MDAC participates in UN meeting to prevent ill-treatment against people with disabilities

On 16 - 17 December 2011, MDAC participated at the “Regional Consultation for Europe on Prevention of Torture and Protection of Victims of Torture – Especially Persons Deprived of their Liberty” held at the UN in Geneva. The consultation aimed to identify concrete steps and forms of cooperation between international, regional, and national actors in the field.

Participants agreed that as more and more international, regional, and national mechanisms are in place to prevent torture and ill-treatment in places of detention, there is a correspondingly greater need for effective cooperation among them. The consultation highlighted the role of NGOs in this joint effort, which was welcomed by MDAC.

MDAC pointed out that evolving standards relating to persons with disabilities in places of deprivation of liberty, such as those set by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) should be reflected in the work of the wide array of international, regional, and national torture and ill-treatment prevention mechanisms. In November 2011 MDAC co-organised a roundtable discussion which brought together high-level stakeholders working at the intersection of disability and ill-treatment prevention. Click here to read more about the event. 

The Geneva consultation was a follow-up to the request made in 2009 by the UN Human Rights Council to strengthen cooperation between regional and UN human rights mechanisms. At the first workshop on cooperation in May 2010 the thematic focus on torture and ill-treatment prevention was agreed upon.

Participants at the event included representatives of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, UN Committee against Torture (CAT), the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs), the European NPM Project, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), representatives of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the EU Agency for Fundamental rights, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as several NGOs. The session was opened by Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

For more information, contact mdac@mdac.org.

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