ABSTRACT
The physical or clinical assessment and documentation of injury during visits to places of detention is an important feature of identifying forms of abuse or ill-treatment or torture that may have occurred prior to, or during detention in adults and children. This chapter focuses predominantly on the assessment of the nature and sequelae of physical assault. The Istanbul Protocol provides information on, and an appropriate structure and means of interpretation of, injuries, marks, or scars. The chapter explores physical ill-treatment, the examiner must simultaneously record, document, and assess all psychological ill-treatment and its sequelae. Physical evidence of torture is revealed in a comprehensive examination of the skin. The physical examination must be thorough addressing all marks and injuries, differentiating between acute and chronic injury and providing an explanation for each, even those that are stated as not being due to torture. Asphyxiation or suffocation can cause a variety of injuries, symptoms, and outcomes ranging from no visible injury to death.
