The United Nations independent expert on torture today said he was encouraged by recent legal changes in Tajikistan, including the introduction of a new provision defining torture and specifying penalties, but noted that mistreatment of suspects remains common.The UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, called for “sustained effort and commitment from the highest levels of authority and a clear pledge of ‘zero tolerance’ for torture in Tajikistan.

“If there is no recognition that there is a problem with mistreatment, whether systematic or not, mistreatment is not likely to go away,” Mr. Méndez said in anews release at the end of his nine-day mission to Tajikistan, his first to the country. “On the contrary, it is likely to increase as soon as attention shifts to other matters.”

In his preliminary findings, the human rights expert noted that “pressure on detainees, mostly as a means to extract confessions is practiced in Tajikistan in various forms, including threats, beatings and sometimes by applying electric shock.”

He said an awareness-raising campaign on torture, initiated by the Tajik authorities, is a step in the right direction, but noted that it was difficult at this stage to assess the impact of the effort on citizens.

Mr. Méndez also voiced concern over the relatively light penalty of a five-year jail term for a first offender convicted of committing the crime of torture. Such a penalty did not appear to be line with the obligation to treat torture as a serious crime, he said, adding that, “A relatively low penalty does not offer a strong disincentive to commit torture.”

He underscored that “confessions extracted by violence remain the main investigatory tool of law enforcement and prosecutorial bodies,” although the Code of Criminal Procedure in Tajikistan has incorporated a rule that is line with the Convention against Torture, which states that confessions obtained through torture are not admissible in criminal proceeding against a defendant.

“I am unable to say whether the practice is less prevalent or systematic in recent times. I am, however, persuaded that it happens often enough and in a wide variety of settings that it will take a very concerted effort to abolish it or to reduce it sharply,” he added.

Working in an unpaid capacity, independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme.

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today denounced the murders of two Pakistani journalists and expressed alarm over the continued deteriorating security of journalists in the country.“The brutal murders of Tariq Kamal and Murtaza Razvi stand unequivocally condemned,” said the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, in a news release. “Every attempt must be made to bring their killers to justice.”

“These latest killings, coming less than one month apart, highlight once again the dangerous conditions in which journalists in Pakistan work,” she added. “This is cause for alarm and requires urgent action, in the name of press freedom and the rights of citizens to be informed.”

Tariq Kamal was a reporter with a Sindhi language daily published in Karachi. He was reported missing on 7 May, along with a friend, and their bodies were found two days later. According to Kamal’s family, he had left Karachi for another town in the province of Sindh on 3 May to follow up what he described as an ‘exclusive’ news story.

Murtaza Razvi was a well-known columnist and political analyst with the national English language daily Dawn. His body was found strangled and tortured in a Karachi apartment on 19 April.

According to UNESCO, 25 journalists and media workers, including Tariq Kamal and Murtaza Razvi, have been killed in Pakistan since 2002.

Noting that some 800,000 households in Canada are unable to meet their daily food needs, an independent United Nations expert today called on the country to adopt a national right to food strategy.“Canada is much admired for its achievements in the area of human rights, which it has championed for many years. But hunger and access to adequate diets, too, are human rights issues – and here much remains to be done,” the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, said in a news release at the end of an official visit to the country.

“Canada has long been seen as a land of plenty. Yet today one in ten families with a child under six is unable to meet their daily food needs,” he noted. “These rates of food insecurity are unacceptable, and it is time for Canada to adopt a national right to food strategy.”

“What I’ve seen in Canada is a system that presents barriers for the poor to access nutritious diets and that tolerates increased inequalities between rich and poor, and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples,” he added.

Working in an unpaid capacity, independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme.

Mr. De Schutter called on the Canadian Government to convene a national food conference that would clarify the allocation of responsibilities between the federal level, the provinces and territories in order to deliver adequate and affordable diets for all.

He noted three main concerns that need to be addressed in a national food strategy. The first is that a large number of Canadians are too poor to afford adequate diets.

“This is a country that is rich, but that fails to adapt the levels of social assistance benefits and its minimum wage to the rising costs of basic necessities, including food and housing,” he said, noting that 800,000 households are food insecure in Canada.

The second concern is that more than one in four Canadian adults is obese, and almost two thirds of the population is overweight or obese, costing at least $5 billion Canadian annually in health care costs and in lost productivity.

Thirdly, regarding the situation of Aboriginal peoples, Mr. De Schutter called for a reform of the Nutrition North Canada programme that subsidizes retailers to serve remote communities, as well as a structural approach to tackling the socio-economic and cultural barriers to opportunities for those living on reserves that result in their not enjoying fully their right to adequate food.

The Special Rapporteur will present his final report to a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council in 2013.

The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today called for an investigation into the killing of Erick Martínez Ávila, a Honduran journalist and gay rights activist.“I condemn the murder of Erick Martínez Ávila,” UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, said in a news release. “I am deeply concerned about this second journalist killed in Honduras in a month and call on the authorities to bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime against the basic human right of freedom of expression.”

Mr. Martínez Ávila, 32, was a spokesman for Kukulcán, an organization that defends lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. According to Reporters Without Borders, his body was found on 7 May, two days after he had been reported missing. He is said to have been strangled.

“Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy and rule of law and it is essential that journalists be allowed to contribute freely to political and social debate,” Ms. Bokova added.

According to UNESCO, the UN agency charged with defending freedom of expression and press freedom, 19 journalists and media workers, including Mr. Martínez Ávila, have been killed in Honduras since 2009.

In 2010, UNESCO supported training workshops in legal aspects of freedom of expression, access to information and election reporting for 140 journalists and media officers in the Honduras.