The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) hails the setting up of the national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) in Benin, Madagascar, Nigeria, and South Africa as a significant step in advancing and fulfilling their obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).
“The OPCAT’s torture prevention architecture is built on the partnership between the SPT, the international body designated by the treaty, and the NPMs, our national counterparts. These national partners play a crucial role in making the system work effectively. Today, we are delighted to welcome the NPMs of Benin, Madagascar, Nigeria, and South Africa to the global family of nearly 80 NPMs,” said María Luisa Romero, the SPT Chair.
“They now have the demanding tasks of ensuring their independence and effectiveness, as outlined in the OPCAT. At the same time, the authorities also have a duty to respect the NPMs’ independence, provide financial resources to support their mandate, and implement their recommendations in good faith. The SPT stands ready to assist, advise and support these four new NPMs,” she added.
Under the OPCAT, the SPT monitors treatment and conditions for people deprived of liberty by conducting unannounced visits to police stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, immigration detention centres, drug rehabilitation centres and other places of deprivation of liberty. In this task, the SPT works closely with government authorities, the NPMs, other domestic monitoring bodies, as well as human rights institutions, and civil society to strengthen torture preventive measures.
Africa Fact: The East Coast, from Somalia to Mozambique, has ruins of well over 50 towns and cities. They flourished from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries AD.
Africa Fact: Chinese records of the fifteenth century AD note that Mogadishu had houses of “four or five storeys high”.
Woo Woo
Van is hitch-hiking and he gets picked up by a larnie in a merc. After travelling awhile and making small talk, Van asks the larnie what the 3-pointed star on the bonnet is for. The larnie decides to have some fun with Van.
\”Oh, that\’s the sights, you know, for aiming. When I see someone on the side of the road and I want to run him over, I just line him up in the sights.\”
Die Slice
Babbelas – hangover [bub-ba-las] This word is derived from the Zulu ‘ibhabhalazi’ and is used to describe a really bad hangover.Example: “Eish, babbelas my bru!”