Institutional Structuring of the Doctrine to Prevent Torture and Ill-Treatment: National Prevention Mechanism

Year 2024, Volume: 7 Issue: 12, 15 - 66, 29.02.2024

Muharrem Kılıç

https://doi.org/10.59162/tihek.1430951

Abstract

Abstract
In an ancient historical phrase, violence first manifested as a ‘body massacre’ with different approaches, through the self displaying naked power over the other self. In historical continuity, types of violence formed through archaic reference codes have evolved into mythical and ritualized actions. Physical punishment, as the most powerful tool of the state’s authority produced through the “monopoly of violence”, strengthens the ruling apparatus by instrumentalizing the criminal body. The state, which has absolute power to punish on a contractual basis, uses this authority as a public sign of power. Torture prevention is a “global strategy” that aims to identify the risks of torture and ill-treatment and to create an environment where torture and ill-treatment are less likely to occur. The doctrine of preventing torture has a contractual and institutional upper framework as a product of collective legal mind. The torture prevention doctrine consists of multiple declarations, conventions and additional protocols, human rights jurisprudence and national-constitutional norms.
Declaring the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, which poses an attack on the physical and mental integrity of individuals, to the whole world by international consensus, both at normative and institutional levels, represents an significant paradigmatic approach. In the historical process, increasingly diverse normative fields and sub-institutional mechanisms have been produced around the ‘prohibition of torture’ axis. Thus, universal, regional and national institutional structures with the authority to regularly and/or ad hoc visit places where people are deprived of their freedom have been built. At this point, it is of critical importance that torture prevention policies not only remain at the universal level, but also build local institutional structures and become an integral stakeholder of this policy. As a matter of fact, monitoring and inspecting prisons on a local scale is the most important way to adopt an effective strategy by infiltrating problem areas.

Keywords

torture, ill-treatment, body massacre, body politics, prevention mechanisms, national prevention mechanism

İŞKENCE VE KÖTÜ MUAMELEYİ ÖNLEME DOKTRİNİNİN KURUMSAL YAPILANMASI: ULUSAL ÖNLEME MEKANİZMASI

Abstract

Kadim tarihsel izlekte şiddet ilk olarak, benin öteki ben üzerinde çıplak güç gösterimiyle çeşitlenen araçlarla bir ‘beden kıyımı’ olarak tezahür etmiştir. Arkaik referans kodları üzerinden biçimlenen şiddet türleri, tarihsel süreklilik içerisinde mitselleşen ve ritüelleşen bir eyleme dönüşmüştür. Devletin “şiddet tekeli” üzerinden üretmiş olduğu tahakküm gücünün en önemli aracı olarak bedensel tecziye, suçlu bedenin araçsallaştırılmasıyla iktidar aygıtının gücünü tahkim etmektedir. Sözleşmesel temelde mutlak cezalandırma yetkesine sahip olan devlet, bu yetkesini kamusal bir otorite göstergesi olarak ortaya koymaktadır.
İşkenceyi önleme, işkence ve kötü muamele risklerini tanımlamayı ve işkence ve kötü muamelenin meydana gelme ihtimalinin daha düşük olduğu bir ortam yaratmayı amaçlayan ‘küresel bir strateji’ olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. İşkenceyi önleme doktrini kolektif hukuksal aklın bir ürünü olarak sözleşmesel ve kurumsal üst çerçeveye sahiptir. Birden fazla bildirge, sözleşme ve bunlara ek protokoller, insan hakları yargılamasının içtihatları ve ulusal-anayasal normlar bir bütün olarak işkenceyi önleme doktrinini oluşturmaktadır.
Bireylerin bedensel ve ruhsal bütünlüğüne saldırı niteliğindeki işkence ve kötü muamelenin yasaklanmasının, tüm dünyaya gerek normatif gerekse de kurumsal düzlemde uluslararası uzlaşıyla deklare edilmesi önemli bir paradigmatik yaklaşımı temsil etmektedir. Tarihsel süreçte, ‘işkence yasağı’ ekseninde giderek çeşitlenen normatif alanlar ve alt-kurumsal mekanizmalar üretilmiştir. Böylelikle kişilerin özgürlüklerinden yoksun bırakıldıkları yerlere düzenli ve/ya ad hoc ziyaret yetkisini haiz evrensel, bölgesel ve ulusal kurumsal yapılar inşa edilmiştir. Bu noktada işkenceyi önleme politikalarının yalnızca evrensel düzeyde kalmayıp yerel kurumsal yapıların da inşa edilerek bu politikanın ayrılmaz bir paydaşı haline getirilmesinin kritik önemi haizdir. Nitekim yerel ölçekte hapishanelerin izlenmesi ve denetlenmesi, sorunlu alanlara sızarak etkili bir strateji benimsemenin en önemli yoludur.

Keywords

işkence, kötü muamele, beden kıyımı, beden politikası, önleme mekanizmaları, ulusal önleme mekanizması

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