The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture

Author: Rachel Murray; Elina Steinerte; Malcolm Evans; Antenor Hallo de Wolf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199602193
Published In: August 2011
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

Out of stock

Description
Contents
Author

Details

First book to analyse the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, an important new instrument in the prevention of torture adopted in 2002
Gives a full overview of the role of national preventive mechanisms, which every party to the Protocol must establish, including an examination of what prevention means in this context
Based on three years of empirical research on the Optional Protocol and its impact
The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) establishes an independent international monitoring committee (SPT) which itself will visit states and places where persons are deprived of their liberty. It also requires states to set up independent national bodies to visit places of detention. This book, drawing upon events held and interviews with governments, civil society, members of UN treaty bodies, national visiting bodies and others, identifies key factors that have shaped the operation of these visiting bodies since OPCAT came into force in 2006. It looks in detail at the background to the adoption of the Protocol, as well as how the international committee, the SPT, has carried out its mandate in its first few years. It examines the range of places of detention that could be visited by these bodies, and the expectations placed on the national visiting bodies themselves.

The book also places the OPCAT within the broader system of torture prevention in the UN and elsewhere and identifies a range of trends arising from the different geographical regions. As well as providing an insight into its work, this detailed examination of OPCAT also provides valuable lessons for other new human rights treaties such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, which have similar provisions concerning national mechanisms.

Readership: Scholars and students of international human rights law and international criminal law, and in particular of torture; practitioners, legal advisers and policy-makers involved in torture litigation or the establishment and regulation of national preventive mechanisms.

1: The origins and development of OPCAT

2: Drafting of OPCAT: Towards deadlock 1991-2000

3: The text of OPCAT

4: The Scope of OPCAT

5: The Role of the SPT

6: The Role of NPMs

7: OPCAT within the Broader UN and Regional System

8: Regional Trends towards Ratification and Implementation of OPCAT

9: Conclusion: Emerging Trends and the Future of OPCAT

Appendix I: OPCAT

Appendix II: Rules of Procedure of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture

Appendix III: Guidelines of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in relation to visits to States parties

Appendix IV: Preliminary Guidelines on NPMs

Appendix V: Guidelines on National Preventive Mechanisms

Appendix VI: The approach of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to the concept of prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Appendix VII: Members of the SPT as at January 2011

Appendix VIII: Chronology of States visited by the SPT.

Rachel Murray, Professor of International Human Rights Law, Director of the Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of Bristol, Elina Steinerte, Research Associate, Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of Bristol, Malcolm Evans, Professor of International Law, University of Bristol, and Antenor Hallo de Wolf, University of Groningen

Rachel Murray is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Bristol and Director of its Human Rights Implementation Centre.

Dr Elina Steinerte is a Research Associate at the Human Rights Implementation Centre of the University of Bristol.

Professor Malcolm Evans is Professor of International Law at the University of Bristol.

Antenor Hallo de Wolf is based at the University of Groningen.