GUIDELINES
How to Follow-up on Berlin Declaration’s Recommendations on
Torture and Rule of Law
These guidelines are intended to assist NHRIs in their implementation of the Berlin Declaration on Torture and
Rule of Law, concluded in the Sixth Arab-European Human Rights Dialogue Meeting on Torture and Rule of
Law, held in Berlin-Germany in May 2011.
In addition to these guidelines, there are three important documents, which the AEHRD Secretariat
recommends to consider as well. They include detailed instructions on how NHRIs can work on torture
prevention and all the related cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments or punishments. These documents can
be accessed on the following websites:
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The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, the Association for the Prevention of
Torture, and the National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms Section at OHCHR (2010):
‘Preventing Torture: An Operational Guide for National Human Rights Institutions’, Can be
accessed on: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/PreventingTorture.pdf
The Role of Independent Monitoring in Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment, can be accessed on http://www.penalreform.org/files/primonitoringbrief.pdf
Guide to the establishment and designation of National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), can be
accessed on:
http://www.apt.ch/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=117&Itemid=250&lang=en
The Special Rapporteur’s consolidated recommendations for prevention of torture, can be
accessed on: http://www.ohchr.org/documents/issues/SRTorture/recommendations
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General Policies and National Human Rights Institutions
1. All States should officially condemn torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment
and adopt an official zero-tolerance policy with a view to end impunity for serious human rights
violations as well as to actively promote a deeply embedded societal culture of respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms, including by supporting and undertaking public awareness
campaigns and human rights education of all relevant actors and at all levels;
 NHRIs may raise the public awareness and educate the general public about the prohibition and
prevention of torture. One of the key roles / potentials of NHRIs is in human rights education for
relevant professional groups (prison guards, police officers, military and security personnel, and any
other public officials with duties related to persons in custody (e.g. nurses in psychiatric institutions).
More generally, NHRIs can put torture prevention on the national agenda through advocacy and
information dissemination efforts: to the general public, to parliamentarians …etc. Also, NHRIs can
partner with lawyers and medical professionals and doctors interested in torture prevention to raise
awareness of the Istanbul Protocol and to ensure that there is sufficient capacity within the two
professions to carry out effective investigations into allegations of torture.
 NHRIs should strongly advocate for the ratification of the OPCAT (See the Special Rapporteur on
Torture’s list of consolidated recommendations for the prevention of torture)
 NHRIs can participate in the setting up of National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) or be assigned to
assume the responsibility of setting up the structure of NPM within its premises and implement the
plan of action for torture prevention including what it takes of monitoring related activities. Here, one
can refer to The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) is an example of a NHRI that doesn’t
host the NPM but which works in consort with the NPM, the Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman.
Unlike the Ombudsman, DIHR’s legislative mandate is not restricted to Denmark, but extends to
international cooperation and exchanges where DIHR exchange experiences with other NHRIs on
how it worked on Denmark’s NPM including disseminating knowledge and expertise on of
independent prison monitoring. More generally, it is definitely in the interests of the NHRI to
cooperate with the NPM, if it has not been designated as the NPM itself. The NPM has a specific,
technical mandate, whereas the NHRI covers the whole field, so to speak. So, it is important that
they work together in order to speak with a common voice on issues related to torture prevention
and conditions of detention. One area where the NHRI can (and should) go further than the NPM is
in relation to advocating for accountability and for implementation of necessary organisational or
structural reforms where violations of the prohibition against torture and other unlawful treatment
have taken place. The NPMs mandate in OPCAT is essentially preventative in nature – it doesn’t
extend to investigating alleged violations and any subsequent measures
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2. All States should secure the establishment and maintenance of fully independent, adequately funded
and well functioning NHRIs in full compliance with the UN Paris Principles empowered and capacitated
to effectively contribute to the prevention of and protection from torture including by facilitating
necessary legal and societal reform in cooperation with all relevant international and national actors,
hereunder human rights defenders, civil society organizations and the media;
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NHRIs have to define and defend their role and space in relation to where they fit in between the
government and civil society. This can create difficulties for national human rights institutions with
respect to their independence, pluralism and accountability; three key concepts which are crucial
for a NHRIs’ legitimacy, credibility, and ultimately their effectiveness
NHRIs should have the power to investigate torture related complaints and other human rights
complaints on their own initiative or from third parties, such as civil society organisations
NHRIs should have the power to take recommendations to the judicial system for enforcement
NHRIs should have the power to intervene as a third party in court proceedings
NHRIs play a role in promoting and ensuring the indivisibility and interdependence of all human
rights. It is therefore essential that full attention be given to economic, social and cultural rights in
all of the relevant activities of these institutions at the same level of that of the civic and political
rights
NHRIs can provide a viable forum for the investigation and resolution of human rights complaints in
countries where the judicial system is weak, politicized, slow or otherwise incapacitated
Also, see the Special Rapporteur on Torture’s list of consolidated recommendations for the
prevention of torture.
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3. National Human Rights Institutions should endeavour to play a decisive role in combating torture and
commit themselves to focus on the protection from, and prevention of, torture and the respect for the
rule of law;
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If national monitoring mechanisms under OPCAT have been established, NHRIs, if not
designated the mandate of NPM, can support these efforts with capacity development to
ensure independence in accordance with the UN Paris Principles. The NPM has a specific,
technical mandate, whereas the NHRI covers the whole field, so to speak. So it is important
that they work together in order to speak with a common voice on issues related to torture
prevention and conditions of detention. It is definitely in the interests of the NHRI to cooperate
with the NPM, if it has not been designated as the NPM itself. The NPM has a specific,
technical mandate, whereas the NHRI covers the whole field, so to speak. So it is important
that they work together in order to speak with a common voice on issues related to torture
prevention and conditions of detention.
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One area where the NHRI can (and should) go further than the NPM is in relation to
advocating for accountability and for implementation of necessary organisational or structural
reforms where violations of the prohibition against torture and other unlawful treatment have
taken place.
4. The Arab-European Human Rights Dialogue Quartet - composed in alphabetical order of the Danish
Institute for Human Rights, the German Institute for Human Rights, the Jordanian National Centre for
Human Rights and the Moroccan National Human Rights Council – is delegated the task of further
examining and seeking funds to support activities aimed at (i) encouraging and assisting the
establishment of NHRIs in countries that have not yet done so, (ii) to generally strengthening existing
NHRIs on the basis of adequate analysis of the gaps in the mandates, funding and functioning of
NHRIs, (iii) specifically strengthening NHRIs’ work in preventing torture and building democratic
institutions, including in countries of transition;
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Given the current context of the Arab world, some countries’ NHRIs can act as a source of
information on good practices to reinforce the capacities of similar NHRIs in the field of transitional
justice. A positive experience to highlight here is experience on transitional justice in Morocco. It’s
true that there were not any trials against perpetrators, as required by international law, but
Morocco made a very large amount of money available for compensation of victims and their
families’ members, in a process in which the NHRC had a central role. Also, Morocco invested
funds in the public health system so that people who were found to have been victims of Statesanctioned violence have access to free medical / rehabilitation treatment (In other words,
Morocco, recognised and took responsibility for providing rehabilitation for these people).
NHRIs can be designated to have the mandate of truth and reconciliation in countries in transition
or at least promote the establishment of truth and reconciliation commissions and support these
efforts with capacity development. Generally speaking, the decision to establish a T and R
commission is a political one. It can be very risky for NHRIs to get involved in negotiations for
establishing a truth and reconciliation commission, because such commissions generally favour
‘finding out the truth’ and ‘peace-making’ over ensuring accountability and justice for those who
committed or were subject to violations. One can say here that it is best for the NHRI to stick to
promoting the international human rights law standards.
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International Human Rights Obligations
5. All States should sign and ratify, without reservations, as well as implement and enforce relevant
international human rights instruments with specific reference to torture, including the UN Convention
against Torture (CAT) and its Optional Protocol (OCPAT), the UN Convention on Enforced
Disappearances (CED), the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the UN Convention
on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) as well as relevant regional instruments such as the
African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), the Arab Charter on Human Rights (ACHR)
or the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR);
If a state has not ratified these treaties, NHRIs can develop and pursue a strategy to promote
ratification, e.g. by 1) making formal recommendations, 2) actively lobbying governmental and
parliamentary representatives and 3) building public awareness of the issue.
6. All States should accede to the individual complaints mechanisms available at the international level,
including the jurisdiction of the Committees established under the CAT, ICCPR, CRPD, the Convention
on the rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), as well as the Courts established under the under the ACHPR and ECHR;
additionally all states are encouraged to ratify new individual complaint mechanism such as the one for
the ICESCR.
NHRIs can highlight positive research on individual complaints mechanisms (see ‘International Human
Rights Mechanisms and Women Asylum Seekers’ by Deborah Singer on:
http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/data/files/publications/40/International_Human_Rights_Mechanisms_and
_Women_Asylum_Seekers.pdf
The aim here is how to make use of CAT and OPCAT to bring about strategic changes to policies,
procedures and practices that could benefit victims of torture.
7. All States should fully cooperate with international human rights mechanisms, including the UN Treaty
Bodies (UN Committee Against Torture, UN Sub-committee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT)), the
Human Rights Council (Universal Periodic Review and Special Procedures), and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as regional actors such as the Council of Europe
Committee for the Prevention of Torture, just as States are invited to accede to the Second Optional
Protocol to the European Convention against Torture, which is open also to non-European states;
 During the Universal Periodic Review NHRIs can provide assistance to governments to draft the
national report; urge it to respect the guidelines of the HRC concerning the methodology to draft
reports; provide the government with information and data on the working areas of the NHRI; give
an opinion on the final version of the report; and urge the government to implement the HRC’s
recommendations.
 NHRIs may participate effectively in the ordinary sessions of the HRC, by elaborating oral
statements on their efforts to prevent torture and entrench the rule of law, and by organizing side
events.
 NHRIs may interact with UN treaty bodies through contributing to the elaboration of national
reports and encouraging the states to implement the concluding observations of these bodies.
NHRIs can also draft an alternative report and submit directly to the treaty body.
 NHRIs can focus on parliamentarians as key pressure group for support with respect to
international human rights mechanisms, e.g. by inviting the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture or
representatives of other monitoring / standard setting mechanisms.
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National legislation, Institutions and National Action Plans
8. All States should ensure full coherence between international obligations and national legislation and
practice, including by incorporating international obligations into the constitutions and national laws and
ensure that torture is an offence punishable under national law in accordance with the CAT, subject to
extradition and universal jurisdiction and not subject to statutory limitation;
 NHRIs can produce a regular annex in their yearly report, detailing which laws remain in square
contradiction to international obligations, and what proposals the NHRI has made to government
and parliament to amend the respective laws. This may also serve as a mechanism to track the
NHRIs’ own activities on that level.
 NHRIs may conduct awareness raising activities among all human rights stakeholders, including
public officials, lawyers, police, military, the judiciary and legislators, about prevention of torture,
e.g. through dissemination of information and organizing seminars among key stake holders and
public education programmes in cooperation with the Association for the Prevention of Torture.
 NHRIs may conduct a communication plan towards the general public, which could include: 1)
identifying key stakeholders and target groups, 2) Holding a major press conference to encourage
news reporting on the issue. 3) Mobilizing leading public figures in support of the campaign. 4)
Preparing opinion editorials and Letters to the editor. 5) Developing community awareness spots
for radio and TV. 6) Placing advertisements in major newspapers. 7) Incorporating the issue into
popular television drama series or radio programmes.8) Organizing a public petition, 9) Success
criteria and evaluation
9. All States should establish and maintain effective and independent, national preventive mechanisms in
accordance with international standards, including one or more independent, national preventive
mechanism according to standards of the OPCAT, and support its activities by sufficient funding and
by allowing unannounced visits to all places of detention with access to all detainees;
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A NHRI may host the national preventive mechanism and be designated to assume its
mandate provided for in the OPCAT based on independence and effectiveness. It is definitely
in the interests of the NHRI to cooperate with the NPM, if it has not been designated as the
NPM itself. The NPM has a specific, technical mandate, whereas the NHRI covers the whole
field, so to speak. So it is important that they work together in order to speak with a common
voice on issues related to torture prevention and conditions of detention.
10. All States should develop and implement in accordance with the 1993 Vienna Declaration national
action plans against torture and secure sufficient funding to put an end to impunity, including to followup on recommendations from international institutions, where relevant with international support, and
focus on human rights education for all relevant actors, including clear instructions to officials that acts
of torture are a crime and that an order to perform acts of torture is illegal and must be disobeyed;
 NHRIs in countries which have adopted principles of Universal Jurisdiction can take part in the
prosecution of alleged torturers (as amicus curiae e.g.) when those are visiting the respective
state.
 The annual reports of NHRIs can function as a follow-up and monitoring mechanism by analyzing
human rights violations occurring in places of detention and list recommendations. It is
recommended to use the PRIME model; which means how to prevent torture at the five different
levels of Policy, Regulation, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation.
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The Rule of Law and Individual Remedies
11. All States should institute necessary legal and institutional reforms of relevant institutions and sectors,
including the military, security forces, police, prisons, psychiatric institutions, judiciary etc. and in
particular, where relevant, demilitarize prisons and other institutions by putting them under the
jurisdiction of ministries of justice or other civilian authority to put and end to impunity and secure that
evidence extracted by means of torture is never relied on in legal proceedings;
 NHRIs can carry out national dialogues to promote legal and institutional reforms including the
military, security forces, police, prisons, psychiatric institutions, judiciary,… etc.
 NHRIs can provide a viable forum for the investigation and resolution of human rights complaints in
countries where the judicial system is weak, politicized, slow or otherwise incapacitated
12. All States should secure full legal protection of all individuals and, at the outset of detention, prompt
information of rights, effective access without intimidation to a person of one’s confidence, to a lawyer
and to a independent medical doctor as well as equal access to judicial protection and other relevant
individual remedies, including restitution, fair and adequate financial compensation and appropriate
medical care and not least rehabilitation;
NHRIs may consider providing information to persons deprived of their liberty and those who are most
at risk of torture or ill-treatment. This could be distributed through leaflets on the rights of prisoners as
well as posters displayed in police stations and prisons.
13. All States should conduct effective, independent, prompt, transparent and impartial investigations into
all allegations of torture with a view to bringing perpetrators to justice and to end impunity and secure
public accountability of and public confidence in the authorities’ adherence to the rule of law.
 NHRIs should investigate and document any complaints of torture, as well as initiate their own
investigations if they believe that torture or ill-treatment may have occurred.
 NHRIs should have the power to investigate torture related complaints and other human rights
complaints on their own initiative or from third parties, such as civil society organisations
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