UN Torture prevention body to re-visit Gabon

GENEVA (7 March 2024) – The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will visit Gabon for the second time from 10 to 16 March to examine how its previous recommendations have been carried out in the country.

“We are pleased to return to Gabon to assess the progress of the recommendations we put forth in our 2014 report following the initial visit in 2013, said Abdallah Ounnir, who will chair the four-member delegation.

“We welcome Gabon’s decision to set up an independent national torture prevention mechanism (NPM). It is particularly important for us to revisit the country now when the establishment of the NPM is in the final stage,” Ounnir said, adding, “We look forward to providing further advice and assistance at this juncture.”

Gabon ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in 2010. The State party is now in the process of adopting the law establishing its NPM.

During the visit, the SPT delegation will hold meetings with various authorities, including the legislature, judges, and prosecutors, as well as different UN entities and civil society members. After the visit, the SPT will share its report with the Government. The report will remain confidential unless Gabon decides to make it public, as was the case with the first report welcomed by the SPT.

The SPT is mandated to undertake unannounced visits to prisons, detention centres, police stations, psychiatric hospitals, and any other places where people are deprived of their liberty in all the States parties to the Optional Protocol. To date, the SPT has visited more than 80 countries since the beginning of its mandate in 2007.

The SPT considers that an essential element in preventing torture and ill-treatment is a constructive relationship with States parties and their preventive mechanisms based on the principles of cooperation and confidentiality.

The SPT delegation comprises Abdallah Ounnir (Morocco), head of the delegation, Hameth Diakhate (Senegal), Hamida Dridi (Tunisia), and Julia Kozma (Austria).