[JURIST] The UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Méndez [official website] on Thursday outlined [press release] the substantial progress Georgia has made in eliminating torture and poor conditions in their prisons. But Mr. Méndez stressed that further changes still must be made. According to the report, Georgia’s prison system has improved in the past three years due to extensive legislative policy changes and shifts in the attitudes and mentalities of staff. Mr. Méndez spent eight days in Georgia making unannounced inspections of their detainment facilities and found several encouraging developments. Georgian prisons have effectively eliminated corporal punishment and forced confessions, and overcrowding has been reduced. The Georgian government has also invested in a new infrastructure and provided for prisoners adequate access to food, medical care and phone calls to outside family members. However, Mr. Méndez expressed concern for prisoners who have not yet stood trial and the lack of the presumption of innocence. Mr. Méndez also expressed concern that prisoners are restricted to their cells for 23 hours a day, with only one hour a day in an “unnecessarily restrictive” open space within the prison. Mr. Méndez recommended that the frequency of allowed contacts with the outside be increased, and urged the Georgian government “to ensure there will never be a regression to the use of torture.” He also called on the country to hold accountable those responsible for torture in the past through prosecutions and convictions, and to award reparations to victims of institutionalized torture.

The torture and ill treatment of prisoners and detainees is still being actively used in countries throughout the world. The progress seen in Georgia was a result of an internationally demanded [JURIST report] investigation into prisoner’s human rights after a video showing prisoners being tortured and raped was released. The investigation implicated Georgia’s former justice minister, and led to him being charged for torture [JURIST report]. However, prisoner torture is a problem worldwide. In October 2013 Mr. Méndez called for the United States to end the indefinite solitary confinement [JURIST report] imposed upon a former Black Panther in 1972, stating that such a long tenure in solitary confinement was not acceptable under human rights law. A year later Mr. Mendez inspected prisons in Ghana [JURIST report] and found them to violate human rights as they were cruel, inhuman and degrading. In April 2014, the UN expressed concern about Iran’s refusal [JURIST report] to afford medical care to political prisoners that were dying in detention. Five months later an open statement by an Arab-rights group accused Egyptian authorities of the torture and sexual abuse [JURIST report] of 52 teenagers who were detained for protesting.