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Macao: Strengthening Human Rights Safeguards
Basic Law be amended to state specifically that people in Macao have the right to make individual complaints to the Committee against Torture.
Amnesty International welcomes the inclusion in Draft Basic Law Article 28 of the explicit provision that "torture or inhuman treatment towards any resident shall be prohibited". Although Article 28 of the Draft Basic Law provides a basic right to freedom from torture and inhuman treatment, its wording is less comprehensive than that of Article 7 of the ICCPR which states that: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
The Human Rights Committee has made the following comment on Article 7 of the ICCPR:
"The Committee notes that it is not sufficient for the implementation of this article to prohibit such treatment or punishment or to make it a crime. Most States have penal provisions which are applicable to torture or similar practices. Because such cases nevertheless occur, it follows from Article 7, read together with Article 2 of the Covenant, that States must ensure an effective protection through some machinery of control. Complaints about ill-treatment must be investigated effectively by competent authorities. Those found guilty must be held responsible, and the alleged victims must themselves have effective remedies at their disposal, including the right to compensation. Among the safeguards which may make control effective are provisions against detention incommunicado, granting, without prejudice to the investigation, persons such as doctors, lawyers, and family members access to the detainees, provisions requiring that detainees should be held in places that are publicly recognized and that their names and places of detention should be entered in a central register available to persons concerned, such as relatives, provisions making confessions or other evidence obtained through torture or other treatment contrary to Article 7 inadmissible in court, and measures of training and instruction of law enforcement officials not to apply such treatment." (Human Rights Committee, General Comment on the ICCPR, 7(16))
Amnesty International recommends that Article 28 of the Draft Basic Law be amended to conform to the language of international instruments such as the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture, which prohibit not only inhuman treatment but also cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as well as punishment.
In Amnesty International's experience, torture usually takes place in particular conditions, when detainees are held incommunicado or in secret, without access to
Al Index: ASA 27/01/91
Amnesty International November 1991