A seminar on torture and international justice opened on Thursday in Dakar, attended by doctors, lawyers, judges, gendarmes, human rights advocates and victims of torture from several African countries, PANA reported.
The meeting was organised by the International Federation of Human Rights and the National Organisation for Human Rights to discuss ways to fight against impunity throughout the continent.
“Despite democratic advances in recent years, the practice of torture still constitutes one of the most important aspects of political life in our countries,” PANA quoted one of the participants as saying.
The seminar’s agenda includes discussing recent cases involving former heads of state accused of torture, including Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, Chad’s Hissein Habre and Mauritania’s Ely Ould Dah.
Participants denounced human rights violations in Africa, citing cases in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Great Lakes region.
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