14/04/2011 Session
In a recommendation adopted today, the Assembly invited the Committee of Ministers to amend the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment so that members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) would be elected by PACE. Parliamentarians believe that if members of the CPT were elected by the Assembly they would have enhanced democratic legitimacy and authority.
Following the proposals made by Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), rapporteur on this question, the Assembly also recommended that CPT visit reports and the comments of the parties concerned be automatically published, as this would allow commencement of the public debate on the problems noted and the ways to solve them.
Finally, PACE urged all member states to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and to set up independent and adequately resourced national mechanisms for the prevention of torture, as prescribed by OPCAT. The CPT should, for its part, seek synergies with these national mechanisms and co-operate with any future initiative conducted by the EU.