Preventing Torture The Role Of National Preventive Mechanisms

This guide was developed in the context of the OHCHR Treaty Body Capacity Building Programme, established by General Assembly Resolution 68/268 to support States parties in building their capacity to implement their treaty obligations, in this case, their obligations under the Optional Protocol. It seeks to respond to key questions frequently asked about National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs), and to explain the four core functions of the mechanisms – visiting, providing advice, enhancing cooperation and educating – which are key to their effective functioning. It includes checklists and other guidance offering practical tools to aid their performance. It aims to assist both States planning to establish or seeking to strengthen their NPMs, as well as the staff of the NPMs themselves.

This guide was developed in the context of the OHCHR Treaty Body Capacity Building Programme, established by General Assembly Resolution 68/268 to support States parties in building their capacity to implement their treaty obligations, in this case, their obligations under the Optional Protocol. It seeks to respond to key questions frequently asked about National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs), and to explain the four core functions of the mechanisms - visiting, providing advice, enhancing cooperation and educating - which are key to their effective functioning. It includes checklists and other guidance offering practical tools to aid their performance. It aims to assist both States planning to establish or seeking to strengthen their NPMs, as well as the staff of the NPMs themselves.

The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) establishes an independent international monitoring committee (SPT) which itself will visit states and places where persons are deprived of their liberty. It also requires states to set up independent national bodies to visit places of detention. This book, drawing upon events held and interviews with governments, civil society, members of UN treaty bodies, national visiting bodies and others, identifies key factors that have shaped the operation of these visiting bodies since OPCAT came into force in 2006. It looks in detail at the background to the adoption of the Protocol, as well as how the international committee, the SPT, has carried out its mandate in its first few years. It examines the range of places of detention that could be visited by these bodies, and the expectations placed on the national visiting bodies themselves. The book also places the OPCAT within the broader system of torture prevention in the UN and elsewhere and identifies a range of trends arising from the different geographical regions. As well as providing an insight into its work, this detailed examination of OPCAT also provides valuable lessons for other new human rights treaties such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, which have similar provisions concerning national mechanisms.

In the past three decades, international and regional human rights bodies have developed an ever-lengthening list of measures that states are required to adopt in order to prevent torture. But do any of these mechanisms actually work? This study is the first systematic analysis of the effectiveness of torture prevention. Primary research was conducted in 16 countries, looking at their experience of torture and prevention mechanisms over a 30-year period. Data was analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Prevention measures do work, although some are much more effective than others. Most important of all are the safeguards that should be applied in the first hours and days after a person is taken into custody. Notification of family and access to an independent lawyer and doctor have a significant impact in reducing torture. The investigation and prosecution of torturers and the creation of independent monitoring bodies are also important in reducing torture. An important caveat to the conclusion that prevention works is that is actual practice in police stations and detention centres that matters - not treaties ratified or laws on the statute book.

A comprehensive insight into the valuable work carried out by one of the Council of Europe’s highly influential mechanisms, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). Since its inception in 1989, specialist members of the CPT (lawyers, prosecutors, prison experts, doctors, psychiatrists, etc.) have visited thousands of police stations, prisons, immigration detention centres, psychiatric hospitals and other places of detention all over Europe, to monitor the living conditions (hygiene, provision of food and drink, health care, etc.) of those being detained. Following these visits, the CPT issues reports suggesting improvements and laying down standards. The purpose of this book is twofold. In the first part, the authors explain the background and origins of the CPT, its membership and modus operandi, as well as how it interacts with other bodies, such as the UN’s Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) and the national preventive mechanisms (NPMs). In the second part, the authors describe the CPT’s key findings and standards in the main situations of deprivation of liberty (police, prison, immigration detention, mental health and social care). In a detailed appendix, the authors provide summaries of the key CPT findings for the 47 states visited by the CPT.

"Published with the support of Austrian Science Fund (FWF): PUB 644-G."