UN torture prevention body announces visits for 2025 and adopts General Comment

GENEVA (1 July 2024) — The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has announced plans to visit Afghanistan, Burundi, France, and Mexico in the first half of 2025, and confirmed upcoming visits to Bolivia, Nigeria, Greece, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the second half of 2024.

More visits will be announced for 2025 following the SPT’s next meeting in November. Already in 2024, the Subcommittee has visited Gabon, Honduras, Albania, and Mongolia.

Under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), the SPT is mandated to assess the conditions of people deprived of their liberty through visits to various settings, such as prisons, police stations, psychiatric hospitals, closed refugee camps and immigration detention centres. The SPT also collaborates closely with States’ National Prevention Mechanism (NPM), public authorities and civil society organisations to enhance preventive measures.

During its June session in Geneva, the SPT also adopted its first General Comment on the definition of a place of deprivation of liberty, with an advanced unedited version set to be available in late July. This follows extensive consultations involving more than 70 written submissions and a general discussion with participants representing States parties, NPMs, civil society organisations and academics. The general comment sets out the need to ensure independent monitoring bodies, including the SPT and NPMs, are granted comprehensive access to places of deprivation of liberty.

“There has been a proliferation of facilities, installations, locations, places and situations where a person is unable to leave at will, be it in relation to the criminal justice system or administrative, military, migration, healthcare, social care or other contexts,” explained Suzanne Jabbour, the SPT Chairperson.

“All these places fall under the jurisdiction or control of a State. They might be run by private actors, be officially recognised as places of deprivation of liberty, or be completely informal settings. The adoption of SPT’s first general comment is seminal in bringing clarity to authorities, national preventive mechanisms, civil society and all other relevant actors, that all such places must be subjected to regular independent monitoring,” she added.

The SPT also reviewed and recommended several projects for the OPCAT Fund, which supports the implementation of SPT recommendations and NPM initiatives.

“There is an urgent need to support the OPCAT Fund, which is facing significant financial challenges and risks soon ceasing its functions. It helps States parties, NPMs and others implement our recommendations and improve the torture prevention system. I appeal to all States, international organizations, companies, and individuals alike to contribute to the Fund,” the SPT Chairperson said.

The SPT has also updated the list of States parties whose compliance with their obligations under Article 17 of the OPCAT is substantially overdue, and added Madagascar, which has not established its NPM despite ratifying the OPCAT in 2017. The list also includes Belize, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nauru, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Sudan, and the State of Palestine.

Under the OPCAT, States are obliged to establish their NPM within one year of ratification. The SPT revises this list at every session, adding States that are significantly overdue, as well as removing those that designate them, while providing support to States in fulfilling this obligation.