On 10th December 2021, Latvia acceded to the OPCAT and the treaty will come into force in the country on the 9th of January 2022. Latvia is the 91st state to join the OPCAT. Latvia had begun to prepare for the establishment of their National Preventative Mechanism in...
The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) published new advice to state parties to OPCAT and National Preventative Mechanisms regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Among its recommendations were...
The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has issued advice for state parties and national preventative mechanisms on how to adhere to their OPCAT commitments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The subcommittee reminded state parties that the prohibition of torture and...
Based on a presidential decree issued in June, Brazil’s multi-body national preventive mechanism will no longer be remunerated for work relating to the mechanism. This will detrimentally affect their capacity to conduct visits to places of detention, as well as their...
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) had welcomed a cabinet decision to refer the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) to parliament for ratification. The SAHRC notes, in...
The ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture by Iceland brings the number of states who have ratified the treaty to 89. Following amendments to the law on the Parliamentary Ombudsman in Iceland in December 2018, aimed at bringing it into...
