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The risk of torture exists everywhere. In any country, at any time. Preventing torture is about reducing these risks and creating environments where torture and ill-treatment is less likely to happen.
To do this, we work with a wide range of partners in countries across the globe, including: National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs), National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and other oversight bodies; national authorities and police; justice sector actors; and civil society organisations.
WHAT RISK FACTORS CAN LEAD TO TORTURE?
Environment
When there is no rule of law; a culture of impunity; corruption; an erosion of the absolution prohibition of torture and/or public acceptance of torture; poor access to justice; counter-terrorism measures; militarisation or privatisation of detention and security
Practices
In case of incommunicado detention; solitary confinement; disciplinary sanctions; threats/reprisals; use of restraints; involuntary placement; body searches; corporal punishment; capital punishment
Criminal justice systems
When justice systems are dysfunctional and over-rely on confessions; or when institutional culture, recruitment and promotion policies pressure law enforcement to bring results
Persons
For persons in situations of vulnerability who face invisibility, discrimination, profiling, harassment, violence and over-incarceration because of their gender, age, migration status, nationality, ethnicity, economic status, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, drug use...
Moments
In moments such as arrest; apprehension; stop and search; first hours of detention; interrogation; transfers; forced deportation; public demonstrations
Places
In closed places, such as prisons; police stations; psychiatric institutions; juvenile justice facilities; social care homes; quarantine centres; aged care facilities; overseas/offshore detention; secret places or places where there is no oversight
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR TORTURE PREVENTION?
RESPONDING TO THE RISK FACTORS
Preventing torture requires an integrated approach where States:
- Have a strong legal framework that prohibits torture and ill-treatment and reflects international standards
- Implement this legal framework in practice; for example, by establishing procedural safeguards in detention and providing training for law enforcement officials
- Establish mechanisms to monitor the legal framework and its implementation, including through independent oversight of places of detention.
Torture prevention requires a holistic approach, where different measures are interconnected and influence each other, to create an environment where torture and ill-treatment are less likely to occur. This also implies structural changes, in terms of reform and institutional culture and mindset.
We encourage States to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and open all places of deprivation of liberty within their jurisdiction to visits by independent monitoring bodies – known as NPMs – that they are required to establish under the OPCAT.
HOW DOES THE APT DRIVE CHANGE?
Our work is backed by independent evidence and draws on more than four decades of experience. We intervene where we can make the greatest difference.
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