UN body to review PH torture cases

A committee of the United Nations is set to review the compliance of the Philippines with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which it has ratified.

In a media advisory, the UN Committee Against Torture will conduct the review on April 27 to 28 in Geneva.

BACKSTORY: UN body to visit PH, check for cases of torture

Some of the human rights issues which will be tackled in the review include:

• Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, including by non-State actors;
• Persistent use of torture and ill-treatment of suspects in police custody;
• Impunity, lack of accountability, including in security and law enforcement sectors;
• Sexual and reproductive health;
• Overcrowding in prisons and independent monitoring of places of detention;
• Investigations of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture of human rights defenders by public officials, and of killing of rights defenders by private parties;
• High number of reported cases of torture and degrading treatment of detained children;
• Measures to prevent abduction and military recruitment of children by non-State armed groups;
• Trafficking in persons.

The Philippine government delegation will be led by Interior undersecretary Peter Irving Corvera. Representatives from some nongovernment organizations were also invited for the review.

The results of the committee’s observations on the Philippines’ torture record will be revealed in a news conference on May 13, 2016 at Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The UN anti-torture body will also review the compliance of France, Tunisia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel to the said Convention. IDL