UN Torture Prevention Body To Visit Bolivia

GENEVA (28 November 2024) - The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will visit the Plurinational State of Bolivia from 1 to 12 December to evaluate the treatment of people in various places of deprivation of liberty, and assess the existing preventive measures for torture and ill-treatment.

The upcoming mission, which has been announced and planned since 2023, is the SPT’s third visit to the country.

“We look forward to engaging constructively with Bolivian authorities to review the implementation of our recommendations from our 2010 and 2017 visits,” said Marie Brasholt, head of the SPT delegation. “We will assess progress, address challenges in preventing torture, and continue collaborating with the country’s independent monitoring body, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM).”

Bolivia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in 2006, and established its NPM in 2013. In 2021, pursuant to Bolivian Law Nº 1397, the Ombudsperson was designated as the new NPM.

The SPT is authorized by its mandate to conduct unannounced visits to all places where individuals are deprived of their liberty within the territory of a State party.

During the visit, the SPT delegation will meet with government authorities, representatives of civil society, UN agencies, and the NPM and conduct joint visits to detention facilities with the NPM.

Following the visit, the delegation will send a report to the State party, which will remain confidential unless and until the Bolivian authorities decide to make it public, as was the case with the second report in 2017. The SPT’s first report to the Bolivian authorities, dated 2011, remains confidential.

The SPT delegation is comprised of Marie Brasholt, head of the delegation (Denmark), Massimiliano Bagaglini (Italy), Maria Andrea Casamento (Argentina), and Marco Feoli Villalobos (Costa Rica), along with two members of the SPT secretariat and two security officials.

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