23/6/2006
New Right To Inspect Prisons Included In The UN Treaty On Torture

The UN treaty against torture will now enable visits by independent international and national bodies to prisons.  The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted in December 2005, sets up an international Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture with a mandate to visit places of detention. Following these visits, the Sub-Committee will make recommendations for improvements in the treatment and the conditions of persons deprived of their liberty, and work with relevant authorities to ensure their implementation.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Louise Arbour said : “I call on all other States to become party to the Convention against Torture and the Protocol. “We have waited a long time for this treaty - let us now all work together to make it effective worldwide. “The monitoring mechanisms, both national and international, established in the Optional Protocol are critical new methods of ensuring the protection of detainees around the world against all forms of mistreatment.”