Amnesty International welcomes the passage today of historic legislation that confirms Australia’s opposition to torture and the death penalty.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 passed through the Senate today without amendments. This final step in the legislative process means that no state in Australia can reinstate the death penalty for any crime.

As well, Australia has now explicitly prohibited the use of torture, formally affirming Australia’s position that torture is never acceptable under any circumstances or at any time.

“Amnesty International applauds this important move in stating once and for all that we accept neither the death penalty nor torture for any reason,” said Amnesty International spokesperson Katie Wood. “Our millions of supporters around the world have been working for decades to prohibit the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”

Explicitly defining and prohibiting torture in Australian legislation brings the country further into line with its international obligations under the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The legislation passed today supplements a welcome commitment made by the government in 2008 to ratify the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The Optional Protocol provides national and international mechanisms for the inspection of places of detention to make sure they do not breach the Convention.

“The death penalty and torture are unacceptable practices. Now they cannot be engaged in by Australian authorities for any reason,” said Katie Wood. “The use of torture or the death penalty is an affront to human dignity and it is a fundamental breach of human rights.”

In line with a global trend towards abolition, the UN General Assembly in 2007 passed a resolution calling on member states to establish a moratorium on executions.