Making human dignity violations proof; Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural.

• Position: GA 57 Session

Packing a punch for an better world, the Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) Committee, after ten years of negotiations, gave shape to a global system of inspections of places of detention to prevent torture of prisoners. The mechanism enables visits by independent international and national bodies to detention centres, "where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty". Called the "Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment", it helps in implementing the 1984 Convention agreed to by 129 countries.

Under the Protocol, the Subcommittee on prevention recommends measures to strengthen the protection of prisoners and requests States to put together domestic preventive measures. "The Optional Protocol is based on the approach of prevention, rather than monitoring and penalizing", Committee Chairman Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein told the UN Chronicle. "It is a known fact that torture is mostly carried out under specific circumstances and places--usually places of detention." In the General Assembly, 104 countries voted in favour of the Protocol, while eight--China, Cuba, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Viet Nam, Syria, United States--voted against, and 37 abstained.

Earlier, Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur on torture of the Commission on Human Rights, told the Committee in a backgrounder that a number of countries had tightened anti-terrorism measures, and the only "effective prophylactic" against terror was greater respect for human rights. The Committee also waged two other important resolutions on human rights: on the "Khmer Rouge trials" and on a Mexican initiative on "Protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism".

In the 1970s, some 1 million Cambodians were slain by the Khmer Rouge regime. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, Peter Leuprecht, told the Committee that after the "deafening silence" of the international community during the Khmer Rouge era and a period of indifference thereafter, it had become strongly involved in the country.

Ambassador Wenaweser said that the text constituted one of the biggest challenges to him. "There were strong differences of opinion as to the right moment to have the text put before the Committee for adoption", he said, "and as the Chair, I had to steer a clear and fair course". The Assembly voted 150 to none, with 30 abstentions, on the Khmer...