Question of a draft optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel. Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

1991/107. Question of a draft optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel. Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

At its 52nd meeting, held on 5 March 1991, the Commission, recalling its decision 1989/104 of 6 March 1989, by which it decided to defer until its forty-seventh session the consideration of the draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was submitted by Costa Rica on 6 March 1980 and is designed to establish a system of visits to be carried out by a committee of experts to places of detention within the jurisdiction of the States parties to the protocol, and in which it had considered that such a protocol could represent a major step forward towards the effective prevention of torture, having noted that the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Mr. P. Kooijmans, has recommended the establishment of such a treaty-based mechanism of inspection (see E/CN.4/1991/17, paras. 295-300), having taken note of the draft optional protocol as updated and submitted by Costa Rica on 22 January 1991 (see E/CN.4/1991/66), noting that the updated draft optional protocol takes account, on the one hand, of the entry into force on 26 June 1987 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the experience gained by the Committee against Torture and, on the other hand, of the entry into force on 1 February 1989 of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, also noting that the draft is compatible with similar regional mechanisms, affirming its interest in the draft optional protocol, decided, without a vote, in order to give States an opportunity to study it, to consider the draft optional protocol at its forty-eighth session as a specific sub-item entitled "Question of a draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment" under the item: "Question of the human rights of all persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment". [See chap. X.]