Blog post: ‘The Méndez Principles: A Focus on the Exclusionary Rule’

A blog post co-authored by Pavle Kilibarda and Gloria Gaggioli is published at Just Security

Among the main reasons ill-treatment persists in interrogations are inadequate interviewing techniques and the persistent myth that torture works and can produce useful results. International human rights bodies regularly deal with ill-treatment perpetrated in relation to interrogation. This was demonstrated again recently by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment in Ćwik v. Poland on the application of the exclusionary rule to a statement extracted through torture by a criminal gang: the decision is remarkable as the Court expanded the rule to cover information gathered by a non-state actor. The judgment also coincides with growing awareness that interrogation standards are subpar and ineffective in many parts of the world. Setting clear-cut standards backed by empirical evidence is probably the best way of eradicating coercive interrogation in many situations.