Jessica Xantomila and Jared Laureles
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, November 30, 2024, p. 7
The United Nations Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) confirmed that it will visit Mexico in 2025, as well as other countries such as Mozambique, New Zealand, Peru, Serbia, Afghanistan, Burundi and France.
Last July, the SPT announced its intention to come to Mexico in the first half of 2025. This visit will be added to those made in 2008 and 2016.
The subcommittee is made up of 25 independent expert members from around the world, and is mandated to travel to states that have ratified the optional protocol to the Convention against Torture, as well as help nations prevent this scourge.
Derived from the aforementioned protocol, the SPT supervises the conditions of people deprived of their liberty through unannounced visits to prisons, police stations, psychiatric hospitals, closed refugee camps and immigration detention centers.
It also works with national monitoring bodies such as National Prevention Mechanisms (NPM), human rights institutions, government authorities and civil society to strengthen preventive measures.