AI-Good News! DOP To CAT Adopted By UN General Assembly!!

-----Original Message-----

From: campaigners@stoptorture.org [mailto:campaigners@stoptorture.org]

Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:58 AM

To: ghandchi@yahoo.com

Subject: GOOD NEWS! DOP TO CAT ADOPTED BY UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY!!

Dear Friends,

You will recall that we have called on you twice this year to take action in support of the Draft Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (DOP-CAT): first in April to lobby around the time of the UN Human Rights Commission and second in July at the meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The text of the DOP-CAT was passed at these two institutions and the next step was to get the UN General Assembly to adopt the text as well.

We are very happy to inform you that on Thursday, November 7, the Third Committee of the General Assembly, which had the mandate to look into the DOP-CAT, adopted the text with an overwhelming majority of 104 votes in favour. 8 countries (the US, China, Cuba, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Syria, and Viet Nam) voted against the adoption and 37 (among them Australia and Egypt) abstained.

Earlier, the UN member States resoundingly defeated a USA proposal that would have effectively denied many developing States the opportunity to join this initiative to prevent torture. The USA and Japan sought to make States who ratify the Optional Protocol solely responsible for the costs of the instrument, rendering effective torture prevention a privilege only for wealthy States. This is contrary to long-standing practice for the funding of all the human rights mechanisms from the UN regular budget.

The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture will help prevent acts of torture before they can occur. This represents a new approach for UN human rights protection. It will establish a system of regular visits to places of detention by an international body of experts, complemented by sustained regular visits conducted by national visiting bodies.

Visits by independent experts, enabled to make concrete recommendations, have proven to be one of the most effective means to prevent torture.

The Optional Protocol will now be presented for its formal adoption during the plenary session of the UN General Assembly in December and will subsequently be open for signature. It will enter into force once 20 states ratify it.

We wish to thank all of you who took part in the various actions that has led to this brilliant result. You kept the necessary pressure on diplomats which was critical in ensuring that so many of the 191 members of the General Assembly supported the Optional Protocol in the vote yesterday.

Many thanks for all your support. Together we will stamp out torture.

Campaign against Torture Team

Amnesty International