International Convention against torture
Recommendation 909
(1981)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 26 January 1981 (20th Sitting) (see Doc. 4650, report of the Legal Affairs Committee). Text udopted by the Assembly on 26 January 1981 (20th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
2. Recalling that torture has been universally denounced as one of the gravest violations of human rights, demanding effective measures for its prevention ;
3. Considering that the Swedish Government has submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights a draft International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel. Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ;
4. Considering that exchanges of views of governmental experts on this draft convention have been held in the framework of the Council of Europe ;
5. Considering that the Swiss Committee against Torture, and the International Commission of Jurists have prepared the draft Optional Protocol to the draft International Convention against Torture, which the Government of Costa Rica submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in March 1980 ;
6. Considering that the draft Optional Protocol proposes an additional system of implementation of the draft convention comprising regular, unannounced visits by delegates to places of detention in territories under the control of states parties to the Protocol ;
7. Convinced that such a procedure, which is based essentially on the experience of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in carrying out programmes of visits to prisons in various countries, would make an important contribution to the prevention of torture ;
8. Considering that the alarming reports concerning torture in some member states of the Council of Europe are such as to justify the establishment of a system of unannounced visits to places of detention.
9. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :
9.1 invite to governments of member states to hasten the adoption and implementation of the draft Convention against Torture prepared by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights ;
9.2 invite the governments of member states of the Council of Europe represented on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to do their utmost to ensure that the Commission gives detailed consideration to the draft Optional Protocol as soon as the text of the draft convention has been submitted to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, with a view to strengthening the implementation of the convention.
