Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Malta.htm
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Malta. 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 *** Council of Europe
anti-torture Committee announces periodic visits to eight countries in 2023 European Committee
for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment CPT, 27 July 2022 [accessed 28 July
2022] The European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT) has announced today its 2023 programme
of periodic visits. The Committee
intends to examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the
following countries: Albania, Armenia,
Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, North Macedonia, and the Slovak Republic. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Malta 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/malta/
[accessed 28 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution or
law prohibit such practices, and there were no
reports that government officials employed them. Impunity was not a
significant problem in the security forces. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical
Conditions: In migrant detention centers, there were reports of overcrowding,
poor sanitary conditions, and repeated inmate protests. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
Lengthy pretrial detention remained a problem. Authorities occasionally
confined foreign suspects for more than two years pending arraignment and
trial, normally due to lengthy legal procedures. Council of Europe’s
anti-torture Committee calls on Malta to improve the treatment of 2020
detained migrants News 2021, 10 March
2021 [Long URL] [accessed 10 March
2021] Overall, the CPT
found an immigration system that was struggling to cope: a system that purely
“contained” migrants who had essentially been forgotten, within poor
conditions of detention and regimes which verged on institutional mass
neglect by the authorities. Indeed, the living conditions, regimes, lack of
due process safeguards, treatment of vulnerable groups and some specific
Covid-19 measures were found to be so problematic that they may well amount
to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European
Convention on Human Rights. The carceral design of detention centres
such as Hermes Block and the Warehouses at Safi Detention Centre remained
totally inappropriate: large rooms crammed with beds, no privacy, and
communication with staff via locked doors. Migrants were generally locked in
their accommodation units with little to no access to daily outdoor exercise
and no purposeful activities. Other deficiencies included a lack of
maintenance of the buildings (especially the sanitary facilities),
insufficient personal hygiene products and cleaning materials and an
inability to obtain a change of clothes. Moreover, there was also a
systematic lack of information provided to detained persons about their
situation, compounded by minimal contact with the outside world or even
staff. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/malta/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 15 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? The authorities do
not engage in torture or ill-treatment of detainees. Rates of violent crime
are low, though various forms of organized crime remain a problem. 23rd General Report
of the CPT - European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment - 1 August 2012 - 31 July 2013 Council of Europe,
Strasbourg, 6 November 2013 www.west-info.eu/files/Council-of-Europe-23rd-General-Report-of-the-CPT-20131.pdf [accessed 7 Nov
2013] 50. The
overwhelming majority of the prisoners interviewed by the CPT’s delegation at
Corradino Correctional Facility (the prison) indicated that they were treated
correctly by staff. However, some allegations of physical ill-treatment and
verbal abuse of inmates by certain prison officers were received, as were
some allegations of inter-prisoner violence. On the latter point, the CPT
stresses in its report that it will be difficult to effectively prevent
instances of inter-prisoner violence with the extremely low number of prison
officers that were present within the detention areas; the Maltese
authorities are recommended to take urgent steps to fill the many vacant
posts (50 at the time of the visit) with appropriately qualified staff and to
provide prison officers with professional training, both initial and ongoing. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. A/55/44, paras.
41-45 (1999) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/malta1999.html [accessed 3 March
2013] 45. The Committee
recommends that: (a) The State party
ensure that the envisaged new Asylum Act is consistent with the provisions of
the Convention; (b) The State party
ensure that victims of torture are not dissuaded from lodging a complaint by
any intimidation or threats, including threats of legal measures being taken
against them; AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was published
sometime prior to 2015 REFUGEES, MIGRANTS
AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
- On 30 June, Mamadou Kamara, a 32-year-old migrant
from Mali, died in custody. He had attempted to escape from Safi Barracks
detention centre, and was allegedly severely
ill-treated when recaptured. Two officers were charged with his murder and a
third with perverting the course of justice. On 2 July, the Prime Minister
appointed a judge to lead an independent inquiry into whether the individuals
involved in Mamadou Kamara’s death had been
negligent, had disregarded procedures or abused their powers. It was also to
investigate whether the recommendations made by the inquiry into the death of
Infeanyi Nwokoye in 2011
had been implemented. The judicial
investigation into the death of Infeanyi Nwokoye in April 2011 continued. Infeanyi
Nwokoye, a Nigerian migrant, had died in hospital
after being recaptured following an escape attempt from Safi Barracks
detention centre. He had been living in Malta since
2006. His request for asylum had been rejected, and he was returned to the
detention centre after documents needed for his
deportation had been finalized. A government inquiry to examine the
circumstances of Infeanyi Nwokoye’s
death had published a summary of recommendations in October 2011. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=malta+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 8 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free 2009 Editiion www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/malta [accessed 5 February
2013] LONG URL
ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The judiciary is
independent, and the rule of law prevails in civil and criminal matters. The
Police Ordinance Act, which took effect in 2003, established a witness
protection program and a mechanism for handling complaints about the police.
Prison conditions generally meet international standards, although the
Council of Europe’s Commission for Human Rights has objected to detention
conditions for irregular migrants and asylum seekers. An independent report
on the military’s violent 2005 suppression of a protest by detained
immigrants raised concerns about the use of excessive force, recommending an
internal military inquiry and better training for soldiers. In January 2008,
a report was released by the European Parliament that the Hal Far detention
center did not meet acceptable standards due to overcrowding and prolonged
detention. However, the report also claimed that basic treatment of detainees
was adequate. 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/2005/61663.htm [accessed 5 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61663.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices, and there were no reports that government officials
employed them. 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-
Malta", http://gvnet.com/torture/Malta.htm, [accessed <date>] |
