（ジュネーブ発　3月20日）

SOSトーチャー国際事務局はインドにおける以下の状況に関して皆様の緊急の働きかけをお願いします。

＜事件の概要＞

SOS トーチャー国際事務局はSOSトーチャーネットワークメンバーである組織研究教育センター(CORE)より、2008年3月8日に西ベンガル州コルカタ市の州立カルカッタ・パブロフ精神病院の職員が女性患者たちを裸にしていたという情報を入手しました。

情報によると、ある女性患者の娘がアシシ・アチャルヤ医師と一緒に母親に面会した時、病室内の女性患者全員が裸にされていたのを発見しました。職員は、衣類は洗濯中だと説明したということです。

病院職員は事態の深刻さを認めず、西ベンガル州政府保健部もこの申し立てについて何の行動もとらなかったということです。この患者の娘は、この日、母親の状態を見て非常にショックを受けたということです。

国際事務局は、これは非常に弱い立場におかれた人々に対する拷問や虐待に相当する扱いであると危惧し、この病院で起きていることについて徹底した調査を要請します。

国際事務局は、「女性に対する暴力の撤廃に関する宣言」の第4条(b)項が、国家は「女性に対する暴力に関与することを控えること」と規定していることを想起します。カルカッタ・パブロフ精神病院は公立病院であり、病院職員は公務員であるので彼らの行為は直接、州の責任となります。

また国際事務局は、同宣言の第4条(c)項「国家によってなされるか私人によってなされるかを問わず、女性に対する暴力行為を防止し、調査し、および国内法に従って処罰するために相当の注意を払うこと」を指摘します。

＜行動要請＞

　インド関係当局に以下の内容の要請をお願いします。

1．カルカッタ・パブロフ精神病院に入院している女性患者並びに彼女たちの家族の心身の安全を保障するために必要な措置をすべてとること。

2．責任者を裁判に付し、法に基づき刑事あるいは行政処罰を適用できるよう、これら事件について徹底的で中立な調査を保障すること。

3．適切なリハビリテーションと補償が被害者およびその現場を目撃してショックを受けた患者の娘に届くよう保障すること。

4．国内および国際人権基準に沿って、国内における人権尊重と基本的自由を保障するとともに、特に精神病の女性患者に対するこうした種類の虐待を止めること。

＜要請先＞

インド首相: Shri Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister's Office
Room number 152, South Block, New Delhi
Fax: + 91 11 2301 6857

内務大臣: Shri Shivraj Patil
Union Minister of Home Affairs
Ministry of Home Affairs
104-107 North Block, New Delhi 110 001 India
Fax: +91 11 2309 2979

最高裁長官: Justice K. G. Balkrishnan
Chief Justice of India
Supreme Court, Tilak Marg
New Delhi -1
Email: supremecourt@nic.in

国家人権委員会委員長: Justice Rajendra Babu
Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of India
Faridkot House
Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016, Email: chairnhrc@nic.in

国家女性委員会: National Commission for Women
4 Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Marg
New Delhi-110 002
Fax: +91-11-23236154. E-mail: ncw@nic.in

国連大使: Ambassadors:H.E. Mr. Swashpawan Singh
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Geneva)
Rue du Valais 9 (6eme etage)
1202 Geneva
Fax: +41 22 906 86 96, Email: mission.india@ties.itu.int

インド大使館:
Embassy of India in Japan
〒102-0083 東京都千代田区麹町5-7-2 麹町MT31ビル
特命全権大使:ヘマント･クリシャン･シン 閣下
His Excellency Mr. Hemant Krishan Singh

Case IND 200308.VAW
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Inhuman and degrading treatment / Risk of impunity

Geneva, 20 March 2008

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received information and requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in West Bengal, India.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has received information from the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE), a member of the SOS-Torture Network, regarding the case of women patients who were kept in a state of total nakedness by the staff members of the State-run Calcutta Pavlov Mental Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, on 8 March 2008.

According to the information received, while one of the female patients' daughter was visiting her mother with Doctor Ashish Acharya, they found that all the female patients were made to stay naked in the ward. The staff alleged that the clothes were gone for washing.

Subsequently the Hospital staff allegedly diminished the seriousness of their acts and the Health Department of the West Bengal Government has not taken any action with respect to these allegations. The daughter of a patient that was visiting her mother day came under shock in the sight of her mother in this state.

OMCT fears that this incident may be one in a series of abuses that may amount to torture of ill-treatment of extremely vulnerable persons and calls for a thorough investigation into these and other events that may have taken place at the same hospital.

OMCT recalls that the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women states in its article 4(b) that States should itself "refrain from engaging in violence against women". The Calcutta Pavlov Mental Hospital being a governmental hospital, the staff members are considered as State agents and their behaviours engage directly the State's responsibility.

Moreover, OMCT reminds that according to article 4(c) of this Declaration States should "exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons."

Action requested:

Please write to the authorities in India urging them to:

i. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the mentally ill women patients of the Calcutta Pavlov Mental Hospital as well as their family members;
ii. Ensure a thorough and impartial investigation into these events in order to bring those responsible for to trial and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
iii. Guarantee that adequate rehabilitation and compensation is awarded to the victims but also to the daughter of one of the patients regarding the shock she experienced;
iv. Guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards, and especially put an end to this kind of abuses against mentally ill women patients.

Addresses:

- Shri Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister's Office, Room number 152, South Block, New Delhi, Fax: + 91 11 2301 6857
- Shri Shivraj Patil, Union Minister of Home Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, 104-107 North Block, New Delhi 110 001 India, Fax: +91 11 2309 2979.
- Justice K. G. Balkrishnan, Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, Tilak Marg, New Delhi -1, Email: supremecourt@nic.in
- Justice Rajendra Babu, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of India, Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001, Tel: +91 11 230 74448, Fax: +91 11 2334 0016, Email: chairnhrc@nic.in
- National Commission for Women, 4 Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Marg, New Delhi-110 002. Fax: +91-11-23236154. E-mail: ncw@nic.in.
- Ambassadors:H.E. Mr. Swashpawan Singh, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Geneva), Rue du Valais 9 (6eme etage), 1202 Geneva, Tel: +41 22 906 86 86, Fax: +41 22 906 86 96, Email: mission.india@ties.itu.int

Please also write to the embassies of India in your respective country.

*******
Geneva, 20 March 2008.