Torturing or Torturous Environments

This second chapter analyses practical contexts of application of the concept, drawing on reports, studies, or research published in the last 10 years. Special sections are devoted to the analysis of police stations and other places of short-term detention (with a specific study on incommunicado detention in Spain), prisons, and other places of prolonged detention (with a documentary analysis of Evin Prison in Iran), torturing environment conditions in migratory contexts (with analyses of cases from Mexico, Greece, and Spain), and coercion of groups or collectivities (with a detailed analysis of the case of the Rama and Kreol peoples against the Nicaraguan state). Two specific cases are finally described. First, the application of the concept of torturing environments to actions of a discriminatory nature on the part of the state and, in particular, to the intentional creation of environments of poverty, precariousness, and structural violence as a way of coercion. Finally, we analyse the usefulness of the concept and its implementation in the context of human rights defenders, with an examination of the threats and harassment suffered by the CAJAR collective in Colombia. In all these cases, the elements of harm or suffering, intentionality, purpose, and the role of the State as a direct actor or as an actor that fails to act in a preventive or protective manner show the clear connection with the set of values protected by the Convention against Torture. The evidences exposed through the description of the torturing environment may be indicative of ill-treatment or torture, as well as multiple other criminal offences (crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, apartheid, or others).