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UN torture prevention body to revisit Kazakhstan

23 March 2023

GENEVA (23 March 2023) – The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will conduct its second visit to Kazakhstan from 26 March to 1 April to assess progress in implementing the Subcommittee’s recommendations following its first visit in 2016.

“This second visit demonstrates our continued commitment to assisting Kazakhstan in carrying out its torture prevention policy, as well as the importance of implementing our previous recommendations,” said Jakub Czepek, Head of the delegation.

“Seven years ago, we urged Kazakhstan to focus more on the rehabilitation of prisoners rather than punishment. We are now returning to examine if the country has made any improvement in protecting people deprived of their liberty against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” he added.

Ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in 2008, Kazakhstan is one of the 92 States parties to the Optional Protocol. The SPT is mandated to visit all States parties to the OPCAT.

The SPT delegation will carry out unannounced visits to prisons, detention centres, and other places where people are deprived of liberty. It will also meet with Government officials, members of the independent national monitoring body, officially known as the national preventive mechanism (NPM), civil society representatives and other UN agencies.

At the end of the visit, the SPT will present its confidential preliminary observations to the Government of Kazakhstan.

The SPT delegation will be composed of Jakub Czepek, Head of the delegation, (Poland), Nika Kvaratskhelia (Georgia), Zdenka Perović, (Montenegro), and Anica Tomsic (Croatia).

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact:

In Astana, Kazakhstan -

Armen Avetisyan at
armen.avetisyan@un.org

In Geneva -

Vivian Kwok at 
vivian.kwok@un.org, or UN Human Rights Office Media Section at ohchr-media@un.org

Background:

The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture monitors States parties’ adherence to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, which to date has been ratified by 92 countries. The Subcommittee is made up of 25 members who are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Subcommittee has the mandate to visit States that have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, during the course of which it may visit any place where persons may be deprived of their liberty and assist those States in preventing torture and ill-treatment. The Subcommittee communicates its observations and recommendations to States through confidential reports, which it encourages countries to make public.

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