A/HRC/16/52
41.
The Special Rapporteur will also engage with the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime and the World Health Organization to help facilitate the integration of a humanrights approach into drug-use prevention, treatment and managed care, not only in detention
centres, but also with regard to vulnerable groups in which persons may be deprived of
their liberty, including in relation to the physically challenged, persons with intellectual
disability and the terminally ill.
42.
The Special Rapporteur looks forward to working with regional bodies, such as the
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT); the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa; the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) and other relevant bodies, to further strengthen international and regional
standards on the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
43.
The methods of work4 of the Special Rapporteur on Torture require that the Special
Rapporteur maintain contact and, where appropriate, engage in consultation with related
bodies and mechanisms of the United Nations human rights machinery, including the Board
of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and the
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (E/CN.4/1997/7, Annex, paragraph
10). The Special Rapporteur considers the Fund of great importance to the work of nongovernmental organizations that provide humanitarian assistance to victims of torture and
members of their family. In that respect, the Special Rapporteur will continue to work
closely with the Fund with a view to complementing his victim-centred approach and
ensuring victims are included in judicial processes and have access to appropriate remedies
and reparation.
44.
The Special Rapporteur, as did his predecessors, urges Governments and other donor
organisations to support the work of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of
Torture through financial and other means so as to enable it to continue providing
appropriate assistance to organizations working to meet the psychological, medical, social,
legal and economic needs of victims and survivors of torture.
45.
Given the special emphasis that international law places on prosecuting crimes of
torture, the Special Rapporteur looks forward to working closely with the International
Criminal Court and other international tribunals of criminal justice, while respecting the
respective spheres of those bodies. He also hopes to encourage States to ensure that torture
is enshrined as a criminal offence in domestic legislation and hence subject to prosecution,
as provided for under article 4 of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter “the Convention”), and to
disseminate such actions as “best practices” where they are effective and respect fair trial
guarantees. The Special Rapporteur strongly believes that, in this context, the threat of
prosecution and punishment can serve a very effective preventive purpose.
B.
Country visit methodology
46.
The Special Rapporteur wholly embraces, and reiterates the importance of, strict
adherence to the methods of work established and refined under previous mandate holders5.
4
5
10
See E/CN.4/1997/7, Annex, approved by the Commission in resolution 2001/62
(E/CN.4/RES/2001/62), paragraph 30.
See E/CN.4/2006/6, paragraphs 20-27.
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