Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture's statement to the 77th GA session

Chairperson,
Distinguished delegates and colleagues,

I am very pleased to be with you today to present in person the 15th annual report of the UN Subcommittee on prevention of torture (SPT).

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the SPT. It is a good opportunity to take stock of the progress accomplished over these years, and build on it for the upcoming ones.

There are, as of today, 91 State parties to the OPCAT; the latest to join being Latvia, which acceded to the Protocol at the end of 2021, that the SPT welcomes. There are also 13 signatories, and 72 designated national preventive mechanisms (NPM). While these numbers are a significant achievement, let me underline that it is still too few, and more than a fifth of those who ratified the Optional protocol have yet to establish a fully functioning NPM. This is especially true for the 13 State parties in substantial noncompliance with article 17 of the OPCAT.

Much like 2020, the work of the Subcommittee in 2021 was severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. We managed to continue implementing many of its mandated activities in spite of the challenging circumstances: meeting online with stakeholders, organizing workshops and other practical activities with them; providing assistance and guidance, with specific advices to NPMs, State parties, signatories and States in general; strengthening our cooperation with other anti-torture and human rights bodies and organizations; updating and improving COVID-19-related tools and protocols.

The main novelty in 2021 was that we were finally able to resume our visits to the field after nearly two years without any. In November 2021 the SPT carried out a visit to Bulgaria. The planned programme for 2022 is well underway, with visits having been conducted in Brazil, Tunisia, Argentina, Lebanon, Turkey and Ecuador, and with upcoming ones to Australia and Bosnia and Herzegovina until the end of the year.

It is crucial to recall here that the SPT is a visiting mechanism at its heart. Without visits, the Subcommittee loses the most relevant part of its mandate and its most fundamental purpose.

Visits not only aim at assessing the actual situation in places of detention and to propose smart, concrete recommendations on how to address challenges and shortcomings; visits are also the opening of a constructive dialogue and cooperation with the authorities as well as an effective and direct way to support NPMs in their daily preventive work.

I would like to highlight three achievements of our Subcommittee this current year.

In January, the SPT undertook a visit to Brazil for high-level talks, as the government had considerably curtailed the resources and independence of the NPM. In addition to the SPT’s legal opinion issued previously, we are convinced that our visit also contributed for the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil to overturn the President’s decree.

In Tunisia, in April, the delegation was received by the Prime Minister for a very detailed technical meeting, in addition to the reiteration of the commitment of the State to the OPCAT. It was a recognition of the SPT’s importance and role in supporting authorities in the conduct of their preventive efforts with its recommendations.

Most recently, in Türkiye, we conducted several discussions with its authorities, as well as joint visits with the national preventive mechanism to places of detention, reinforcing the latter’s capacity with regards to its mandate and activities.

The cooperation received from the authorities of these three States parties and the national preventive mechanisms during our field visits are concrete examples of our activities, and of the positive impact of SPT visits. All this, we achieved because we were there, on the ground, to observe, to explain, to recall, to discuss, to advise, to advocate.

However, conducting visits and maintaining these dialogues require specific means; for the preparation of visits, for the conduct of the visit in the State party’s places of detention as well as for the follow-up activities.

In the past few years, we have been able to conduct 8 or 9 visits a year, when we should be conducting at least 10 – or even 12 to 15 according to the proposal we have submitted within the framework of the treaty body strengthening process. Less than that would mean visiting a State party only every ten years, and that does not permit that we undertake, in a meaningful way, the noble and novel mandate you gave us.

Even 8 visits are already an achievement in itself given the SPT’s current resources: they have been made possible by the admirable commitment and work of my fellow expert members and of the Secretariat, but it remains chronically understaffed and under-resourced.

It is the responsibility of States to provide the SPT with the appropriate resources, a responsibility they assumed when they, in the first place, adopted the Optional Protocol 20 years ago, and then ratified it. The commitment to uphold the OPCAT’s principles and provisions also means a commitment to ensuring the proper functioning of the SPT.

15 years after its establishment, the SPT is a strong and recognized body. Its unique preventive mandate and activities are an added value to all UN human rights mechanisms, and also serve as an example for the monitoring of human rights in the future. It has shown resilience, flexibility and adaptability, and continues to do so every day.

I hence call upon you, as representatives of States, to provide us with the required support, so that we can continue to strengthen together the efforts of prevention of torture and ill-treatment all around the world.

I thank you for your time and I look forward to answering your questions.