UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture

The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture ( English Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture , SPT ) is a UN treaty body , the compliance with the provisions of the Optional Protocol (OPCAT) to the UN Convention against Torture monitors (CAT), which is a preventive system of visits in the prisons of the ratifying states. This established an international system for inspecting places of detention in order to prevent detainees from being treated inhumanely, which would make rehabilitation more difficult. To date, 83 states have ratified the protocol, making the committee responsible for these states. The UN Sub-Committee SPT corresponds to the European Commission for the Prevention of Torture , which in turn is based on the European Convention against Torture .

task

The UN Sub-Committee SPT is a non-judicial mechanism that monitors the implementation of the Convention in the member states. It started work after the Optional Protocol came into force in February 2007. Its tasks consist, on the one hand, of independently carrying out visits to places of detention in the member states of the Optional Protocol; on the other hand, it supports and advises the National Preventive Mechanisms (NPM) in their work. He has a general right to visit all places where people are deprived of their liberty. He makes recommendations and suggests measures to improve the deprivation of liberty. Disregarding his recommendations has no consequences. During its visits, the UN subcommittee is in direct dialogue with government officials, prison staff, lawyers, doctors and the victims themselves. The working methods and the information collected are subject to the principle of confidentiality. The last inspection visit to Germany was on April 8 and 12, 2013. The SPT then pointed out to Germany in an unusually harsh manner that the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture in Wiesbaden did not meet the requirements of international law.

Members of the SPT Committee

The committee is composed of 25 independent experts from the fields of law, medicine and the penal system, each proposed by the contracting states of the Optional Protocol and elected by the contracting states with a simple majority. They are elected for four years, with half of the members being replaced every two years; Re-election is possible.

Surname	country	Until on
Mari Amos	Estonia	December 31, 2018
Hans-Jörg Viktor Bannwart	Switzerland	December 31, 2020
Arman Danielyan	Armenia	December 31, 2018
Marija Definis-Gojanovic	Croatia	December 31, 2018
Satyabhooshun Gupt Domah	Mauritius	December 31, 2020
Malcolm Evans	United Kingdom	December 31, 2020
Roberto Michel Feher Perez	Uruguay	December 31, 2018
Emilio Gines Santidrian	Spain	December 31, 2018
Maria Dolores Gomez	Argentina	December 31, 2020
Lorena Gonzalez Pinto	Guatemala	December 31, 2018
Gnambi Garba Kodjo	Togo	December 31, 2018
Petros Michaelides	Cyprus	December 31, 2020
Kosta Mitrovic	Serbia	December 31, 2020
Aisha Shujune Muhammad	Maldives	December 31, 2018
Radhia Nasraoui	Tunisia	December 31, 2018
Abdallah Ounnir	Morocco	December 31, 2020
Margarete Osterfeld	Germany	December 31, 2020
June Caridad Pagaduan Lopez	Philippines	December 31, 2020
Catherine Paulet	France	December 31, 2018
Zdenka Perovic	Montenegro	December 31, 2020
Haimoud Ramdam	Mauritania	December 31, 2020
Aneta Stanchevska	North Macedonia	December 31, 2018
Nora Sveaass	Norway	December 31, 2018
Felipe Villavicencio Terreros	Peru	December 31, 2018
Victor Zaharia	Moldova	December 31, 2020

Web links

• UN subcommittee at the Institute for Human Rights
• SPT website
• OPCAT in German

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alphabetical list of countries that have acceded to the OPCAT Optional Protocol (including date of ratification)
2. ↑ Controls of the SPT
3. ↑ Press release UN reprimand to Germany
4. ^ Report on the visit of the subcommittee in Germany from April 2013
5. ^ Members of the SPT subcommittee . Retrieved June 8, 2017.