SASOD joins with other civil society organisations and individuals to condemn the recent reports of the torture of a child and an adult who were in police custody. Torture is a violation of fundamental rights under Article 140 of the Guyana Constitution and international human rights standards contained in the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Guyana has directly incorporated into our Constitution.
We call on the Government of Guyana to ensure that the child and the adult who have been tortured receive the best medical attention and psychological support. We are concerned that a doctor witnessed the suffering of the child and we call on the medical profession to clarify their position on the responsibility of doctors to report and to prevent the abuse of children.
The child must not be terrorised further by interrogations as to who committed the abuses against him. The boy has stated that the torturers covered his head.
We believe that the child should be released to his parents’ custody. There is no benefit to the society in keeping him any longer in police custody, especially as he recovers from this trauma.
It is clear from comments made by the Commissioner of Police that there are members of the Guyana Police Force who believe the use of torture is part of their investigation techniques. The continued semantic play over ‘excessive use of force’ and ‘torture’ does not help the leadership of the Guyana Police Force to reform how it deals with suspects.
We recognize too that there are police officers who also abhor the use of violence and torture and hope that their efforts are applauded and that they are not penalised for any action taken to bring police abuses into the public domain.
We endorse the call for a Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances which enable the violation of human rights of prisoners and suspects who are in custody.
Yours faithfully,
Joel Simpson,
Namela Baynes-Henry,
Mark Ross,
Sherlina Nageer
for Society Against Sexual
Orientation Discrimination
