The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has announced its plans for six country visits in 2026, including three missions postponed this year due to ongoing liquidity constraints at the UN. The previously deferred visits to Burundi, France, and Mexico will now proceed next year, alongside new visits to Paraguay, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka.
The SPT’s 2026 programme will commence with the mission to Mexico in January. In 2025, the Subcommittee was able to conduct only four visits Mozambique, New Zealand, Peru, and Serbia—representing half of its planned activities, highlighting the impact of limited resources.
The visit schedule was finalised during the SPT’s November session in Geneva, where members also reviewed their concluding 2025 visits to Mozambique and New Zealand.
“While our resources remain constrained, we remain committed to fulfilling our visiting mandate, even if at a slower pace,” said María Luisa Romero, Chair of the Subcommittee. “Direct engagement with States and independent national monitoring bodies through field visits and dialogue is vital for strengthening safeguards and advancing global torture prevention.”
The SPT also welcomed the recent ratifications of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) by Bangladesh and Colombia, bringing the total number of States Parties to 96. The Subcommittee will support these new members in establishing their independent national preventive mechanisms (NPMs), domestic bodies responsible for monitoring places of detention, which must be designated within one year of ratification.
“A key aspect of OPCAT is the work conducted by NPMs at the national level,” Romero added. “They continue to monitor prisons, police stations, and other detention facilities even when the Subcommittee cannot. Their ongoing efforts are essential to the effectiveness of the system, and we will provide guidance and capacity-building to strengthen their work.”
During the session, the SPT also adopted visit reports on Peru and Greece, which will be shared with the respective States with a request for public release. The Subcommittee met with the Committee against Torture to discuss joint policies and prepared for upcoming webinars on drug policy with NPMs. It also highlighted plans to advance work on social reintegration, building on the recent OHCHR report.
Under OPCAT, the SPT monitors the treatment of people deprived of liberty through unannounced visits to prisons, police stations, psychiatric hospitals, immigration centres, and other detention facilities. The Subcommittee collaborates closely with NPMs, human rights institutions, governments, and civil society to strengthen anti-torture safeguards worldwide.
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