Survey to asses human rights

PANAMA. The People’s Defender Office through the Prisoners’ Human Rights Office is carrying out a survey in Panama’s detention centers to find out how many incidents of torture and mistreatments occur in the prisons

The survey was made by the Detention System General Directory and the People’s Defender Office.

The document was discussed by the Institutional Commission created to follow the recommendations made by the Human Rights Committee to the government during the rendition of its report about the compliance of the Political, Social, Economic and Cultural Rights Pact.

According to the Prisoners’ Human Rights Office, the survey will be given to 326 inmates, which represents three percent of the country’s jail population of 10,296 and the results will be analyzed over the next few months.

The chief of the Prisoners’ Human Rights Supervision Office, Sharon Diaz said: “The survey will try to demonstrate with a scientific test the importance of the ratification of the Anti-torture Protocol Convention and its implementation through local norms as recommended by Human Rights Committee to the Panamanian State.

The application of the initiative will be announced at the next Central American Human Rights Prosecutors Encounter that will on July 30 in Panama.

The Public Defender, Ricardo Julio Vargas will present three reports about health, alleged acts of torture, inhumane, degrading and cruel treatment in the jails and the indigenous groups within the detention centers, all of them written to assess the precarious situation of the detention system in Panama.