Constitution Watch 6/2019 Why Hasn'tZimbabwe Adopted the UN Convention Against Torture?
28 June 2019
CONSTITUTION WATCH 6/2019
[28th June 2019]
Zimbabwe Still Hasn’t Adopted the CAT
[The UN Convention Against Torture]
Why the Continued Delay?
Introduction
26th June was the International Day in Support of Torture Victims
Yet another 26th June has come and gone without Zimbabwe having adopted the
United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment [CAT]. Previous Government undertakings and
assurances given to the UN Human Rights Committee and to the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights as long ago as 2012 – see Constitution Watch
6/2017 [link] – have still not been fulfilled.
United Nations Secretary-General’s Message for 2019 International Day
UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message to mark the 26th June this year
was as follows:
The prohibition of torture is absolute — under all circumstances. Yet this core
principle is undermined every day in detention centres, prisons, police stations,
psychiatric institutions and elsewhere.
I am encouraged that we are moving towards universal ratification of the United
Nations Convention against Torture, currently ratified by 166 States. Ensuring that
national laws and practices are in line with the Convention is essential for moving
the prohibition of torture from principle to practice.
Torture usually happens behind closed doors. It is therefore crucial for
independent international and national human rights mechanisms to open those
doors. The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture does exactly
that, visiting more than 100 prisons and other institutions and interviewing more
than 1,000 detainees, officials, law enforcement personnel and medical staff every
year, in close partnership with national preventive mechanisms.
In all our work, we must support victims and ensure respect for their right to
rehabilitation and redress. This victim-centred approach guides the United Nations
Voluntary Fund for the Victims of Torture, which assists nearly 50,000 victims of
torture annually in some 80 countries. It has also helped us better understand
different dimensions of torture, including the use of sexual and gender-based
violence, and the specific assistance that different kinds of survivors of torture
need.
Torture is a vicious attempt at breaking a person’s will. On this International Day
in Support of Victims of Torture, I urge all States to end impunity for perpetrators
and eradicate these reprehensible acts that defy our common humanity.
Zimbabwe Out of Step with The Movement to Universal CAT Ratification