The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture: Paying the Price for Prevention

The successful elaboration of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2002 certainly gave rise to cautious grounds for optimism. On its face, the Protocol is an innovative and promising addition to the cluster of international human rights instruments which were already in place to combat torture and ill-treatment world-wide. Its chief potential lies in the framework for torture prevention which it establishes, comprising both a national and international element. Specifically, the Protocol provides for the establishment of national preventive mechanisms to monitor the treatment of detainees at the local level; and, a "new generation of United Nations treaty body", the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the SPT) to operate at the international level. Unfortunately, the SPT’s first three annual reports indicate that in the space of only four years since its entry into force, a major chasm has already developed between the theoretical framework established under the Protocol and the reality of its implementation. This article begins by describing in more detail the raison d’être for the Protocol; the framework of implementation established by it; and the unfortunately halting progress made so far in getting it off the ground.