PIAC will lobby Commonwealth, state and territory governments this year as part of a major campaign to have the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) ratified and implemented by all Australian governments.

Australia signed the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 1985 and ratified it in 1989. PIAC is now looking forward to the ratification of OPCAT in 2012, following the Federal Labor Government announcement that Australia would sign and ratify the optional protocol in 2009.

OPCAT establishes an international monitoring body, the International Subcommittee on Prevention (ISP), which inspects places of detention.

If OPCAT is ratified, Australia would be required to ‘set up, designate or maintain at the domestic level one or several visiting bodies for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. Western Australia is the only Australian state or territory that currently has an independent prisons inspectorate that would most likely comply with OPCAT requirements.

OPCAT covers all places of detention, including prisons, locked psychiatric facilities, juvenile detention centres and immigration detention centres.

It provides a practical way, through independent inspectorates, of providing greater accountability and transparency in Australian places of detention.

In December 2011, PIAC and 28 other organisations including Amnesty International Australia and Civil Liberties Australia co-signed a letter to the Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon (pictured), urging the ratification of OPCAT.

If you or your organisation can assist with PIAC’s campaign to ensure that OPCAT is ratified as soon as possible, please contact Peter Dodd at PIAC on (02) 88986523 or at pdodd@piac.asn.au.

Photo: Attorney-General for Australia, the Hon Nicola Roxon.