Protocol on medico-legal documentation of threats.

Abstract

The use of threats remains prev-alent in law enforcement practices in many parts of the world. In studies with torture sur-vivors, credible and immediate threats have been considered a distinctly harmful method of torture. Notwithstanding this prevalence, there is a considerable degree of difficulty in legally substantiating and establishing harms produced by threatening acts. It is also gen-erally difficult to clearly identify the harms that go beyond the fear and stress inherent (therefore not unlawful) in law enforcement practices. We present a Protocol on Medico-Legal Documentation of Threats. The aim of the Protocol is to improve documentation and assessment of harms so that stronger legal claims can be submitted to local and interna-tional complaints mechanisms. The Protocol has been developed based on a methodology initiated by the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI), REDRESS and the DIGNITY - Danish In-stitute against Torture (DIGNITY) involving: compilation and review of health and legal knowledge on threats; initial drafting by the lead author; discussion among the members of the International Expert Group on Psycholog-ical Torture; pilot-testing in Ukraine by local NGO Forpost; adjustments were made ac-cording to the results of the pilot study. We present the final Protocol and a Quick Interviewing Guide. This Protocol is cognisant of the significance of the specific social, cultural, and political contexts in which threats are made and might be subjected to ad-aptations to specific contexts. We hope that it will improve the documentation of threats as a torture method or as part of a torturing en-vironment, as well as inform efforts on their prevention more broadly.