Presentation by Ms. Maria Luísa Romero, Chairperson of the SPT, of the 2024 SPT annual report to CAT

Dear Chairperson Heller,

Distinguished members,

It is a pleasure and a great honor to present to you the 18th Annual Report of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. This is the first time that I address you as Chair of the Subcommittee, a position I have recently assumed with deep responsibility and commitment, and with a strong desire to continue the valuable collaboration with the Committee against Torture.

This report is presented in an increasingly complex global context, marked by armed conflict, crises of governance, forced displacement, the advance of authoritarian governments, the weakening of the rule of law, and the resurgence of discourses that foster intolerance, fear and exclusion.

Added to this is a worrying erosion of the international consensus on human rights, which weakens the necessary support from States for international mechanisms to fulfill their mission.

In this scenario, the CAT and SPT mandates take on even greater urgency. The prevention and fight against torture are non-negotiable. Strengthening national preventive mechanisms, dialogue with States and civil society, and closer collaboration between our bodies are necessary steps to meet the aforementioned challenges.

Within this framework, the SPT's 18th Annual Report gives an account of our work in 2024, including achievements and challenges. One important change is that, following a process of reflection within the SPT, we decided to present this report in a renewed and more concise structure, based on the three pillars of the SPT's mandate: visits, national preventive mechanisms and international cooperation.

Our annual report also reflects our collective conviction that human dignity admits no exceptions and must prevail, particularly in the most adverse contexts, where it is most at risk.

With every visit, recommendation and advisory action, our goal remains unwavering: to prevent torture and ill-treatment in all States parties to the OPCAT.

During 2024, the SPT fulfilled its mandate to conduct preventive visits to places of deprivation of liberty, visiting eight countries with complex challenges: Gabon, Albania, Honduras, Mongolia, Nigeria, Greece, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. We conducted more than 1,400 interviews with more than 3,800 people, including persons deprived of liberty, medical personnel, security and prison officials. We visited more than 170 places of detention, including prisons, police stations, psychiatric institutions, and migration and adolescent centers.

The findings were compelling. We identified persistent patterns of overcrowding, excessive use of pretrial detention, limited access to health services, unsanitary conditions, and worrying impunity in cases of torture.

In particular, as noted in the corresponding press releases:

-In Gabon, the SPT warned about the lack of measures to remedy inhuman conditions of detention and overcrowding, and reiterated its recommendation to establish an NPM;

-In Albania, the SPT also expressed concern about overcrowding, largely caused by the high number of persons in pre-trial detention, as well as insufficient access to health care;

-In Honduras, the SPT expressed concern about the militarization of the penitentiary system and that conditions in a significant number of places of deprivation of liberty amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;

-In Mongolia, the SPT stressed the need for a paradigm shift: from a punitive approach to a rehabilitation-focused approach as an effective way to prevent torture;

-In Nigeria, it highlighted the urgency of establishing a functional and independent NPM and urged the State to take immediate steps to eradicate torture and improve conditions of detention;

-In Greece, the SPT recognized the significant challenges in the country, including those related to migration, and stressed the need to take urgent measures to prevent torture and ill-treatment;

-In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the urgency of establishing the NPM to address the deplorable conditions of deprivation of liberty was stressed;

-In the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the SPT said to be pleased with the work of the NPM, while concern was expressed about the poor living conditions of people deprived of liberty.

A cross-cutting element in all the visits carried out during 2024 is the critical relevance of national preventive mechanisms: whether due to the urgent need to establish them in certain States, or to significantly strengthen their functioning and independence where they already exist.

NPMs are the cornerstone of the OPCAT's preventive architecture. Therefore, another major strand of our work in 2024, as reflected in this report, was to provide advice and technical assistance to existing NPMs.

Through a new section focused on advice to NPMs, we hope that our annual report will be an additional tool to strengthen the support function of these mechanisms. In 2024, we focus on the effects of drug policies on the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. We have found that many drug policies, especially “zero tolerance” policies, have contributed to overcrowding in places of deprivation of liberty, which, in addition, often do not have the necessary health services to care for persons deprived of liberty who use drugs. We reaffirm that drug strategies must include prevention and comprehensive care components. We therefore urge NPMs to integrate these policies into their mandates, ensuring the rights of persons deprived of liberty in criminal justice, administrative, healthcare or other contexts.

In addition, the SPT continued its practice of holding regional meetings with NPMs to discuss key torture prevention issues, such as the obligation of States to publish and disseminate NPM annual reports and the importance of ensuring their independence.

While working with NPMs already established, the SPT remains committed to supporting those States Parties that have not yet fulfilled their obligation to establish an NPM, as required by Article 17 of the OPCAT. For example, the SPT conducted training and institutional support activities in countries such as the Central African Republic and Benin. In addition, we maintain an ongoing dialogue on the designation of these mechanisms with States Parties and signatories.

At the close of 2024, 15 States Parties were still on the list of those not in compliance with Article 17 of the OPCAT. This situation remains of great concern to the Subcommittee, especially as some of these States have made little or no progress in meeting their obligations, even some after more than ten years.

Despite the challenges, there are reasons to remain optimistic. In 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina, following an SPT visit in 2022, established its NPM. So far in 2025, we have received encouraging news from the African region: Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa and Benin also established their NPMs. The SPT visited the first three countries between 2023 and 2024 and in Benin we conducted a training mission last year, as I have already mentioned.

Currently, 12 States remain on the Article 17 non-compliance list: Afghanistan, Belize, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nauru, Philippines, State of Palestine and South Sudan. I take this opportunity to reaffirm our full willingness to provide the necessary advice to these States to ensure that they fulfill their responsibilities and guarantee the protection of the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty.

In the face of these challenges, international, regional and other United Nations cooperation - which constitutes the third pillar of the Subcommittee's mandate - becomes even more crucial.

In this regard, we deeply value that the CAT addresses the establishment of NPMs with States that are not yet in compliance with this obligation. It is also important for the CAT to receive information on the functioning, independence and strengthening of existing NPMs, given their key role in the prevention of torture.

Also, we note the important support of the CAT in urging OPCAT States Parties to publish SPT visit reports.

By the close of 2024, 55 of the 89 visit reports to States Parties had been published, at their request. While we fully respect the principle of confidentiality guaranteed by the OPCAT, we also welcome and encourage publication, as it reflects transparency, facilitates the implementation of our recommendations and promotes mutual learning between States and NPMs. In addition, we recall that States requesting publication of their reports have access to the Special Fund established under the OPCAT, a key resource to support the effective implementation of the Subcommittee's recommendations.

For these reasons, the inclusion of this recommendation on the publication of reports in the concluding observations of the CAT is a powerful tool for national actors to demand greater transparency and commitment from their States in the prevention of torture.

We also urge the CAT to continue to promote ratification of the OPCAT. Currently, 94 States are party to the Protocol, with the most recent ratification in 2024 by the Republic of Congo. Expanding the number of States Parties strengthens the legitimacy and reach of the preventive system while opening up opportunities for new NPMs. In 2024, the SPT held discussions with signatory and non-signatory States, participated in regional events promoting the Protocol in Thailand and Colombia, and offered its technical expertise to accompany States in the ratification process. We are confident that, with international support, we will continue to make progress on this fundamental front for the consolidation of the global torture prevention system.

In this valuable collaborative framework, we express our sincere appreciation to CAT for inviting us, in November 2024, to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Convention against Torture. For the Subcommittee, it was an honor to join this significant occasion and to reaffirm our shared commitment to the eradication of torture and ill-treatment in all its forms.

Finally, I cannot conclude this presentation without highlighting the adoption of SPT General Comment No. 1 on Article 4 of the OPCAT, which marked a historic milestone as the Subcommittee's first interpretative instrument, clarifying the scope of the term “places of deprivation of liberty”. In doing so, the SPT not only reaffirmed the broad and inclusive nature of this concept, but also provided practical guidance to strengthen the work of NPMs in identifying the places that should be subject to preventive monitoring. In addition, the Subcommittee reiterated that unrestricted access to all places of deprivation of liberty is essential to adequately monitor conditions of detention and prevent torture and ill-treatment.

We know that the CAT closely followed the process of drafting this General Comment, making valuable contributions during the public consultation, and that since its adoption, it has incorporated it into its work. I would also like to take this opportunity to share that we are aware that NPMs, States and civil society are actively using this General Comment as a tool to ensure the effective implementation of the Protocol. The SPT will continue to promote its dissemination and support States and NPMs in its practical application.

Now, if I may, I would like to refer to an issue that I know is of concern to all of us. In our annual report, we warned that the Subcommittee has continued to face significant operational challenges, mainly due to resource constraints, which limit its ability to conduct the number of visits we deem necessary. In addition, we note with concern that, in 2024, for the first time in its more than six decades of existence, due to the UN liquidity crisis, the treaty bodies, including the Subcommittee, experienced the threat of cancellation of sessions and visits for financial reasons.

Unfortunately, what we saw as a threat last year is now a sad reality.

In February of this year, the SPT was forced to postpone the first scheduled visit of the year, to Serbia, due to the unprecedented severe cash crisis facing the UN system. Since then, we have had to postpone 3 more visits, to Burundi, Mozambique and Mexico. Added to this is the uncertainty surrounding four other visits planned for the second half of the year, which have not yet been confirmed: to Peru, France, New Zealand and Afghanistan.

As you know, the SPT is a unique treaty body, which does not examine periodic State reports. Our work is carried out on the ground, visiting States and their places of deprivation of liberty, in a direct, practical and preventive effort to identify risks and make recommendations to help prevent torture and ill-treatment. The inability to carry out these visits not only severely limits our ability to fulfill the mandate that States themselves have entrusted to us, but also weakens the preventive role of the system as a whole. It is urgent and necessary to find sustainable solutions that guarantee the indispensable resources for the SPT to be able to resume its program of visits.

We are fully aware that the current liquidity crisis is profoundly affecting the work and mandate of all treaty bodies. In this context, we reaffirm our willingness to continue to work closely with you, with the Office of the High Commissioner and with States parties to find ways to overcome these challenges together and to make further progress in the protection and prevention of human rights violations.

Many thanks again to the CAT for its support and collaboration. I look forward to the dialogue that will follow this presentation.