ABSTRACT
We will briefly review key points on how detention conditions can be leveraged as part of interrogation and torture, and the potential impacts of these conditions. In Chapter 4 we examined the detention conditions found to amount to CIDT or torture by tribunals. Each country has domestic legislation that establishes rules regarding the treatment of prisoners and codes of practice. Although they are not uniform and some offer more protection than others, they usually adhere to international standards, which are sometimes deliberately vague – as the Special Rapporteur against Torture (Mendez, 2010) denounced. It is impossible, for instance, to find agreement regarding minimum cell size, or the minimum quantity of food to be provided. Reference texts mostly deal with recommendations (American Bar Association, 2011; Association of Chief Police Officers, 2012; Council of Europe, 2006; Coyle, 2002, 2008; Mendez, 2013; Rodriguez, 2007; UNHCR, 2005). Thus, it is difficult to define psychological torture in detention centres as those aspects which fall outside the authorised legal framework. In spite of this, it is worth reviewing some of the more essential aspects of these international standards and their guidelines regarding the limits of ill-treatment and torture in detention centres.
