The United Nations Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) called, Wednesday, December 11, for urgent action to establish a torture prevention mechanism in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), following its first visit to the country from December 1 to 7.
« The progress made by the DRC in establishing its national prevention mechanism (NPM) is very encouraging, but rapid implementation is essential “, declared Hamet Saloum Diakhaté, head of the SPT delegation, in a press release published on Wednesday.
For this SPT delegation, “ this national preventive mechanism is necessary to quickly remedy the deplorable conditions of detention that we observed during our mission and is also essential to prevent torture and ill-treatment ».
The DRC ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in 2010, committing to create an independent NPM to monitor places of deprivation of liberty and prevent torture, and has since worked to establish its NPM in order to comply with its international obligations.
During the visit, the delegation held high-level meetings with several authorities, including the Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals, the Minister of Human Rights, the President of the Senate and the President of the Human Rights Commission. man of the National Assembly, as well as with the president of the National Human Rights Commission and representatives of the diplomatic corps, civil society and United Nations agencies.
Inspection of places of detention
The delegation also made unannounced visits to several places of detention, including two prisons, several police stations as well as the dungeons of the Kinshasa Justice Palace. During these visits, its members conducted confidential interviews with detainees, prison officers, police and medical staff, the UN press release said.
« We have noted that prison overcrowding extends to the cells and dungeons of police stations and courts, which are places not at all suitable for detaining people beyond 48 hours; this situation is mainly caused by the systematic use of pre-trial detention for too long periods », declared Diakhaté again.
At the end of the visit, the SPT will submit a confidential report to the DRC detailing its observations and recommendations to prevent torture and improve detention conditions. He encouraged the Government to make the report public to facilitate the implementation of its recommendations.
The SPT has the mandate to carry out unannounced visits to prisons, detention centers, police stations, psychiatric hospitals and any other place where people are deprived of their liberty, in all States parties to the OPCAT. Since the start of its mandate in 2007, the SPT has visited more than 80 countries.
The SPT delegation was composed of Hamet Saloum Diakhaté, head of the delegation (Senegal), Hamida Dridi (Tunisia), Jakub Czepek (Poland) and Julia Kozma (Austria).
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