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Monitoring protection mechanisms / Events / 2001 / September

OMCT proposed language for the WCAR draft programme of action

Thank you, Mr Chairperson,

I am speaking on behalf the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), which is today the largest international coalition of NGOs fighting against torture, summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

OMCT wishes to recall that discrimination of any kind can create a climate in which torture and ill-treatment of groups subjected to intolerance and discriminatory treatment can more easily be accepted, and that discrimination undercuts the realisation of equality of all persons before the law.

OMCT further recalls that article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment stipulates, in its definition of torture, that discrimination of any kind is one the prohibited grounds of an act of torture.

Unfortunately, for the time being, the WCAR has not devoted sufficient attention to the link between discriminatory behaviours and practices and torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Not only is torture one of the vilest acts that one human being can inflect on another, it is also among the most insidious of all human rights violations. This is precisely why the international community must remain steadfast in the fight against torture.

OMCT therefore, draws the attention to the importance to recognize that non citizens are particularly vulnerable with respect to torture in various contexts, and that racism may often contribute to the process of dehumanisation of the victims, which is often a necessary condition for torture.

To address these concerns in the POA of the WCAR, the following language should be included:

In Document A/CONF.189/5, page 42, para 185:
Add, at the end of the paragraph the following sentence…”and to provide specific groups, including non-citizens, such as migrants, asylum seekers (women and unaccompanied children seeking asylum) and refugees, with legal assistance in the event of torture, ill-treatment or any kind of violence perpetrated on the basis of racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance.

Thank you, Mr Chairman.

Elsa Le Pennec, OMCT
Durban, September 3, 2001

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Date: September 4, 2001
Activity: Monitoring Protection Mechanisms
Type: Events

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