Booklet on prevention and combating torture in South Africa
The South African NGO Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) has with support from RCT published a booklet called: "Preventing and Combating torture in South Africa- A framework for action under CAT and OPCAT", written by Lukas Muntingh.
South Africa has ratified the UN Convention against Torture and
other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) in
1998, which commits the state to implement measures to prevent and
combat torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment. Furthermore, South Africa has signed the Optional
Protocol to CAT (OPCAT) in 2006 but has yet to ratify the
convention (to be bound by its content).
During apartheid, torture and arbitrary deprivation of liberty were
widespread and institutionalized in South Africa and sadly the
practice of torture has not seized with the end of the apartheid
system in 1994.
In the post-apartheid era it has become evident that many
attitudes, practices and habits from the previous regime have
survived, especially in places where people are deprived of their
liberty. The debate on torture in South Africa focuses mostly on
the treatment of prisoners, detainees in police custody,
undocumented foreigners, children in secure care facilities, and
patients in psychiatric hospitals.
The booklet aims to provide more information to decision-makers and
stakeholders on the challenges relating to preventing and combating
torture. The booklet provides an introduction to both CAT and
OPCAT, and outlines South Africa's obligations under CAT and
eventually under OPCAT, when South Africa ratifies the protocol.
The information in the booklet is delivered in a very pedagogic
manner and the style is one of question-and-answer. Examples of
questions addressed are: What is torture and does it happen in
South Africa? What can be done to prevent and combat torture in
South Africa under CAT? How can government and civil society
cooperate on CAT?
Written by Liv Østergaard