The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) is an international expert body established under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).

 

The SPT consists of 25 independent and impartial experts,[1] elected by States parties for a four-year term and staggered over a two-year cycle, from around the World and publishes an annual report on its activities.

 

The SPT may conduct visits to all places of detention in territories of State parties to the OPCAT and prepares report after its visits. In order for the SPT to fully realize its mandate under the OPCAT, the SPT has so far devised four types of visits. These are: SPT country visits; SPT country follow-up visits; NPM advisory visits; and OPCAT advisory visits.[2]  In this context, you can find information about its visits to our country and the visit report here.[3]

 

The OPCAT’s provisions regarding the SPT are respectively included in articles 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 25, 26 31, 33, 35 and 36 of the Protocol.[4]

 

The SPT has guided States parties to the OPCAT and National Prevention Mechanisms (NPMs) to inform their efforts to implement the agreement.

 

For more information about SPT, you can visit here[5]

For the SPT’s Advice to NPMs, you can visit here[6]

You can find the unofficial translation of the SPT’s recommendations to states parties and national prevention mechanisms regarding the Covid 19 pandemic here.[7]

 

[1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/spt/membership

[2] https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/spt/visits#3

[3]https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/CountryVisits.aspx?SortOrder=Chronological

[4] https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/optional-protocol-convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel

[5] https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/spt

[6] https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/spt/national-preventive-mechanisms/advices

[7] tihek.gov.tr/public/editor/uploads/1637741060.pdf