Paraguay: further visit to security detainees
25-02-2008 News Release 08/34
Buenos Aires (ICRC) – On 21 and 22 February, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited a total of 24 detainees in Paraguay who are being held at the Buen Pastor, the Tacumbú or the high-security prison.
While in Paraguay, the delegates also spoke to senior national authorities about improving prison health services, drawing on the results of a survey carried out by ICRC delegates and Paraguayan officials in 2006 and 2007.
The ICRC does not take a position on the reason for arrest or capture, nor does it comment publicly on its findings. The aim of visiting people detained for security reasons is to check on their physical and psychological health and to ensure that fundamental judicial guarantees are being respected. Delegates interview detainees without witnesses and, if necessary, make representations and recommendations to the relevant authorities regarding treatment, health and other detention issues.
ICRC procedures are based on its long-standing experience of this kind of work; delegates have been making detention visits around the world since 1915. The ICRC repeats its visits regularly and monitors detainees from when they are initially detained until they are released.
For further information, please contact:
Sophie Graven, ICRC Buenos Aires, Tel: +54 11 4515 1118
Lucía Corte, ICRC Buenos Aires, Tel: +54 11 4515 1118 / +54 9 116 254 5358