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Commemorating Day Against Torture
National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) - Namibia
June 25, 2003

NSHR appeals to the Namibian Parliament to incorporate in the local law the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984 without any further delay. Namibia has ratified virtually all the major international human rights, humanitarian and crime prevention treaties including the said Convention since the country’s independence in 1990. However, NSHR decries the fact that all such treaties have not yet truly become part of the country’s domestic law as prescribed, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 144 of the Namibian Constitution.

"In terms of Article 144 of the said Constitution the general rules of public international law are binding upon the Namibia. However, with the possible exception of international customary law, the provisions of all international human rights, humanitarian and crime prevention law are not legally binding upon Namibia because Parliament had neglected to incorporate them into national law.

Hence, such treaties will be null and void and of no effect in this country, until such time when Namibia adopts, at the domestic level, the prescribed legislative, administrative and judicial measures to give effect to their provisions. To merely ratify them is just not enough. Incorporating them literally means that such treaties must go through the very same legislative process---submission and adoption in Parliament, signature by the President and promulgation in the Government Gazette---as any other domestic laws before they become national law and be commonly known as such", argued NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh this afternoon.

In commemorating the International Day Against Torture, NSHR and its local partners, such as the Legal Assistance Centre, the Office of the Ombudsman, United Nations Information Centre, Breaking the Wall of Silence and the PEACE Centre as well as international partners such as the Danish-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) deplore reports that torture continues to be used as an instrument of power, used to break, intimidate and humiliate people in the country or elsewhere. Before Namibian independence torture as an instrument of power had been used on mass scale both against the liberation of the country and in the name of such liberation. Both apartheid South African-controlled security forces and SWAPO’s military and other forces committed very serious and flagrant human rights abuses, including torture.

Furthermore, it is deplorable that torture continues to be used on a wide scale even in post-Independence Namibia. NSHR human rights defenders continue to receive disturbing reports that members of the country’s law enforcement agencies have engaged in acts of torture against both common criminals and suspected government critics or opponents. Whereas 9 incidents of torture were recorded between August 1, 2001 and July 31, 2002 at least 17 cases have so far been recorded. Most of the allegations of torture are directed against members of the paramilitary Special Field Force.

As a means towards eradication of torture in the country, NSHR and its partners will tomorrow occupy certain strategic points in Windhoek to distribute to the general public information about the scourge. Such information as well as other relevant human rights literature will also be distributed countrywide through NSHR’s regional monitoring and advocacy offices as part of the said commemorations.

For additional comment please contact:
Dorkas Nangolo
Tel: 061 236 183 or 061 253 447
Cell: 081 275 1883
Website: http://www.nshr.org.na

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