Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture
The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) (2006) is an important addition to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (1984). It establishes an international inspection system for places of detention modelled on the system which exists in Europe since 1987 (Committee for the Prevention of Torture).
The idea for this scheme of torture prevention goes back to the Swiss Committee for the Prevention of Torture (today Association against Torture, APA), founded 1977 by Jean- Jacques Gautier in Geneva. It envisaged the establishment of a world-wide system of inspection of places of detention, which later took the form of an Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984). For a long time, however, the necessary support for such an optional protocol was not forthcoming. As a consequence, the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) had at its disposal only relatively weak instruments: it could analyse and discuss the self-reports of the respective governments and create the institution of a Special Rapporteur on Torture. But neither CAT nor its Special Rapporteur had the power to visit countries, let alone inspect prisons, without the respective government's permission. In 1987, the Council of Europe realized the original idea on a regional level with its European Convention for the Prevention of Torture. On this basis, the European Committtee for the Prevention of Torture has demonstrated that regular visits, reports and recommendations to the governments as well as the publication of these reports and the governments' reactions the viability of this model. This in turn led to a breakthrough on the level of the United Nations: OPCAT was created and opened for signatures on Januar 9, 2003 by the UN General Assembley. After ratification by the required number of states the Optional Protocol came into force on Juni 22, 2006. By the end of February 2007, 35 states have signed and ratified OPCAT (amongst which Albanien, Argentina, Armenia, Benin, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Honduras, Liberia, Mexcico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Swedden, United Kingdom). Some others have signed, but not yet ratified (Austria, Germany, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey). The following states have neither signed nor ratified the Optional Protocol: Australia, China, Iran, Irak und die USA. For updates see the APT Web Page.