The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) recently published a short provisional statement on the role of judicial review and due process in the prevention of torture and ill-treatment.
This statement intends to provide a short overview of a thematic issue relevant to their mandate, as they did in the past with their position papers on the concept of prevention of torture and their guidelines on National Preventive Mechanisms.
The provisional statement focuses on situations within the criminal justice system, although the SPT plans to address situations outside this system at a later stage. In its provisional statement, the SPT refers to the importance of having both internal and external inspection systems, in particular judges appointed to supervise prisons or the enforcement of sentences.
As the statement is per nature “provisional”, the APT encourages all institutions, NPMs and actors working on the criminal justice system to provide the SPT Secretariat with inputs and examples of good practices. Practical guidance for monitoring bodies could also be further developed.