Allow access to detention centers: IRCT
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) has called upon states to allow access to detention centers, which it describes will be an effective mechanism to prevent torture.
The most common places for torture to take place are police stations, illegal and secret detention centres, and prisons. States that ratify the Optional Protocol must establish or maintain a national visiting body to carry out visits to places of detention. Experience shows that such a visiting mechanism can have a significant preventative effect on torture, the IRCT said.
Based in Copenhagen, IRCT promotes and supports the rehabilitation of torture victims and the prevention of torture in collaboration with a global network of nearly 200 rehabilitation centres and programmes worldwide.
In a message on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, president of International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), Dr Bhogendra Sharma, urged states that have not yet ratified the UN Convention against Torture to do so.
“The work against torture requires the active support and contribution of all. It starts with governments, as those primarily responsible for and with capacity to prevent torture and provide redress for victims of torture,” said Dr. Sharma, who is also the president of CVICT.
The Convention against Torture provides for the establishment of an independent, international body, the Committee against Torture, with a brief to monitor and promote implementation of the treaty, and to receive, consider and investigate allegations of torture, and to seek the co-operation of states parties in so doing.
The IRCT has also called upon every State Party to the Convention against Torture to ratify the Optional Protocol.
The Optional Protocol provides for an international expert visiting body that will work together with the national visiting mechanisms. In cases where torture or ill-treatment is suspected, the visiting mechanisms will make recommendations to the authorities, thereby assisting the authorities in the process of eliminating torture, the IRCT said. nepalnews.com by June 26 05
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