A/65/273
Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Summary
In the present report, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 64/153,
the Special Rapporteur addresses issues of special concern to him, in particular overall
trends and developments with respect to questions falling within his mandate.
The Special Rapporteur draws the attention of the General Assembly to his
assessment that torture continues to be widely practised in the majority of States,
with impunity being one of its root causes. According to him, no further standardsetting is required, as the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment contains a broad range of positive State
obligations aimed at preventing and combating torture. In particular, the Convention
requires its 147 States parties to criminalize torture, to establish broad jurisdictions,
to investigate all allegations and suspicions of torture and to bring the perpetrators of
torture to justice. Unfortunately, those specific positive obligations aimed at
combating impunity have not been implemented by most States. If the commission of
torture is established by a competent authority, the victims should enjoy the right to
fair and adequate reparation, including the means for as full medical, psychological,
social and other rehabilitation as possible. States, therefore, have a legal obligation to
establish or at least support a sufficient number of rehabilitation centres for victims
of torture and to ensure the safety of the staff and patients of such centres. In order to
further prevent torture, the Special Rapporteur calls upon all States to promptly ratify
the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and to establish, in
accordance with its provisions, independent and professional national preventive
mechanisms tasked with conducting regular and unannounced visits to all places of
detention. They should be granted unrestricted access to all places of detention and
the opportunity to have private interviews with detainees, as well as the necessary
financial and human resources to enable them to conduct their work effectively.
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