practices. The ombudsman received two reports of physical abuse by
police officers during the year. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Some reports
regarding prison or detention center conditions raised human rights concerns.
Prisoners complained about insufficient ventilation, natural light, hygiene,
cleaning supplies, and nutrition. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Detainees have the
right to an attorney who may be present during questioning. In 2017, however,
the CPT noted receiving a number of accusations from detained persons
(including juveniles) that they had been subjected to informal questioning
without the presence of a lawyer, prior to the taking of a formal statement
in the lawyer’s presence. Some detainees alleged they were physically
mistreated or threatened with physical violence during such periods of
initial questioning. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/latvia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 17 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Latvia has one of
the highest prison population rates in the EU. Prisons continue to suffer
from overcrowding, and abuses of detainees and prisoners by
law enforcement agents has been reported. Council of Europe
anti-torture Committee publishes report on Latvia Executive Summary,
29 June 2017 [accessed 4 June
2020] The visit
revealed that persons
remanded in custody
by courts were
still frequently held
in police detention facilities
well beyond the
statutory limit of
48 hours, pending
their transfer to
a remand facility. Further,
as during previous
visits, the delegation
came across a
number of cases in
which persons placed in
a remand prison
had been returned
to a police
establishment for the
purpose of investigative work, for periods ranging from several days to
two weeks. Material conditions
of detention were generally good at Cēsis
Correctional Institution for Juveniles as
well as at
the Daugavpils Section
of Daugavgrīva Prison
which had recently
undergone major
refurbishment. In contrast,
most of the
prisoner accommodation areas
in the Grīva Section
of Daugavgrīva Prison were in an
advanced state of dilapidation (for example, crumbling walls, badly worn and
sometimes even rotten
floors, decrepit furniture,
etc.) and severely
affected by humidity due to the
absence of a
ventilation system. Further,
many cells had
very limited access
to natural light, and
the in-cell sanitary
facilities in a large
number of cells
were in an
appalling state of hygiene. Anti-torture
monitors report on Latvia Council of Europe,
HUMAN RIGHTS EUROPE, 27 August 2013 www.humanrightseurope.org/2013/08/anti-torture-monitors-report-on-latvia/ [accessed 27 Jan
2014] Incidents of police
brutality and “inhuman and degrading” custody conditions have been uncovered
in a new report on Latvia by anti-torture monitors. Report to the
Latvian Government on the visit to Latvia carried out by the European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT) from 5 to 15 September 2011 Council of Europe,
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture CPT, Strasbourg, 27 August
2013 www.refworld.org/docid/523ffd114.html [accessed 21 March
2014] ILL-TREATMENT 11. In the course
of the visit, the delegation received a number of allegations from detained
persons of physical ill-treatment by police officers. The ill-treatment
alleged consisted, in the main, of punches and kicks, and in a few cases of
inappropriate use of truncheons and too-tight handcuffing. It was said to
have occurred at the time of apprehension and/or subsequently, during the
initial stay at a police establishment (including during questioning). Some
allegations were also received of threats and verbal abuse. It should be
stressed that no allegations of physical ill-treatment were received in
respect of police officers performing custodial tasks in police detention
facilities. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/LVA/CO/2
(2008) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/latvia2008.html [accessed 3 March
2013] Detention on
remand, including pre-trial detention 10. While noting
the new Criminal Procedure Law, which reduces the apprehension phase from 72 to
48 hours and introduces the system of an investigative judge who shall decide
on the application of detention on remand, as well as reports that the
duration of detention on remand has been reduced, the Committee remains
concerned at reports of prolonged periods of detention on remand, including
pre-trial detention, and the high risk of ill-treatment which it entails and
regrets the lack of use of alternatives to imprisonment. While noting that the Law on the Procedure
of Holding Detainees requires the procedure of holding criminal suspects in
police short-term detention cells and sets standards for conditions of
detention in these cells, the Committee is concerned at information that this
does not apply to cells in small police stations where detainees can be held
up to 12 hours (arts. 2, 11 and 16). Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=latvia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 6 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/latvia [accessed 4 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] While judicial
independence is generally respected, corruption continues to be a problem. In
January 2008, two district court judges were sentenced to eight years in
prison for accepting bribes. A special parliamentary commission investigating
alleged corruption among prominent judges and politicians in the 1990s issued
an inconclusive report in September 2008; although three judges resigned over
the allegations, none were charged with a crime as of year’s end. Legal
prohibitions against arbitrary arrest and the right to a fair trial are
largely observed in practice. However, lengthy pretrial detention remains a
concern. Law enforcement officials have reportedly used excessive force
against detainees, and prison inmates suffer from overcrowding and inadequate
medical care. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61658.htm [accessed 4 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61658.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there were reports that government
officials employed them. The Latvian Center
for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies (LCHRES) received allegations of severe
abuse of persons in custody. During a ward search in July, 11 inmates at Valmiera prison sustained serious injuries, including
broken ribs, consistent with the use of police batons. Some of the injured
did not receive medical attention for 12 to 48 hours. Accurate statistics
on reports of police brutality were unavailable. On February 18, the state
police initiated a criminal case against two police officers who beat two
individuals apprehended for public drunkenness. Their trial was ongoing at
year's end. LCHRES expressed
concern that victims underreported incidents of police brutality. In February
2004 LCHRES conducted a study in which it operated a hot line to collect
allegations of police brutality from anonymous callers. Over a 3-day period,
LCHRES received 283 complaints regarding police misconduct, 130 of which
referred to police brutality. During the year the Latvian National Human
Rights Office (NHRO) received 11 written and 23 verbal complaints regarding
misconduct. The NHRO reported that the Ministry of Interior and police
officials were cooperative in resolving complaints of police brutality, and
the NHRO arranged for meetings between complainants and relevant law
enforcement agencies where, according to NHRO officials, the Ministry of
Interior collected testimony that it used to identify police officials guilty
of abuse. 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-
Latvia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Latvia.htm, [accessed <date>] |
