Impact case study database

Torture prevention in Latin America is a key policy objective for both INGOs and national and local governments. In particular, these policy actors have prioritized the development of specific policy interventions that reduce the risk of torture of vulnerable groups. In this context, Engstrom’s research impacted the development of policy in the following ways:

Influencing INGO policy design, leading to changes in the law and the establishment of new torture-prevention institutions in Chile and Tunisia

Engstrom’s research made central contributions to the research base of the APT to inform its work, leading to several major policy changes in Chile. The APT’s Secretary-General explains that Engstrom’s findings ( R5, R6) “formed the basis [of] a major review of APT’s strategies and programmatic priorities” ( i). APT’s 2016-2019 Strategic Plan ( ii) “included three interconnected strategies: […] strengthening of legal and policy frameworks; improving detention practices; [and] strengthening public oversight, particularly the crucial role of NPMs” ( i). The APT emphasises that Engstrom’s policy recommendations based on his research in Chile had ‘‘‘catalysing impacts in [their] advocacy work in the country” ( i).

From 2015, APT’s advocacy, lobbying and capacity-building activities in Chile were informed by Engstrom’s research findings ( i), with particular focus on the creation of a Chilean National Torture Prevention Mechanism (NPM) as well as the reform of the country’s criminal code to include an explicit legal definition of the offence of torture. The APT advocated for the reform of Chile’s criminal legislation, highlighting Engstrom’s research findings concerning the potential preventive effects of the criminalisation of torture ( R5, R6). Drawing on Engstrom’s key recommendation (in R5, R6), a series of high-profile APT missions to Chile were aimed specifically at lobbying for the creation of an independent monitoring mechanism to prevent torture and ill-treatment; that is, a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) as stipulated in the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture. As APT’s Secretary-General explains, “[ R5, R6] was presented and discussed at the national level,” in August 2015, in “meetings with then-President Michelle Bachelet, the Ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs, the country’s National Human Rights Institute and the Public Defender” with the express intention of lobbying for the creation of an NPM, on the basis of Engstrom’s research demonstrating the significant role such a mechanism can have in reducing the risks of torture and ill-treatment ( i, iii).

Engstrom’s recommendations featured in press releases: the Public Criminal Defense Office reported on the meeting between the National Defender and APT to assess progress towards the creation of the NPM. The National Defender explained that “What has to be generated internally are protocols for action, follow-up, monitoring and control of all the bodies that have to do with people deprived of liberty and, in general, with anyone who may be a passive subject of torture. We are basically talking about both the police and the Gendarmerie” ( iii). In November 2016, Law 20,968 was adopted, defining the offence of torture in Chilean criminal law. In May 2017, in the context of a visit by an APT delegation, then-President Bachelet signed the legislative project to create an NPM ( iv). APT’s Secretary-General explains that the NPM “was one of Dr Engstrom’s key recommendations coming out of his Chile research” ( 5, 6) ( i).

The APT delegation also conducted a policy seminar with the National Human Rights Institute, informed by Engstrom’s Chile research ( iv). Engstrom’s research set the terms of these conversations. As the APT explained: “the APT visited Chile to promote the results of the recent independent investigation [of which R6 is a part], commissioned by the APT, to determine the effectiveness of torture prevention measures worldwide” ( iv). At this meeting “The Director of the NHRI presented the recent measures taken to reduce the risk of torture in the country. These included the recent criminalization of torture, the reform of the military justice system, and the new NPM law. The investigation [ R6] identified that the lack of these measures [is] one of the greatest obstacles to the prevention of torture in Chile” ( iv). In the National Human Rights Institute press release announcing that they had been designated as Chile’s NPM, the INDH referenced the APT publication (from which R6 is drawn), explaining that: “This found that the most important measure of all to prevent torture is the application of safeguards during the first hours and days after a person's arrest. Also, notifying the family and having access to an independent lawyer and doctor have a significant impact on reducing the risk of torture. Furthermore, the effective and constant investigation of complaints of torture, the prosecution of torturers and the creation of independent monitoring bodies are also key in reducing this crime” ( iv). The APT’s sustained advocacy work, informed by Engstrom’s research, “led to the final adoption of the law designating the Chilean National Human Rights Institution as NPM [in] April 2019” ( i).

Furthermore, as a result of Engstrom’s research on torture prevention in Chile ( R6), and independent monitoring institutions in Latin America more generally ( R1, R2), APT commissioned Engstrom to prepare a report highlighting best practice that other countries, specifically Tunisia, could consider. That report Coherence of Oversight Systems: independent human rights institutions in Latin America ( v) highlighted the importance of independent monitoring bodies and contributed to the creation of an NPM in Tunisia in 2019. APT’s Secretary-General explains: “This report contributed to policy debates regarding the establishment of the [country’s NPM] as well as the creation of a National Human Rights Institution in Tunisia in 2019” ( i).

Building capacity and shaping government practice in Chile

Engstrom’s research also led to a series of capacity-building activities in Chile that have shaped policy. From April to September 2014, Engstrom facilitated a total of 38 policy briefings focusing on his research findings and policy recommendations ( R5, R6) in three regions of Chile (Santiago, Valparaiso and Temuco), with elected officials and policymakers from all relevant state institutions, including the Minister of Justice, Members of the Supreme Court, the National Prosecutor, Ministry of the Interior, the police force and prison service, and the Director of the National Human Rights Institute. In September 2014, Engstrom organised a one-day policy workshop at the Instituto de Estudios Judiciales, a training school for Chile’s national judiciary in Santiago, where he presented his research findings and policy recommendations to 32 representatives from Chile’s investigative police, the public prosecutor, the public defender, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the forensic services, the Gendarmeria, the Ministry of Justice, the National Human Rights Institute, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In May 2019, Engstrom conducted a series of follow-up briefings to review policy and institutional developments, focusing on the operationalisation of Chile’s NPM, with relevant authorities including the National Human Rights Institute, the Supreme Court Prosecutor, the National Public Defender’s Office, as well as Human Rights Units of the Ministries of the Interior, Justice, Carabineros and the Gendarmeria. In October 2020, Engstrom provided a briefing on his research findings to state and judicial officials in a workshop organised by the regional office in Los Ríos of the National Human Rights Institute.

These briefings influenced institutional practices and new torture prevention strategies in Chile. For example, the former Director of Human Rights of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, briefed in 2014, confirmed that Engstrom’s research ( R5, R6) was of “great relevance” and provided “a very valuable instrument” in his work not only in Chile, but also his work as a member of the UN Human Rights Committee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ( vi). Similarly, the legal advisory services of the Chilean Congress asserted that Engstrom’s research ( R6) constituted “a significant contribution to legislative work in our country” and is used directly when the Library prepares “technical reports to support the work of the congressmen” on the topic of torture prevention ( vii). The National Public Defender’s Office, briefed in 2019, also explained that Engstrom’s research ( R6) “contributed as input to the evaluation of our institutional practices, as well as to the design of new strategies for the prevention of torture”. As well as this, it “allowed us to understand that it is necessary to establish inter-institutional coordination with the incumbent actors, for which reason we are currently working directly with the penitentiary administration” ( viii). Chile’s National Human Rights Institute also confirmed the impact of Engstrom’s research findings in their current work, particularly in strengthening coordination between different institutional actors, capacity-building of state officials, as well as the operationalisation and effective decentralisation of Chile’s National Preventive Mechanism. His research ( R6) was an important ‘common thread’ for study and discussion at a 2020 workshop on torture prevention for ‘justice officials, members of the Public Ministry, the Investigative Police and other institutional entities’ in Los Ríos. This was an important opportunity for participants to debate and discuss national and regional responses to torture, in which Engstrom’s research played a central role. As a representative of the National Human Rights Institute explained, “Agreeing with the conclusions of the APT project, [participants] argued that multidimensional mechanisms are needed to prevent torture, in which the Chilean judicial system, and particularly the penal system, has room for improvement” ( ix). As this shows, his research has shaped the understanding and treatment of torture prevention in Chile.

Overall, then, since 2014 Engstrom’s research on torture prevention has clearly and demonstrably impacted the work of the APT in its efforts as an INGO to shape the policy landscape of Chile and Latin America more generally. It has also allowed him to play a role in developing the capacity of the Chilean state in training its officials in the area of torture prevention and led to a change in law in Chile, the designation of a NPM in Chile in 2019 and the creation of a National Human Rights Institution in Tunisia in 2019.