Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Madagascar.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Madagascar. 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: Madagascar 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/madagascar/
[accessed 28 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Security personnel
reportedly used beatings as punishment for alleged crimes or as a means of
coercion. There were reports that off-duty and sometimes intoxicated members
of the armed forces assaulted civilians. Investigations into these incidents
announced by security officials rarely resulted in prosecutions. On August 1,
security forces patrolling in Antohomadinika caught
two alleged pickpockets and reportedly forced them into a pool of sewage, made
them apologize in front of the large crowd of onlookers, and then handed them
over to police investigators. Impunity was a
significant problem in the security forces. Factors contributing to impunity
included corruption and a lack of reporting of abuses. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
were harsh and life threatening due to inadequate food, overcrowding, poor
sanitation, and insufficient medical care. Physical
Conditions: Lengthy pretrial detentions, inefficiencies in the judicial
system, and inadequate prison infrastructure created a serious overcrowding
problem. One penitentiary surpassed its official capacity by nearly
eightfold. As reported on UNICEF’s website in June, the country’s 82 prisons
and detention centers held 27,600 inmates. This population was more than
twice the official capacity of 11,000. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES The Ministry of
Justice recorded 43 deaths between January and October 2019 compiled from all
the detention and prison facilities of the country. The most frequent causes
of death from physical conditions were tuberculosis, high blood pressure, and
gastrointestinal problems. Prison authorities took few remedial actions
concerning these deaths. Madagascar:
Unjustified, excessive and prolonged pre-trial detention keeps thousands in
life-threatening prison conditions Amnesty
International AI, 23 October 2018 [accessed 7 January
2019] www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr35/8998/2018/en/ [accessed 7 January
2019] People who have not
been found guilty of any crime are dying in Madagascar’s prisons due to
appalling conditions, Amnesty International said today, as it released a report
highlighting how the Malagasy authorities’ excessive use of pre-trial
detention is harming the poorest people in society. The organization
documented how, in 2017 alone, 52 out of the 129 detainees who died in
Madagascar’s prisons were in pre-trial detention. The report, Punished for
being poor: unjustified, excessive and prolonged pre-trial detention in
Madagascar, is based on visits to nine prisons around the country, where
more than 11,000 people have been arbitrarily placed in pretrial detention
which often lasts for years. This has resulted in severe overcrowding which,
coupled with lack of food and medical care and unhygienic facilities, is
damaging the health of detainees and putting lives at risk. Conditions of
detention - “Forty-two of us sleep in the same room but there is no room to
sleep, I sleep on the floor. A lot of people get sick. Some cough, some
shiver, some get very cold. And people fight about food because there isn’t
enough… I really want a trial because I really suffer here.” 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/MDG/CO/1 (2011) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/madagascar2011.html [accessed 3 March
2013] Non-justification
of torture and thorough, impartial investigations 8. The Committee is
deeply concerned about the numerous reports of human rights violations since
the onset of the 2009 political crisis — including torture, summary and
extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances — that have neither been
investigated, nor prosecuted. The Committee is concerned about reports that
the use of torture is politically motivated and used against political
opponents, journalists and lawyers (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16). Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil
Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/madagascar [accessed 5 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] A lack of training,
resources, and personnel hampers judicial effectiveness, and case backlogs
are prodigious. The judiciary remains susceptible to corruption and executive
influence. Most of the approximately 20,000 people held in the country’s
prisons are pretrial detainees and suffer extremely harsh and sometimes
life-threatening conditions. In many rural areas, customary-law courts that
lack due process often issue summary and severe punishments. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 IMPUNITY - Security
officials and members of armed groups responsible for serious human rights violations,
including unlawful killings, continued to act with impunity. A complaint into
the death of prosecutor Michel Rahavana remained
under investigation a year later. He was killed in December 2011 by a group
of police officers attempting to release a colleague who had been arrested by
the prosecutor in connection with a theft. The minister in charge of the
police, the Minister of Internal Security, who was in the town at the time of
the death, was allegedly informed that the attack was about to happen but
failed to prevent it. The Minister of Justice announced at the end of 2011
that an investigation would be conducted. No official
investigation was opened into the killing of taxi driver Hajaharimananirainy
Zenon, known as Bota, despite assurances from the
Minister of Justice. Bota’s family lodged a formal
complaint on 30 August 2011 following his arrest, torture and killing by
members of the Intervention Police Force (FIP) on 17 July 2011 in the 67ha neighbourhood of Antananarivo. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=madagascar+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 7 January 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/2005/61578.htm [accessed 5 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61578.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The constitution
provides for the inviolability of the person; however, security forces
subjected prisoners to physical 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-
Madagascar", http://gvnet.com/torture/Madagascar.htm, [accessed
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