Event discussed standrds to conduct interviews with suspects and victims in the criminal justice field
Psychology professor Lilian Stein was one of the Latin American guests of the Roundtable Meeting on Developing a Model for Investigative Interviewing by Law Enforcement Officials and Attendant Procedural Safeguards, sponsored by the Office of High Comissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, in partnership with the Center for Human Rights of the Washington College of Law of American University and by the United Nations Police. Edson Baldan, from the São Paulo Police Academy, joined Dr. Stein at the event, which was held in New York, at the office of the European Commission in the UN.
The event discussed ideas for the implementation of standards to be adopted by all UN member states with an eye to the conduction of interviews with suspects and witnesses / victims by law enforcement officials. “The idea is to produce better evidence and avoid coercive practices, such as torture”, says Lilian. This kind of investigative interviews is based on scientific papers produced in the area of Investigative Psychology and have been adopted by several UN member states.
The roundtable meeting brought together around 30 people, representing several international agencies and the UN itself. Among the guest were Andrew Gilmour, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights; and Juan E. Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Dr. Stein has played a pioneering role, for more than 15 years, in researching and providing extension activities on investigative interview techniques and forensic psychology.
