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Preventing torture

Activists in masks display placards as they call for an end to torture and human rights violations (Getty images)Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are prohibited, both under the Geneva Conventions and under international human rights law. They are also prohibited under UK law.

On 27 October 2011, the FCO published our Strategy for the Prevention of Torture. This sets out our policy on torture prevention and explains the approach we are taking to contribute to international efforts to prevent torture. Download the full strategy.

The FCO has updated and reissued guidance for staff on reporting information or concerns about torture and mistreatment. This is to ensure that our institutional response to torture and mistreatment is as strong as it can be. The guidance reiterates the longstanding policy that our staff must report any abuses they learn about so that, if appropriate, we can take action. Read the Torture and Mistreatment Reporting Guidance.

The UK supports wider ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the Optional Protocol to CAT (OPCAT) through a combination of bilateral lobbying campaigns, multilateral engagement in the EU and UN and project work.

United Nations Convention against Torture

The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) is the main international treaty that specifically addresses torture. It obliges states to take preventive measures and ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law.

Jurisdiction must be established over cases of torture when committed in any territory under a state's jurisdiction or where the offender is one of its nationals. The convention also requires states to prosecute individuals who are on their territory but where the alleged offence occurred elsewhere.

147 countries have ratified UNCAT. The UK ratified the Convention in 1988.

Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT)

Torture is more likely to take place when people feel they can get away with it. In places of detention such as police cells, prisons, military detention centres, torture and mistreatment can occur where there are no independent safeguards or checks to ensure detainees are being treated humanely.

The UK can help prevent torture in these circumstances by ensuring that places of detention are inspected and monitored. We do this by actively encouraging countries to sign and ratify OPCAT.

OPCAT was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2002, the UK was the first country in the EU and the third country in the world to ratify. The aim of OPCAT is to prevent torture and other forms of ill treatment by establishing a dual system of regular visits to places of detention.

The first is an international visiting mechanism by the UN Sub-Committee on Prevention, made up of  independent, multi-disciplinary experts, to conduct regular visits to places of detention.

The second involves an obligation on states parties to set up, designate or maintain a national preventive mechanism (NPM), which can conduct regular visits.

The UK’s NPM has over 20 different types of independent statutory inspection body currently operating within the UK. In England and Wales, for instance, there are independent inspectorates for prisons and youth detention centres, for police stations, for court cells and for psychiatric hospitals.

Similar bodies exist in Scotland and in Northern Ireland. In all parts of the United Kingdom there are inspection mechanisms for immigration centres.

FCO resources