7 Visits: An Insider’s Story
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Malcolm D. Evans
Abstract
This chapter seeks to take the reader into the world of a UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) visit, providing a first-hand account of the experience of undertaking preventive visits to places of detention within the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture system: what they feel like and what they can (and do) achieve. It draws attention to some of the practical problems which need to be overcome to exercise an international visiting mandate effectively in what might be a hostile environment and how these might be overcome in practice. Above all, it highlights the remarkable extent to which the SPT has been able to gain access to places of detention because of the way in which it has structured its work.
Abstract
This chapter seeks to take the reader into the world of a UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) visit, providing a first-hand account of the experience of undertaking preventive visits to places of detention within the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture system: what they feel like and what they can (and do) achieve. It draws attention to some of the practical problems which need to be overcome to exercise an international visiting mandate effectively in what might be a hostile environment and how these might be overcome in practice. Above all, it highlights the remarkable extent to which the SPT has been able to gain access to places of detention because of the way in which it has structured its work.
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
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
