English - African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
English - African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
English - African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
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of Lesotho Liberati<strong>on</strong> Army, victims are free to claim compensati<strong>on</strong> in Courts of Law.The Government has not yet taken steps to abolish capital punishment. In practicehowever, most death sentences are commuted to life impris<strong>on</strong>ment or l<strong>on</strong>g pris<strong>on</strong>sentences.Since 1992 to date, 6 death sentences have been h<strong>and</strong>ed down by the High Court formurder, e.g. Rex v Beleme CRI/T/76/90, Rex v Tlali Serine CRI/T/90/82, <strong>and</strong>Phumo vs Rex CA/CRU7/90, where the Court of Appeal commuted the death sentenceto 7 years impris<strong>on</strong>ment, in Rex vs Sosolo CRI/T/13/90, the Court of Appeal commuteddeath sentence to 15 years, while in Sekhobe Letsie <strong>and</strong> Another vs Rex CA/CRI/3 <strong>and</strong>4/91, the death sentence was commuted to life in respect of the sec<strong>on</strong>d accused.ARTICLE 5Secti<strong>on</strong> 8 (1) of the C<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong> provides that no pers<strong>on</strong> shall be subjected to torture orto inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment. Subsecti<strong>on</strong> (2) further providesthat nothing c<strong>on</strong>tained in or d<strong>on</strong>e under the authority of any law shall be held to beinc<strong>on</strong>sistent with or in c<strong>on</strong>traventi<strong>on</strong> of this secti<strong>on</strong> to the extent that the law in questi<strong>on</strong>authorises the inflicti<strong>on</strong> of any descripti<strong>on</strong> of punishment that was lawful in Lesothoimmediately before the coming into operati<strong>on</strong> of this C<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>. The Government isc<strong>on</strong>cerned about torture, cruel <strong>and</strong> inhuman or degrading punishment To this end thesecurity forces are being sensitised about prohibiti<strong>on</strong> of torture, as was the case duringthe Nati<strong>on</strong>al Seminar <strong>on</strong> <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>and</strong> Democracy; <strong>and</strong> the in-service trainingcourses for police <strong>and</strong> pris<strong>on</strong> officers, organised under the auspices of the Support for<strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>and</strong> Democracy Project. [See annexure Nati<strong>on</strong>al Seminar Report <strong>and</strong> InService Training Reports].This issue of torture has been debated in several fora in Lesotho, <strong>and</strong> it has beenrecommended that as a means of eradicating torture, by the police <strong>and</strong> security forces, the<str<strong>on</strong>g>Commissi<strong>on</strong></str<strong>on</strong>g>er of Police should not <strong>on</strong>ly invite torture, victims to lodge complaints, butmust ensure that informati<strong>on</strong> pertaining to the m<strong>on</strong>ey paid out to torture victims isdisseminated to the general public. It was also recommended that when the<str<strong>on</strong>g>Commissi<strong>on</strong></str<strong>on</strong>g>er of Police deals with torture complaints, the public ought to be invited <strong>and</strong>the Law Society should be represented at such hearings. This is yet to materialise.It is also Government's intenti<strong>on</strong> to ratify the C<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong> Against Torture in the not fardistant future.The establishment of a <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> Unit <strong>and</strong> related structure, within the Ministty o fJustice <strong>and</strong> <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong>, as indicated above is instrumental in this regard./I 0