Ratifying the Convention Against Torture will allow India to “secure an individual’s right to life and liberty,” said in a report published on Monday the Law Commission of India, an advisory body of India’s Ministry of Law and Justice. What is more, to enshrine in national legislation the country’s obligations under the Convention, the Indian Government should enact the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2017”.
Yesterday’s recommendation follows the litigation a former Law Minister of the Government of India filed before the Supreme Court asking the State to fulfill the Constitution’s promise of safeguarding human dignity and preventing torture[1]. During Supreme Court hearings in April 2017, the Chief Justice reportedly said that the adoption of domestic legislation in line with the Convention Against Torture would be in India’s national interest and a matter of protecting its reputation worldwide. At the moment, India faces difficulties in extraditing criminals from foreign countries because it does not have a law criminalizing torture.
“We could not agree more that it is about time India formally commits to fighting torture,” said Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General. “It will help turn theory into practice.”
India has been repeatedly criticized, most notably by the UN Human Rights Council in the context of the Universal Periodic Review and by civil-society organizations, including OMCT, for having signed the Convention Against Torture in 1997 without ratifying it. Unlike in its neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh, the 1,2 billion inhabitants of India do so far not benefit from the Convention’s protection against torture and other forms of ill-treatment. This is has proven to be a recurring problem for Indians where each year more than 1,500 people die in prison, more than 34,600 cases of rape are reported and an estimated 135,000 children are trafficked for sex and domestic slavery, as recurrently documented by OMCT’s member organizations in the country.
About OMCT
OMCT is short for the World Organisation Against Torture – in French, as the organization created in 1985 is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
On top of protecting human rights defenders and promoting NGO participation before the CAT, OMCT works for, with and through an international coalition of over 200 non-governmental organizations – the SOS-Torture network – fighting torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and all other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the world.
For more information, please visit: www.omct.org
For our latest campaign #HumansAgainstTorture: www.joinhat.org. https://vimeo.com/omct, Instagram.
As coordinator of civil-society presence at the CAT, OMCT:
- communicates ahead of time with national NGOs warning them that their countries will be reviewed in an upcoming session,
- builds the reporting capacity of NGOs on the Convention Against Torture through legal trainings in their home countries;
- provides administrative, logistical and financial support to NGOs to enable their programmed attendance of CAT sessions and private briefings;
- provides technical, information-gathering and editorial support to effective country reporting;
- moderates the NGO private briefing sessions reserved for NGOs to jointly bring their concerns to the Committee;
- recommends visibility opportunities for advocacy messaging during CAT sessions;
Contacts
Please contact lb@omct.org for media inquiries or OMCT communications, nb@omct.org and cbb@omct.org about our programme favoring civil-society participation before the CAT, and sa@omct.org for joining our SOS-Torture network.
[1] India’s Constitution Article 21 says « No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law ».
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