5 The Visiting Mandate of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture
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Malcolm D. Evans
Abstract
Undertaking visits to places of detention sits at the heart of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture. This chapter considers how the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has interpreted and applied its visiting mandate in practice, highlighting the practical problems it can face when seeking to do so. Since the visiting capacity of the SPT is inevitably limited, difficult issues which need to be addressed concern the size and shape of its visiting programme, the choice of countries to be visited and, in particular, the constraints that affect this, many of which are surprising in nature. The chapter also sets out how visits are prepared and announced, and discusses their ‘aftermath’, including the writing of reports and the confidential dialogue that results from them.
Abstract
Undertaking visits to places of detention sits at the heart of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture. This chapter considers how the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has interpreted and applied its visiting mandate in practice, highlighting the practical problems it can face when seeking to do so. Since the visiting capacity of the SPT is inevitably limited, difficult issues which need to be addressed concern the size and shape of its visiting programme, the choice of countries to be visited and, in particular, the constraints that affect this, many of which are surprising in nature. The chapter also sets out how visits are prepared and announced, and discusses their ‘aftermath’, including the writing of reports and the confidential dialogue that results from them.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements vi
- Introduction 1
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The Solution
- What Is Torture? 17
- Why Prevention? 34
- Establishing the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture 49
- What the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture Requires 65
- The Visiting Mandate of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture 84
- The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and National Preventive Mechanisms 102
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The Problem
- Visits: An Insider’s Story 123
- Accepting the Unacceptable 139
- Excusing the Inexcusable 149
- Prescribing the Inappropriate 160
- Working with Fictions 171
- Thinking Positively about Prevention 184
- References 199
- Index 203
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements vi
- Introduction 1
-
The Solution
- What Is Torture? 17
- Why Prevention? 34
- Establishing the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture 49
- What the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture Requires 65
- The Visiting Mandate of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture 84
- The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and National Preventive Mechanisms 102
-
The Problem
- Visits: An Insider’s Story 123
- Accepting the Unacceptable 139
- Excusing the Inexcusable 149
- Prescribing the Inappropriate 160
- Working with Fictions 171
- Thinking Positively about Prevention 184
- References 199
- Index 203
