National Preventive Mechanism Annual Report 2009–10
Introduction
by Nick Hardwick
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons
P
eople deprived of their liberty
are out of sight, low priority and
unpopular and therefore at particular
risk of inhumane or degrading
treatment. In the UK and elsewhere there
has been growing recognition of detainees’
vulnerability and the need for robust,
independent mechanisms to protect them
from ill-treatment. This view was given
formal recognition by the United Nations
when it adopted the Optional Protocol to
the Convention against Torture and other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (OPCAT) and then by the UK
when it ratified OPCAT in 2003.
The basic premise of OPCAT is that
protections for those who are detained can
be strengthened by a system of regular visits
to all places of detention – prisons, police
custody, children’s secure accommodation,
immigration, military and mental health
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detention, and any other place where a
person may be deprived of their liberty.
Those States which ratify OPCAT, including
the UK, are required to designate a national
preventive mechanism (NPM) to carry out
such visits and to monitor the treatment
and conditions of detainees. The UK NPM
was established in March 2009 when the
government decided that the functions of
the mechanism would be fulfilled by the
collective action of 18 existing bodies which
visit or inspect places of detention. My own
inspectorate, HM Inspectorate of Prisons,
was asked to coordinate the NPM.
OPCAT also requires that NPMs publish an
annual report of their activities – this report
is the first from the NPM in the UK. It details
the individual and collective activities of
the members making up the UK’s NPM and
covers the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March
2010. As well as providing background