Press releases Treaty bodies

UN torture prevention body to visit Philippines

30 November 2023

GENEVA (30 November 2023) - The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will make its second visit to the Philippines from 3 to 14 December to advise and assist the State party in fulfilling its international commitments to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

“Our main objective is to assess how the authorities have implemented the recommendations of our previous visit in 2015,” said Victor Zaharia, Head of the Delegation. The Philippines ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in 2012.

“We will also assess the treatment of people deprived of their liberty, including detainees in prisons, police stations and other detention facilities, as well as patients in psychiatric hospitals, and examine the existing protection measures against torture and ill-treatment,” he added.

“The Philippines is one of the States parties who are significantly overdue in establishing a national mechanism for torture prevention under the Optional Protocol, and we consider our visit as an opportunity to help the authorities set up the country’s independent monitory body,” Zaharia said.

Under its mandate, the SPT visits States parties, carries out unannounced visits to all detention facilities and conducts confidential interviews with people deprived of their liberty. During each visit, the SPT delegation meets with government officials, the local monitoring body officially known as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), civil society representatives and UN agencies.

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

The SPT delegation will comprise Victor ZAHARIA (Moldova), Head of Delegation, Satyabhooshun Gupt DOMAH (Mauritius), Aisha Shujune MUHAMMAD (Maldives), Martin ZINKLER (Germany) and will be accompanied by two Human Rights Officers from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
 

For media inquiries or for more information, please contact:
In the Philippines: Bardia JEBELI at + 63 95 60 45 36 90/ bardia.jebeli@un.org
In Geneva: Vivian Kwok at vivian.kwok@un.org or UN Human Rights Office Media Section at ohchr-media@un.org

Background

To date, the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture has been ratified by 93 states. States are under the obligation to allow the SPT unannounced and unhindered visits to all places where persons are deprived of their liberty. States Parties should also establish a national preventive mechanism, which should conduct regular visits to places throughout the country where people are deprived of liberty.
The mandate of the SPT is to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons deprived of their liberty, through visits and recommendations to States parties to the Optional Protocol. The SPT communicates its recommendations and observations to States by means of a confidential report and, where necessary, to national preventive mechanisms. However, States parties are encouraged to request that the SPT publish the reports.

The SPT is composed of 25 independent and impartial 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.
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the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture

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