The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)published the report on its fourth periodic visit to Ireland which tookplace in October 2006: http://www.mediafire.com/?9kpzk9nhjst. The report, among other things, claims that many of the State prisons are unsafe and degrading and calls for extensive changes to be made to protect the rights of those in detention. The report also documents a number of incidences of ill-treatment in Garda custody.In response to the report, the government has denied that some prisons are unsafe, however, it has committed itself to an overhaul of standards across the prison service. This report, and its media coverage, highlights the benefit of external scrutiny on internal policy. Let's hope that our new Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, takes the report's findings and puts them into action. Perhaps he will see to the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Torture Convention along the way!
Thanks to Michelle Farrell for submitting this.
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