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Government commits to prohibiting torture

3 March 2008, 02:59PM

We welcome the announcement by the Australian Government that it is looking to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

This Protocol provides for greater transparency by allowing for inspections of places where people are detained to ensure Australia is complying with its obligations under the Convention.

Since 2003, Amnesty International has called for the Australian Government to ratify this Optional Protocol.

The announcement represents a great step towards reaffirming Australia's commitment to the prohibition against torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

We also wholeheartedly welcome moves towards explicitly prohibiting torture in Australia's federal criminal laws. While the proposed legislation has not yet been developed, Amnesty International is pleased that this oversight in our federal criminal laws is finally being addressed.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald article.

Your say

Do you think the U.S. should ratify the Optional Protocol?

Comments

Comments are submitted by members of the public and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Amnesty International Australia. If you find a comment objectionable please contact the web editor.

9

Donna Azar
11 March 2008, 10:29AM Notify the web editor

I wholeheartedly support your comments welcoming Australian moves to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. I hope that the US will do the same

8

Donna Azar
11 March 2008, 10:15AM Notify the web editor

these people need to stop wat they r doing and love one and other as God has loved u

7

Ashman P
9 March 2008, 03:25PM Notify the web editor

This is great news. But torture affects all people across all nations. So ratifying this protocol is essentially meaningless if the Australian government continues to be silent when others, particularly its allies, continue to use torture.

Today George Bush vetoed a new law attempting to ban the CIA from using water-boarding torture. I’d like to see Kevin Rudd have the courage to rebuke Bush, and demand his cooperation with the anti-torture legislation.

6

lavinia moore
7 March 2008, 10:17AM Notify the web editor

USA ought to ratify the protocol, but before that they must stgop torturing.
What i would like the rudd government to consider is to use diplomatic contacts with states who are known to torture to cease and desist, otherwise there will be consequences.
they could include targetted sanctions.
I dont beleive that the option of no longer talking to such states is at all productive. Dialogue is important, but as a state that will have ratified the protocol, we ought not to be palsy with states that torture.
No matter who they are.
And i think we should say so.
If we put economics before the rights of the tortured, we are in effect colluding with torturers.
I for one do not wish to do that.
I am very happy that the rudd government on behalf of Australian people is to ratify this protocol. Should have been done before.
Thanks.
And keep up you great work.

5

Tony Miller
7 March 2008, 07:17AM Notify the web editor

Step by step we as a nation wash ourselves from our dark recent past. A past that accepted torture, a past that accepted the locking up indefinately of innocent people and a past that refused even a token “sorry” to be said to the original peoples of this land. Slowly and surely I am becoming happier to call myself an Aussie.

4

Moloney
6 March 2008, 11:16PM Notify the web editor

How good it will be to be an Australian citizen with a government that actually represents what I believe in i.e. International Law, justice and dignity for all and asylum for genuine refugees.  Detention centres should be renamed assessment centres where claims for refugee status are assessed while claimants are treated with compassion and respect and not as criminals, shunned by society, without recourse to humane treatment.

3

margaret moran
6 March 2008, 09:04PM Notify the web editor

One more step by the current Aust. govt. that shows we now have a govt with a conscience and also intelligence regarding such an important issue as torture.  There is no ambiguity about torture, but Ruddock and Howard tried to have us believe that we were “above reproach” when in reality we were far from it.  Now our detention centres can be inspected to guarantee we comply with human rights.

2

Joel Dignam
6 March 2008, 04:54PM Notify the web editor

Absolutely the US should ratify the Optional Protocol. But before that, maybe they could even consider not using torture. I suppose the two go hand in hand, really.

1

Mark Johnston
6 March 2008, 03:47PM Notify the web editor

I wholeheartedly support your comments welcoming Australian moves to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. I hope that the US will do the same.

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