Atlas of Torture Project

Based on his fact-finding and consultations with state and non-state actors, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT) presents country specific recommendations addressed to the respective governments, the security services, non-state actors as well as to the international community on how the situation of torture and ill-treatment can be improved.

The country specific reports and recommendations are a comprehensive and important tool to raise awareness, to help national and international actors to direct reform and capacity development efforts and to support civil society in promoting the fight against torture and impunity. Among international human rights experts, there is overwhelming consensus that the recommendations of the UNSRT merit a rigorous follow-up to ensure that the insights gained are not lost and indeed translated into strengthened preventive efforts and tangible improvements for detainees. However, no regular in-country follow-up is currently foreseen under the UNSRT's mandate, nor does the United Nations human rights system have the means to provide for systematic follow-up through other programmes.
Precisely to fill this gap, the outgoing UNSRT, Manfred Nowak, and his team of experts have developed the Atlas of Torture project by proposing a set of activities designed to strengthen the implementation of the UNSRT's recommendations in selected countries.

The project is funded by the European Commission under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) and will be implemented in five countries during a period of three years.

Further information on the Atlas of Torture project.

Links:
4th time visit in Paraguay in the framework of the "Atlas of Torture" project
Atlas of Torture Project - Paraguay

Atlas of Torture Website

The website “Atlas of Torture” is a project of the “Human Dignity and Public Security”-Team at the BIM. It intends to provide an objective overview of the situation of torture and ill-treatment around the world. The “Atlas of Torture” pursues a country-specific as well as a cross-cutting thematic approach. The project's purpose is to

• raise awareness of the legal framework governing the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment;
•  compile information on states' (non-)compliance with their obligations under international law to prevent, criminalise, investigate and prosecute cases of torture and ill-treatment;
• analyse the underlying structural (socio-economic, political, legal etc.) causes contributing to the continuing practice of torture.