Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture Presents Annual Report to the Committee against Torture
The Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, María Luisa Romero, this morning presented the Subcommittee’s eighteenth annual report to the Committee against Torture.
Ms. Romero said she was presenting the report in an increasingly complex global context, marked by armed conflicts, forced displacements, the rise of authoritarian governments, the weakening of the rule of law, and the resurgence of discourses that promoted intolerance, fear and exclusion.
In this context, she said, the mandates of the Committee and the Subcommittee took on even greater urgency. Preventing and combatting torture was non-negotiable. Strengthening national preventive mechanisms, dialogue with States and civil society, and international collaboration were necessary steps to address these challenges.
During 2024, Ms. Romero reported, the Subcommittee conducted preventive visits to places of deprivation of liberty in Gabon, Albania, Honduras, Mongolia, Nigeria, Greece, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia. The findings, she said, were conclusive, identifying persistent patterns of overcrowding, excessive use of pretrial detention, limited access to health services, unsanitary conditions, and troubling impunity in cases of torture.
Ms. Romero noted with concern that the Subcommittee continued to face significant operational challenges, mainly due to limited resources, which inhibited its ability to conduct necessary visits. In February this year, it was forced to postpone the first scheduled visit of the year to Serbia due to the United Nations’ liquidity crisis. Since then, it had had to postpone three more visits to Burundi, Mozambique and Mexico. She appealed for urgent, sustainable solutions to enable the Subcommittee to resume its programme of visits.
Documents relating to the Committee’s work are available on the session’s webpage. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, and webcasts of the public meetings can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 15 April at 10 a.m. to examine the fifth periodic report of Armenia (CAT/C/ARM/5).
Statement by the Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture
MARÍA LUISA ROMERO, Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, said this was the first time that she was addressing the Committee as Chairperson of the Subcommittee. She was presenting the report in an increasingly complex global context, marked by armed conflicts, governance crises, forced displacements, the rise of authoritarian governments, the weakening of the rule of law, and the resurgence of discourses that promoted intolerance, fear and exclusion. This was compounded by a worrying erosion of the international consensus on human rights, which undermined the support needed by States for international mechanisms to fulfil their mission.
In this context, the mandates of the Committee and the Subcommittee took on even greater urgency. Preventing and combatting torture was non-negotiable. Strengthening national preventive mechanisms, dialogue with States and civil society, and international collaboration were necessary steps to address these challenges.
The annual report gave an account of the Subcommittee’s work in 2024, including its achievements and challenges. It reflected the collective conviction that human dignity needed to prevail, particularly in the most adverse contexts, where it was most at risk. In every visit, recommendation and advisory action, the Subcommittee’s objective remained unwavering: to prevent torture and ill-treatment in all States parties to the Optional Protocol.
During 2024, the Subcommittee conducted preventive visits to places of deprivation of liberty in Gabon, Albania, Honduras, Mongolia, Nigeria, Greece, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia. It conducted more than 1,400 interviews with more than 3,800 prisoners, medical personnel, security officials, and prison representatives, and visited more than 170 places of detention, including prisons, police stations, psychiatric institutions, and migration and adolescent centres. The findings were conclusive, identifying persistent patterns of overcrowding, excessive use of pretrial detention, limited access to health services, unsanitary conditions, and troubling impunity in cases of torture.
Concerning Gabon, the Subcommittee warned of the absence of measures to remedy inhumane conditions of detention and overcrowding and reiterated its recommendation to establish a national preventive mechanism. On Albania, it expressed concern about overcrowding, largely caused by the high number of people in pre-trial detention, as well as insufficient access to health care. As for Honduras, it expressed concern about the militarisation of the prison system and that conditions in a significant number of places of deprivation of liberty amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Regarding Mongolia, the Subcommittee underscored the need for a paradigm shift from a punitive to a rehabilitation-focused approach as an effective way to prevent torture. Turning to Nigeria, it highlighted the urgency of establishing a functional and independent national preventive mechanism and urged the State to take immediate steps to eradicate torture and improve conditions of detention. Concerning Greece, it recognised the country's significant challenges, including those related to migration, and stressed the need for urgent measures to prevent torture and ill-treatment.
As for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Subcommittee stressed the urgency of establishing a national preventive mechanism capable of dealing with the deplorable conditions of deprivation of liberty. Finally, concerning Bolivia, it welcomed the work of the national preventive mechanism, while expressing concern about the poor living conditions of persons deprived of liberty.
In all the visits, the Subcommittee highlighted the critical role of national preventive mechanisms - the urgent need to establish them in certain States, or to significantly strengthen their functioning and independence where they already existed. A new section of the report provided advice and technical assistance to existing mechanisms, to strengthen the Subcommittee’s support for these mechanisms.
The 2024 report also focused on the effects of drug policies on the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. The Subcommittee found that many drug policies, especially “zero tolerance” policies, had contributed to overcrowding in places of deprivation of liberty, which often did not have the necessary health services to care for drug users. Drug strategies needed to include components of prevention and comprehensive care. The Subcommittee urged national preventive mechanisms to integrate these policies into their mandates, ensuring the rights of people deprived of liberty in criminal, administrative, health or other contexts.
In addition, the Subcommittee continued its practice of holding regional meetings with national preventive mechanisms to discuss key issues in the prevention of torture, such as the obligation of States to publish and disseminate mechanisms' annual reports and the importance of ensuring their independence. The Subcommittee carried out training and institutional support activities in countries such as the Central African Republic to support the establishment of national preventive mechanisms and maintained dialogue with States parties and signatories on the creation of these mechanisms.
Currently, 12 States parties were not complying with article 17 of the Optional Protocol: Afghanistan, Belize, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nauru, the Philippines, South Sudan and the State of Palestine. This situation continued to be of great concern to the Subcommittee, especially since some of these States had made little or no progress in fulfilling their obligations, including some after more than 10 years. The Subcommittee would provide the necessary advice to these States so that they could fulfil their responsibilities and guarantee the protection of the human rights of persons deprived of liberty.
Despite the challenges, there were reasons for optimism. In 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina, following a visit by the Subcommittee in 2022, established its national preventive mechanism. So far in 2025, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa and Benin had also created their national preventive mechanisms. The Subcommittee visited the first three between 2023 and 2024 and carried out a training mission in Benin last year.
The Subcommittee appreciated that the Committee had called on States that had not yet established national preventive mechanisms to do so, and urged States parties to the Optional Protocol to publish the Subcommittee's visit reports. By the end of 2024, 55 of the 89 reports of visits to States parties had been published. While the Subcommittee fully respected the principle of confidentiality guaranteed by the Optional Protocol, it also encouraged publication, as it reflected transparency, facilitated the implementation of its recommendations, and promoted mutual learning between States and national preventive mechanisms. States had access to the Special Fund established under the Optional Protocol, a key resource to support the effective implementation of the Subcommittee's recommendations.
The Subcommittee urged the Committee to continue to promote the ratification of the Optional Protocol. Currently, 94 States were party to the Protocol, the most recent being ratification in 2024 by the Republic of the Congo. Expanding the number of States parties reinforced the legitimacy and scope of the preventive system and at the same time opened opportunities for new national preventive mechanisms. In 2024, the Subcommittee held discussions with signatory and non-signatory States, participated in regional events promoting the Protocol in Thailand and Colombia, and offered its technical expertise to accompany States in the ratification process. It was confident that, with international support, it would continue to make progress in this regard at the global level.
Ms. Romero welcomed the adoption of the Subcommittee’s historic general comment one on article four of the Optional Protocol, which clarified the scope of the term “places of deprivation of liberty”. The general comment reaffirmed the broad and inclusive nature of this concept, and provided practical guidance to strengthen the work of national preventive mechanisms in identifying places to be subject to preventive monitoring. It also reiterated that unrestricted access to all places of deprivation of liberty was essential for adequate monitoring of conditions of detention and the prevention of torture and ill-treatment.
The Committee had provided valuable contributions to the general comment during public consultations and incorporated it into its work, and national preventive mechanisms, States and civil society were actively using it as a tool to ensure the effective implementation of the Optional Protocol. The Subcommittee would continue to disseminate the general comment and support States and national preventive mechanisms in its practical application.
In the annual report, the Subcommittee noted with concern that it had continued to face significant operational challenges, mainly due to limited resources, which inhibited its ability to conduct necessary visits. In 2024, due to the United Nations’ severe liquidity crisis, the treaty bodies were threatened with the cancellation of sessions and visits for the first time in their more than six decades of existence.
Unfortunately, what was seen as a threat last year was today a sad reality. In February this year, the Subcommittee was forced to postpone the first scheduled visit of the year, to Serbia, due to the liquidity crisis. Since then, it had had to postpone three more visits to Burundi, Mozambique and Mexico. Added to this was the uncertainty surrounding four other visits planned for the second half of the year to Peru, France, New Zealand and Afghanistan, which had not yet been confirmed.
The Subcommittee did not consider States’ periodic reports. Its work was carried out in the field, visiting States and their places of deprivation of liberty to identify risks and make recommendations that contributed to the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. The inability to conduct such visits not only severely limited its ability to fulfil the mandate entrusted to it by States themselves, but also weakened the preventive role of the system. Sustainable solutions were needed urgently to enable the Subcommittee to resume its programme of visits.
The current liquidity crisis was profoundly affecting the work and mandate of all treaty bodies. The Subcommittee would continue working closely with the Committee, with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and with States parties to find ways to overcome these challenges and to continue to make progress in the protection and prevention of human rights violations.
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