Press Release
December 16, 2015

Pimentel files bill to establish National Preventive Mechanism vs. Torture

Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III seeks to strengthen the country's covenant with the United Nations to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment of persons deprived of liberty by establishing a national preventive mechanism through legislation.

Pimentel has filed Senate Bill No. 3032 to establish an operational and effective national preventive mechanism to fulfil the country's responsibility under the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).

The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), introducing a system of regular visits to places of detention by international and domestic experts, was established as an additional preventive instrument to ensure that State actors adhere to their covenants under the UNCAT.

Pimentel, who is also the chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said the OPCAT was added in view of experiences of many State parties that torture and ill-treatment of persons deprived of liberty often occur in isolated and secret places of detention.

He said the Philippines acceded to the OPCAT on April 17, 2012, and local safeguards against the proliferation of torture and ill-treatment of persons deprived of liberty have also been set in place with the passage of Republic Act No. 7438 or "An Act Defining Certain Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial Investigation," and RA 9745, or the "Anti-Torture Act of 2009."

Pimentel said that it is the obligation of the government to establish and maintain at the domestic level a national preventive mechanism within one year after its accession to the OPCAT in order to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.

But it has been almost three years since the country's accession to the OPCAT, and the government has yet to establish a national preventive mechanism.

Pimentel said the proposed mechanism is guided by the core principles of confidentiality, impartiality, non-selectivity, universality, and objectivity to strengthen the protection of persons deprived of liberty against torture and ill-treatment through non-judicial means of prevention, based on regular visits to places of detention.

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