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UN Torture prevention body to visit Georgia

05 October 2023

GENEVA (5 October 2023) - The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will conduct its first visit to Georgia from 8 to 14 October to assess the measures taken by the country to protect people deprived of liberty from torture and ill-treatment.

During the mission, the SPT delegation will visit prisons, police stations, detention centres and other facilities. The delegation will meet with government officials, representatives of civil society and the United Nations agencies. The delegation will also hold meetings and conduct a joint visit with the independent national monitoring body, officially known as national preventive mechanism (NPM).

“Georgia ranked second among the Council of Europe’s 46 member States in terms of prison population rate in 2022, according to the Council of Europe’s figures. We hope our visit will assist the State party to enhance its safeguards for the protection of people deprived of their liberty,” said Massimiliano Bagaglini, head of the SPT delegation.

“Besides visiting detention facilities and interviewing detainees, staff and management, we also look forward to sharing our experience with the NPM in Georgia in order to strengthen their important work,” he added.

The SPT is mandated to visit all States Parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), which Georgia ratified in 2005. At the end of the visit, the SPT will present its confidential preliminary observations to the Government of Georgia.

The SPT delegation will be composed of Massimiliano Bagaglini, head of Delegation (Italy), Jakub Czepek (Poland), Julia Kozma (Austria) and María Luisa Romero (Panama). Three officers from the SPT Secretariat will accompany the delegation.

For media inquiries or for more information, please contact:
In Georgia - Armen Avetisyan at armen.avetisyan@un.org, or Vivian Kwok at vivian.kwok@un.org
In Geneva - 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 93 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 people 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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the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture.

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