Role of forensic and medical sciences in the investigation prevention torture and other ill-treatment 2014, para. 60

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Paragraph text: There is a pressing need to step up the overall involvement of forensic medical science across the various sectors of the criminal justice cycle, and where persons are at particular risk, including administrative, pretrial and juvenile detention and psychiatric institutions. If police officers, prison wardens, hospital administrators, prosecutors and judges were under a legal obligation to request proper forensic medical examinations as a standard procedure whenever there are suspicions or allegations of torture or other ill-treatment, victims would be in a considerably stronger position. In addition to their role in prosecution, forensic medical services can also play a transforming role in prevention. As required in the Body of Principles and expanded in the standard-setting Istanbul Protocol, routine medical examinations of detainees after admission to every place of detention create a system of "checkpoints" that minimizes the number of unaccounted cases of torture and renders impossible a shifting of blame and accountability among various detention facilities and authorities.

Body: Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

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