A top UN expert has said that fully implementing new human rights standards could improve the lives of vulnerable people held in psychiatric hospitals, prisons and other closed institutions in Ireland.
Dr. Silvia Casale, Chair of the United Nations Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture (UN-SPT) was speaking in Dublin today (7 September 2007) at an ICCL international seminar on the prevention of ill-treatment.
“One of the best ways of preventing ill-treatment is through effective oversight of places where people are deprived of their liberty”, Dr Casale said.
“The United Nations can play its part through international monitoring visits by the body that I lead. However, States themselves have an equally important role to play. The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture requires States to have national bodies that can carry out human rights monitoring in a truly effective way. By knitting together international and national oversight, United Nations and national human rights monitors can make a genuine difference to the lives of vulnerable people held in closed institutions” she added.
The seminar is part of an ICCL campaign to persuade the Government to sign up to these new UN standards, and to review the effectiveness of our national human rights monitoring arrangements.
Other speakers at the seminar included Commissioner Suzanne Egan of the Irish Human Rights Commission, who called upon the Irish Government to fully implement the UN Optional Protocol.
“Historically Ireland has shown its commitment to combating torture around the world and the Irish Government brought one of the first cases to the European Court of Human Rights under its prohibition on torture concerning the treatment of detainees in Northern Ireland” said Commissioner Egan.
“This Protocol now calls on Ireland to put in place a preventive system of training and inspections that will help prevent ill treatment in our own places of detention. The Irish Human Rights Commission believes that with ratification Ireland can move to the forefront of preventing ill treatment internationally and we strongly urge the Government to prioritise the establishment of the preventive mechanisms needed to allow ratification” she concluded.
Mr Mark Kelly, Director of the ICCL, emphasised that implementing the Protocol may also require an overhaul of the powers and resources of some existing bodies.
“These new UN standards require that national human rights oversight bodies be genuinely independent, properly resourced and have unrestricted access to places of detention. So it’s far from being a question of Ireland simply handing a piece of paper to the Secretary General of the United Nations. Signing up to these new arrangements will require the Government to show a genuine commitment to provide the necessary resources to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society” he said.
Note to Editors:
What is the OPCAT?
The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 18 December 2002.
The purpose of the Protocol is to prevent ill-treatment by establishing a system of regular visits to places of detention, to be carried out by independent international and national bodies.
What is the relevance of the OPCAT to Ireland?
The Protocol entered into force on 22 June 2006. The Irish Government is making plans to sign the Protocol, but has yet to complete this process. Once Ireland has signed the Protocol, Irish law will need to be changed, so that the Protocol can be ‘ratified’, and given full effect here.
What changes will need to be made to Irish law before the OPCAT can apply here?
The OPCAT sets up a new international monitoring body, the United Nations ‘Sub-Committee for the Prevention of Torture’ (UN-SPT), and requires States to designate or create effective ‘National Preventive Mechanisms’ (NPMs).
The Government has recognised that Irish law will need to be changed in order formally to authorise the SPT and NPMs to carry out their work in an independent way, including by making unannounced visits to places of detention such as Garda stations, prisons, youth detention centres and closed units in psychiatric hospitals.
What is the purpose of the ICCL’s Seminar on the OPCAT?
The purpose of the Seminar is to raise awareness about the implications of the OPCAT for those likely to be most directly affected by it, including senior officials responsible for places of detention (within An Garda Síochána, the Irish Prison Service and Health Service Executive); representatives of bodies that may be designated as ‘National Preventive Mechanisms’ (such as the Irish Human Rights Commission, the Inspectorate of Prisons and Places of Detention, the Garda Ombudsman Commission and the Inspectorate of Mental Hospitals); senior officials in operational ministries (including the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform) and legal practitioners who frequently represent people deprived of their liberty.