OMCT welcomes the inaugural session of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture

Geneva, 20 February 2007 – The International Secretariat of OMCT welcomes the inaugural session of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (Subcommittee) aiming to lay the groundwork of its future work.

The Subcommittee was established in accordance with Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture, which entered into force in June 2006. The Protocol aims to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by establishing a system of regular visits to all places of detention. These visits will be carried out by independent “national preventive mechanisms” which States parties undertake to establish or designate within one year of accepting the Optional Protocol, and by the new international expert body, the Subcommittee. Both the international and national bodies will conduct regular visits to any place of detention and can hold private interviews with persons of their choice.

As stated by Mr. Eric Sottas, Director of OMCT, “this new body will enable to further prevent cases of torture by allowing the ten members of the Subcommittee to visit, unannounced, places of detention in countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol and will there of be a complementary tool to the existing United Nations framework to combat torture.”

Thirty-two States parties have ratified the Optional Protocol: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.

For further information, please visit the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/opcat/index.htm