Role of forensic and medical sciences in the investigation prevention torture and other ill-treatment 2014, para. 49
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Regarding the probative value of documentary evidence, a judicial body typically examines its relevance and reliability. Once a minimum threshold of expertise is established, the expert testimony is admissible and the Court will assess whether the evidence is persuasive. The European Court of Human Rights has specifically focused on the promptness of the examination, its level of detail, and whether it could be relied on as being collected independently. This entails the promptness and the surrounding circumstances of the examination, free access to medical records, and no interference by police or other State officials with the work or the independence of the medical examiner. The Special Rapporteur notes that it is the exception that victims are examined shortly after the torture actually happened. More commonly, while the victim is in custody, the State often is the only one in a position to undertake examinations and in these circumstances, examinations are frequently conducted that are neither independent nor impartial or victims are examined only after alleged victims manage to get released from detention and some even flee the country, in which case the lesions have healed, leaving no scars or only a few. Therefore, it is important for the courts to consider in assessing the reliability and relevance of documentary evidence the circumstances in which procurement of that evidence may have been affected or delayed.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Paragraph number
- 49
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