Regularity of OPCAT visits by NPMs in Europe

ABSTRACT

The Optional Protocol to the United Nations (UN) Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) is premised on the concept of prevention: that regular examination by independent national and international bodies of those detained and the institutions detaining them will prevent torture, ill-treatment, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment occurring. This paper examines how National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) in Europe have interpreted the concept of ‘regular’ visits. By July 2018, 38 NPMs had been designated in Europe, the largest number in any region. Drawing upon desk-based research and a survey among these NPMs, this paper illustrates that their practice varies considerably, with diverging views on how ‘regular’ is interpreted; a number of factors coming into play when one is trying to identify what is regular; and the extent to which, even if one could define regularity, any NPM is fulfilling this requirement. It identifies the need for more research, suggests NPMs may wish to examine their own practice and concludes with a call to the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) to provide and expand upon guidance as to the sorts of factors that NPMs may consider when determining when to visit.

KEYWORDS:

• Torture
• NPM
• prevention
• regular
• visits
• detention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Defined as member states of the Council of Europe.

2. See also ‘Statistics’ on p. 67 in the annual report, which categorises inspections undertaken in 2016/2017 as ‘Regular inspections’ and ‘OPCAT inspections’.

3. NPM ‘I’ is not included in Figure 8 because its survey response did not include information about the length of its visits. NPMs ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ are outliers that are not included in Figure 8 to avoid distorting the graph’s scale.

4. Figure 9 only includes those NPMs that provided data on the length of time between visits in 2017 and previous visits. Where these data were not available it was because 2017 was the first visit to the prison concerned or the NPM did not provide it in its survey response.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Hardwick

Nick Hardwick is a Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Law Royal Holloway University of London, UK. He was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales and Chair of the UK NPM from 2010 to 2016.

Rachel Murray

Rachel Murray is a Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of Bristol Law School, UK.