17 July marks World Day for International Justice, a day to highlight the work done to support justice around the world as well as promote the rights of victims.
Following a recent UN press release in which experts, including the Law School’s Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, called for justice for victims of torture, Professor Evans spoke about the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture delegation’s upcoming visit to inspect places of detention in Australia.
Following last month's press release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) announced it would visit six countries, including Australia and Nauru, to inspect places of detention.
Ahead of the visit, Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, Chair of the SPT and Deputy Director of the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC) at the University of Bristol Law School, was quoted extensively in an article published by The Guardian on 4 July. In the article, titled “UN inspectors primed for 'unfettered access' to Australian detention centres”, Professor Evans spoke of the need for unannounced access to any place of detention where people might be deprived of their liberty.
Sites of inspection could include prisons, police stations, psychiatric hospitals, social care institutions, and immigration facilities.
It will be the SPT’s first visit to Australia to scrutinise places of detention since Australia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) in December 2017. Under the Optional Protocol States parties are obliged to set up an independent national preventive mechanism with a mandate to make unannounced visits to any place of detention to consider how best to prevent torture.
In an interview with Australia’s ABC Radio last week, Professor Evans discussed the need to be strategic during the SPT's visit, emphasising the importance of the establishment of a national mechanism:
“We will naturally have a particular interest at a slightly more systemic level with the establishment of the national preventive mechanism, because this is the key element of the protocol; we can only visit now and then, but an effective national mechanism will be doing this job on a day in, day out basis, and we’ll be liaising with it once it's in place. So it’s a hugely important thing, and we’re very keen to work with Australia to get a good mechanism in place as quickly as possible.”
Listen to the full ABC Radio interview online.
Further information
Sir Malcolm Evans is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol. He served as Head of the School of Law (2003-2005) and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law (2005-2009). Sir Malcolm is a renowned authority in the field of international law of the sea and international human rights protection, particularly torture and torture prevention and freedom of religion or belief. In 2009, he was elected member of the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and in 2010 elected as Chairperson. He is also a member of the UK Foreign Secretary’s Human Rights Advisory Group.
The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) is a treaty body established in February 2007, comprising 25 independent experts. It has a preventive mandate focused on an innovative, sustained and proactive approach to the prevention of torture and ill treatment, and monitors States parties’ adherence to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture which to date has been ratified by 90 countries.
The Subcommittee is made up of 25 members who are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Subcommittee has a mandate to undertake visits to States parties, during the course of which it may visit any place where persons may be deprived of their liberty.
