Individual monitoring to prevent extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of people under arrest

Any situation of conflict or violence within a country brings with it the risk of disappearances and extrajudicial executions: people whom the powers that be would like to neutralize may well face summary execution, die as a result of brutal treatment or be confined in unofficial holding centres without their families being informed of their fate.

In order to prevent disappearances, the identity of people arrested must be established as soon as possible and their cases kept under observation. The ICRC therefore asks to be informed promptly of the arrest of all people deprived of their freedom whom it considers to come within its mandate or who are in danger of disappearing, and to see them without delay. When visiting such prisoners, the ICRC registers their names and all other personal data and transmits them to their families. It can thus keep track of these people throughout their imprisonment, for each time it visits their place of detention it asks to see them again. If this is not possible, it will want to know why, and ask to be informed of the respective prisoner's whereabouts. If a prisoner is transferred, the ICRC will try to visit him or her at the new place of detention. Such visits will continue until the person is released, and individual monitoring may not stop even then, for families sometimes have to be contacted to check that a prisoner really has been released in due and proper form. If the situation so requires, particularly when the ICRC cannot gain access to a person whom it has previously visited, it repeatedly contacts the highest authorities both orally and in writing until it receives satisfactory information as to that person's situation and whereabouts.

The ICRC also contacts the authorities when its delegates are given eyewitness accounts of arrests, or at the request of families who report that a relative is missing.

Registration and notification: a safeguard

The ICRC has, found that the risk of extrajudicial execution or disappearance is frequently greater when the authorities have no reliable system for monitoring the prisoners' presence at, transfer to or release from places of detention. To lessen that risk it stresses the need for such a system; in particular, it recommends that registers be kept or that the authorities in the capital be systematically notified of each arrest, transfer or release. It also points out the advantages to the detaining authorities of doing so, i.e. being able to improve the organization - whether food supplies or security arrangements - of everyday life in places of detention. Delegates have sometimes helped to establish a monitoring system at the national level, for instance by training local officials or providing material assistance. In Peru, the ICRC got the army to notify Lima of all arrests. Last but not least, the ICRC systematically checks information provided by the authorities against the lists it draws up during its visits or eyewitness accounts provided by the population.

A step-by-step approach

The ICRC analyses each item of information gathered by its delegates in the field in order to ensure that it really does see all people who come within its scope. If it feels that it is not being given access to all the prisoners it wishes to see, it contacts the authorities to enquire about them. Its work is therefore not confined to the prisoners it visits, but is also based on statements made to its delegates by people who themselves witnessed an arrest, by the families of missing persons or by prisoners who report that a fellow inmate has disappeared.

Pisoners sometimes tell delegates that they have been held at places which the authorities have not reported to the ICRC. In such cases, the ICRC will negotiate access to the places in question and ask to be systematically informed of their existence. However, if it believes that unofficial detention - and hence the danger of disappearances - may increase if it steps in, it may decide to postpone its intervention. It will nonetheless try, on the basis of any information it can obtain and especially the testimony of credible fellow prisoners, to keep a check on the situation of people detained at such places.

Restoring family contact: a vital task

To maintain decent conditions of detention it is essential to preserve contact between prisoners and their families, not only for psychological reasons but also because the family can provide the prisoner with often vital material support. But family links are sometimes severed by conflict or unrest, or the detaining authority may decide for security reasons to forbid all such contact. The ICRC will then step in to restore it, asking that prisoners be authorized at least to communicate with their kin by means of Red Cross messages (the content of which is restricted to personal and family news), to keep in touch with them and to receive family visits throughout their detention. If necessary the ICRC may, in cooperation with the National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society, provide financial assistance or organize transport to help families to get to the prison, since prisoners are often held thousands of kilometres away from their homes and are otherwise totally cut off from their loved ones. ICRC has facilitated family visits in South Africa. Indonesia, Israel, the occupied and autonomous territories and the Philippines.