Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Namibia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Namibia. 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: Namibia 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/namibia/
[accessed 29 July
2021] PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical Conditions:
Conditions in detention centers and police holding cells remained poor.
Conditions were often worse in pretrial holding cells than in prisons. Human
rights bodies and government officials reported overcrowding in holding
cells. Most prisons, however, were not overcrowded. In pretrial holding
cells, sanitation and medical assistance were inadequate. Tuberculosis was
prevalent. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
Lengthy pretrial detention remained a problem. According to the Namibian
Correctional Service, approximately 3 percent of the inmate population is in
pretrial detention, and the average length of time inmates are held before
trial is four years. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/namibia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 18 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Namibia is free
from war and insurgencies. However, police brutality is a problem. Police
abuses were reported during land disputes in Walvis Bay in May 2017, and Grootfontein in February. Inmates accused wardens of
assault at Windhoek and Oluno correctional
facilities during the year; officials from the Ombudsman’s office went to
investigate some of these cases. Namibia currently lacks an antitorture law. Policing
and Human Rights -- Assessing southern African countries’ compliance with the
SARPCCO Code of Conduct for Police Officials Edited by Amanda Dissel & Cheryl Frank, African Policing Civilian
Oversight Forum APCOF, 2012 ISBN:
978-1-920489-81-6 [accessed 25 March
2014] [NAMIBIA] -- ARTICLE
4: TORTURE AND CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT No police official shall, under any circumstances,
inflict, instigate, or tolerate any act of torture and other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment of any person. Namibia acceded to
the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and
Degrading Treatment of Punishment (UNCAT) on 28 November 1994. Torture and
other ill-treatment is prohibited in terms of article 8(2)(b),
and is non-derogable under article 24(3) of the
Constitution. Following submission of the first state report to the UN
Committee against Torture (CAT) in 1995, the Committee noted concern that
although torture and physical assaults by the Namibian police had reduced
since independence, treatment which falls under this category continues to
exist. It also noted a failure by the state to promptly and impartially
investigate and prosecute those responsible for acts of torture and cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment, and for failing to institute disciplinary
proceedings against responsible public officials. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. A/52/44, paras.
227-252 (1997) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/namibia1997.html [accessed 4 March
2013] 4. Subjects of
concern 235. The Committee
is concerned that Namibia has not integrated, as required by articles 2 (1)
and 4 (1) of the Convention, the specific definition of the crime of torture
into its penal legislation in terms legally consistent with the definition
contained in article 1 of the Convention. In the absence of a strict legal
definition of torture and other offences and of a precise description of
appropriate and corresponding punishment for torture and other offences, it
is impossible for the Namibian courts to adhere to the principle of legality
(nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege previa) and to article 4
of the Convention. 236. The Committee
is also concerned about the alleged cases of torture referred to specifically
during the discussion of the State party's report. 237. The Committee
deeply regrets that in many cases, because of the lack of judicial personnel,
pre-trial detention extends for up to one year. 238. The Committee is
concerned that although torture and physical assaults by the Namibian police
have been reduced considerably since independence, treatment which falls
under the category of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment still occurs in certain areas of the country. 239. The Committee
is also concerned at the State party's failure in many cases to promptly and
impartially investigate and prosecute those responsible for past and present
acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Namibia also fails
to institute consistently disciplinary proceedings against public officials
responsible for acts of torture or ill-treatment. 240. The Committee
expresses concern that there are no legal instruments to deal specifically
with compensating victims of torture or other ill-treatment. The existing
procedures for obtaining redress, compensation and rehabilitation seem to be
inadequate and in many cases ineffective. Moreover, they limit the right to
redress and compensation to the victim of torture, failing to give, in
accordance with article 14 (1) of the Convention, the same standing to the
deceased victim's dependants. Namibia: police
torture alleged AAP-Reuter, Geneva news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19730327&id=jnlWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LeUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2473,10347473 [accessed 5 Feb
2014] South African
police had used "most cruel and degrading torture" on people arrested
in Namibia, a UN report said yesterday. It complained that
prisoners in the "condemned section" of Pretoria Central Prison
lived in inhuman conditions. The report said it
believed that the death of a number of non-white people in suspicious circumstances
in South African police stations had been the result of police torture. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 PRISON CONDITIONS - Most prisons and
detention centres remained overcrowded, with some
holding more than twice the intended number. Windhoek Central Prison, which
was designed to hold 912 inmates, contained approximately 2,000 inmates and
pre-trial detainees. Similar conditions prevailed in Ondangwa,
Swakopmund, Oshakati and Otjiwarango towns. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=namibia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 9 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House Country Report
- Political
Rights:
2 Civil Liberties: 2 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/namibia [accessed 6 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] Allegations of
police brutality persist. Human rights groups have called for independent
investigations into the 1999 arrest and detention of suspected Caprivi
separatists and the deaths of 13 suspects in custody. Victims of alleged
police torture and abuse in the aftermath of the Caprivi uprising have
brought damages claims against the government; all claims have been settled
out of court. Conditions in prisons and military detention facilities are
quite harsh. In 2007, a High Court judge declared conditions in police
holding cells to be “plainly unconstitutional. ”Focusing
on the deplorable health and sanitary conditions in police cells, another
judge in 2007 maintained that authorities could be held liable for violating
detainees’ constitutional rights if conditions are not improved. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 6, 2007 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78749.htm [accessed 6 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61584.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The constitution
and law prohibit such practices; however, police frequently used excessive
force, including torture, when apprehending, interrogating, and detaining
criminal suspects. Despite a police directive that prohibited the use of sjamboks (heavy leather whips), security forces continued
to use them. The government took action against some perpetrators. Suspects in the
Caprivi treason trial complained of intimidation and humiliation while in
detention. On May 2, police
sergeant Sakeus Amuele
and three civilians Mutilifia Keeleleni,
Andreas Nghiwhekwa, and Nakanyala
Akuunda were arrested and charged with assault and
kidnapping after they allegedly chained and beat Hofenie
Angomo Ikolola with sjamboks at a village near Ondangwa
to force him to confess to housebreaking and theft. The case was ongoing at
year's end. During the year two
ethnic Mafwe claimed that their testimony in the
Caprivi treason trial was made under duress (see below and section 1.e.). On February 24, the
court postponed the case against police officers Geoffrey Scott, Willem Dax, and Dawid Fy, who in July 2005 allegedly tortured Ralph Cloete, a suspected thief. There were no
developments in the January 2005 cases of Elihana Nghimwenas and Pakratius Kawana, who respectively filed civil complaints against
the police for torture. All
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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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