Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Tonga.htm
|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Tonga. 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: Tonga 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/tonga/
[accessed 10 August
2021] 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. Impunity was not a significant problem in the security forces. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS There were no
significant reports regarding prison or detention center conditions that
raised human rights concerns. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/tonga/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 15 May
2020] IS THERE AN
INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY?
- The king retains authority over judicial appointments and dismissals. The
Judicial Appointments and Discipline Panel, a committee of the privy council,
provides advice on appointments, including for the lord chancellor, who has
responsibility for administering the courts. The king in privy council has
final jurisdiction over cases in the land court relating to hereditary
estates and titles. The judiciary is
regarded as largely independent, but the prime minister has accused the
royally appointed attorney general of interfering with judicial rulings, and
has pressed for reforms that would bring the attorney general into the orbit
of the elected government. Broader judicial reforms that would have increased
the cabinet’s influence over judicial appointments were adopted by the
parliament in 2014, but the king never gave his assent. DOES DUE PROCESS
PREVAIL IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? - Due process provisions and safeguards
against arbitrary arrest and detention are typically respected by the
authorities. However, there is no mechanism to guarantee access to counsel
for indigent defendants. IS THERE PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND
INSURGENCIES?
- Prison conditions are generally adequate, police brutality is rare, and
crime rates remain relatively low. A number of police officers accused of
misconduct have been investigated, dismissed, or convicted of crimes in recent
years. The Systematic
Torture and Abuse of Prisoners by The Government of Tonga Following Civil
Unrest in November 2006 [PDF] The National Centre
for Women and Children, Kingdom of Tonga, November 2006 crin.org/docs/centre_wom_chil_tonga_torture.pdf [accessed 11 Feb
2014] III FINDINGS A. ARRESTS - Prisoners
reported that the vast majority of injuries that occurred to them and that
they had observed on other prisoners occurred during arrest and while in
transit to the Nuku’alofa Police Station. These injuries included facial
cuts, swelling and bruising; ripped ears; broken and missing teeth; split
lips and heavily bruised ribs. “I saw bloody
people come into the cells everyday. People with smashed faces – it just
became normal.” Tonga Defence Service
personnel were reported as the main perpetrators of violence against
prisoners. The predominant weapon of choice was reported as rifle butts. A prisoner
described how he was sitting in the back seat of a taxi at a checkpoint. His
friend in the front passenger seat was talking to a soldier. The prisoner
said he made some popping noises with his mouth, imitate ng a gun through
his open window. Without warning another soldier drove the butt of his rifle
multiple times into the side of the prisoners head. Another prisoner
described how upon his arrest, he was being transported to the Nuku’alofa
Police Station in a TDS vehicle. There were so ldiers and police sitting on
both sides of him. A TDS Officer removed his pistol from his holster and hit
the prisoner with the flat side of the pistol twice on his head (Refer to
Figure 1). The TDS Officer then loaded and cocked his pistol and pointed it
at the prisoner, threatening to kill him and saying he “deserved to die”.
Police and TDS Officers in the vehicle then described how easy it would be
for them to “get rid of” the prisoner without anyone knowing. The prisoner
reported that he was bleeding profusely from the strikes to his head and his
face, shirt and shorts were covered in blood. The prisoner was made to hide
his head below the window level of the vehicle as it drove through town. Another prisoner
described how he did not remember anything about his arrest but regained
consciousness on the floor of the prison cell covered in blood from a cut and
swelling to his left temple and tear to his left ear (Refer to figures 2 and
3). Other prisoners interviewed described that this prisoner was placed in
their cells with serious swelling and bruising to his head and temple area
where they noticed that his skin had been scraped away by what they believed
was a rifle butt. One prisoner who
was in custody for over 7 days reported that 3 out of 4 prisoners who came
into his cell upon arrest during this period had serious head injuries which
he said could only be caused by an implement such as a rifle, “fists can not
do damage like that. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=tonga+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 15 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78793.htm [accessed 14
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78793.htm [accessed 7 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, in December an employee of a local
nongovernmental organization (NGO) issued a report alleging abuse by the
Tonga Defense Services (TDS) and police of some of the persons arrested
following rioting in Nuku'alofa on November 16 (see section 2.b.). The NGO's
board later disavowed the report, citing differences with the author's
methodology and conclusions and his failure to clear the report prior to
release. The Tonga Evangelical Union also wrote a letter to the prime
minister expressing concern over reports of abuses, including violence
towards underage detainees. The government stated it would investigate the
charges. There were also reports of gratuitous violence used during more
routine arrests, detentions, and other encounters with the TDS and police. 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-
Tonga", http://gvnet.com/torture/Tonga.htm, [accessed <date>] |
