Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/NewZealand.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in New
Zealand. 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: New Zealand 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/new-zealand/
[accessed 29 July
2021] PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Watchdog groups
highlighted overcrowding; inadequate mental health treatment and treatment of
prisoners who risked self-harm; excessive restraint, including the abuse of
solitary confinement; and prisoner-on-prisoner violence as systemic problems
in prisons and detention facilities. Both the government and civil society
groups highlighted the disproportionate rates of incarceration of indigenous
peoples (see section 6, Indigenous People). Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/new-zealand/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 18 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Citizens and
noncitizen residents have legal recourse to seek redress for physical harm.
Prison conditions generally meet international standards, though some are
poorly equipped to house detainees with disabilities or mental health
problems. Lawyer defends
prisoner awarded payout over 'torture' Newstalk ZB Staff, 12
September 2018 www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/larry-williams-drive/audio/tony-ellis-lawyer-defends-prisoner-awarded-payout-over-torture/ [accessed 13
September 2018] A man who allegedly
was sarcastic when asking for extra days in solitary confinement, then
received it, has just won a $10,000 payout from the Government. Prisoner John Vogel
was placed in solitary confinement for 21 days in 2000 - six days longer than
legally allowed. The UN Committee
Against Torture ruled Vogel's human rights had been breached. Ellis says it was
absolutely wrong of them to put someone with a mental health illness in
solitary confinement. 18 Cases of Torture
in Chiapas to Be Presented to UN Rapporteur Isaín Mandujano,
Proceso, La Jornada:
Matilde Pérez U., May 1, 2014 [accessed 2 May
2014] Frayba has documented at
least 18 cases of torture from March 2013 to March 2014. Of these, 15 were
reported by men-one of them a minor- and 3 by women. According to the Center,
at least 2 of the tortured people died in municipal prisons in Tapachula and Acala. The first
was Carlos Alberto Trujillo Ramos, 48 years old, and the second was Rolando
Pérez Cruiz, 21. Other torture
cases, according to Frayba, are that of Gabriel Domínguez Escobedo, arrested and tortured to death by 13
members of the Special Police of the Attorney General of Justice of the State
of Chiapas (PGJ), and that of Miguel Ángel Rosette García, whom members of the same unit tortured in 2011
for the alleged robbery of the Orantes Constanzo family, the owner of the second-division soccer
team, Guerreros [Warriors] de Chiapas. Audentino García Villafuerte and brothers Andrés and Josué
López Hernández, were tortured in the prisons of Bochil, Huixtla, and Pichucalco, respectively, forcing them to plead guilty to
a crime they didn’t commit. On April 15th, Fraya said that in Chiapas, the practice of torture
continues, including sophisticated methods to make people testify without
leaving marks on the body. The tests have been obtained with the
implementation of the Istanbul Protocol carried out by doctors and
psychologists who are experts in the field. The documented
information “confirms the recurrence of torture as a method of criminal
investigation, used by local, state, and federal police forces, as well as
members of the Army and Navy,” said the organization. Ombudsman's Special
Investigation into management of prisoner Arthur Taylor in Auckland Prison,
New Zealand Adacaod, 2014 [accessed 24 Feb
2014] Arthur Taylor was
placed in 'directed segregation' (isolation) in Auckland prison (Paremoremo) from June 2011 to April 2012 - more than
eight months. The Ombudsman said: "Accommodation for those prisoners
currently undergoing a period of segregation is well below standard and could
be considered cruel and inhuman for the purposes of the Convention against
Torture." 80% of countries
use torture – New Zealand is one Roger Brooking,
Pundit, LTD, 30 Sept 2013 pundit.co.nz/content/80-of-countries-use-torture-%E2%80%93-new-zealand-is-one [accessed 29 Sept
2013] Torture in New Zealand
prisons - Thousands of prisoners are also subject to a form of enhanced
pharmacological torture. Instead of being given drugs which cause pain,
prison doctors in New Zealand are told to take medication off prisoners who
are in pain. Section 6.1.1 of the Department’s Medicines Policy “actively
discourages” doctors from prescribing opiate (pain killers), benzodiazepines
(for anxiety), ritalin (for ADHD) – or any drug
which might be ‘traded’ in prison. In some prisons, this policy appears to
include anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medication. In other words,
prison doctors are encouraged to breach their medical ethics, ignore the
welfare of their patients, and allow them to suffer. Richard Barriball was a victim of this ‘discouraged medication
policy’. Prior to being admitted to Otago prison in 2010, he was on four
different pain medications after a series of operations on his arm. On his
first day in prison, the prison doctors took away two opiate pain killers;
four days later they took away the benzodiazepines he had been on for years. With increasing
pain, anxiety and in severe withdrawal, he committed suicide three days
later. The coroner said Corrections provided him with sub-optimal care. Then there’s prison
dental torture. The Department has a ‘minimum dental services policy’ whereby
prisoners with toothache or an abscess can have the tooth extracted – but are
generally not allowed to have fillings. Long term prisoners, with a sentence
of more than one year, may receive fillings provided their teeth were in good
condition prior to coming to prison. But there are lengthy waiting lists.
Prisoners serving less than one year (80% of all those in prison), are told
to wait till they get out to see a dentist: United Nations
Convention Against Torture: New Zealand draft periodic report 6 Ministry of Justice,
2012 www.justice.govt.nz/policy/constitutional-law-and-human-rights/human-rights/international-human-rights-instruments/international-human-rights-instruments-1/convention-against-torture/united-nations-convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrding-treatment-or-punishment-new-zealand-periodic-report-6/article-12-13/22-investigation-of-torture-and-prosecutions [accessed 5 Feb
2014] newzealandchildabuse.com/wp-content/PDF_Downloads/NZ_6th_Report_Draft.pdf [accessed 9 January
2019] Articles 12 & 13
-- 22. INVESTIGATION OF TORTURE AND PROSECUTIONS 242. Since 2009,
four legal complaints have been received by
the New Zealand
High Court regarding ill-treatment in prison (Table 7). 243. Investigations
by the Ombudsmen since 2009 under the Crimes of Torture Act 1989 have found
no evidence of torture. 244. Allegations of
torture have been investigated by New Zealand Police and also raised in court
proceedings, but none to date have been found to meet the requirements for
prosecution. 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/CR/32/4
(2004) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/newzealand2004.html [accessed 4 March
2013] 5. The Committee
expresses concern about: (f) The findings of
the Ombudsman regarding investigations of alleged assaults by prison staff on
inmates, in particular the reluctance to address such allegations promptly
and the quality, impartiality and credibility of investigations. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61621.htm [accessed 6 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61621.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. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/new-zealand [accessed 6 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The judiciary is
independent, and defendants can appeal to the Privy Council in London. Police
discrimination against the Maori, who comprise more than half of the prison
population, has been reported. 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- New
Zealand", http://gvnet.com/torture/NewZealand.htm, [accessed
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