Reducing incentives for coercion, tainted confessions in criminal justice systems focus of OSCE/ODIHR event in Bishkek

Diminishing incentives for coercion in criminal justice systems and examining ways to strengthen or effectively implement safeguards against torture and other ill-treatment were the focus of an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the international NGO Fair Trials in Bishkek on 27 November 2018. The event took place on the margins of the Seventh Expert Forum on Criminal Justice for Central Asia, co-organized by ODIHR and hosted by the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan.

Together with defence lawyers from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, an independent expert from Tajikistan and a police expert from the United Kingdom, participants discussed existing practices in the development of criminal cases and the role of coercion in confession-based criminal justice systems.

The participants noted that incentives to use coercive measures or torture can take the form of crime-solving quotas in the promotion and performance evaluation for law enforcement officials, investigative police officers, prosecutors or judges. Such incentives can also result from torture-tainted evidence being neither challenged nor excluded from criminal proceedings. The participants also highlighted the need to ensure that torture is not used to obtain confessions, and the need to address the issue of overreliance on confession evidence.

“In the field of torture prevention, traditionally, a strong focus is placed on the establishment and implementation in law and practice of procedural safeguards, as well as on the treatment of prisoners and conditions of detention,” said Stephanie Selg, ODIHR Adviser on Torture Prevention. “Much less has been said and done about why torture still happens and what the existing incentives are. These questions should be addressed to assist states in living up to their commitment to eradicating torture and other ill-treatment in the OSCE region.”

Jago Russell, Chief Executive of Fair Trials, said: “Coercion is fuelling a vision of criminal justice that is only focused on 'efficiency', creating a conveyor belt of criminal justice that does not respect human rights. Coercion can take numerous forms, beyond torture itself, and can include the abuse of plea-bargaining and pre-trial detention.”

Specific examples of how policing can work without coercion, for instance through investigative interviewing methods, were presented and discussed. The discussion included a consideration of promising legislative measures and reform practices from the Central Asian region and beyond.