Call to sign UN protocol on place of detention visits
Ireland and Greece are the only members of the original 12 countries in the European Union not to have ratified the prevention of torture agreement.
Civil rights groups said the Government had to properly resource oversight bodies in Ireland so it could implement the protocol.
The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture is a human rights monitoring arrangement which establishes a system of regular visits to places of detention by independent international and national bodies.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is holding a conference on the protocol in Dublin today.
“This protocol calls on Ireland to put in place a preventive system of training and inspections that will help prevent ill-treatment in our own places of detention,” said Susan Egan of the Irish Human Rights Commission.
“The commission believes that, with ratification, Ireland can move to the forefront of preventing ill-treatment internationally, and we strongly urge the Government to prioritise the establishment of the preventive mechanisms needed to allow ratification.”
The protocol was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2002.
Under the protocol, inspectors would be able to make unannounced visits to places of detention such as garda stations, prisons, youth detention centres and closed units in psychiatric hospitals.
Inspectors would also be able to conduct private interviews with detainees.
UN Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture participants will speak at today’s conference.
