The School of Law of Bristol University is hosting a major international conference on the prevention of torture entitled ‘The Optional Protocol to the UNCAT: Preventive mechanisms and Standards’. The event will be held on 19 and 20 April and will bring together high-profile experts and representatives of national institutions from all over the world.
The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is a new international instrument aimed at the prevention of torture through the establishment of national and international bodies vested with powers to visit various places of detention.
Members of these international and national monitoring bodies as well as academics and representatives of various national and international human rights organisations will attend the conference, which will be a platform to debate various issues surrounding the prevention of torture.
Dr Silvia Casale, Chairperson of the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture established under the OPCAT, has observed that the conference “is a unique gathering of experts in preventive monitoring of deprivation of liberty and provides an immensely important opportunity for those of us engaged in carrying out preventive monitoring”.
The importance of the OPCAT and the imminent start of the Subcommittee’s activities prompted the research team at Bristol’s School of Law, headed by Professor Malcolm Evans, an expert on the issue of torture and torture prevention, and Professor Rachel Murray, an expert on national human rights institutions, to host this conference.
The conference will discuss issues related to standards applicable to visiting places of detention, the relationship between the preventive mechanisms established under the OPCAT and other international human rights monitoring bodies, and the particular challenges of visiting non-standard places of detention such as psychiatric institutions or detention centres for refugees.
The event is part of a three-year research project that aims to study the OPCAT and the effectiveness of national torture preventive mechanisms, and which is financed by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The conference is being organised in close co-operation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and with the kind assistance of the UK’s Department of Constitutional Affairs.
For more information about the conference, please visit our website at http://bristol.ac.uk/law/research/centres-themes/opcat/index.html