Out this week in Oz.

Don't let torturers off the hook: UNCynthia Banham
June 25, 2009
THE public officials, lawyers and doctors involved in ordering, developing and implementing torture policies - as well as the perpetrators - should not be let off the hook, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said.

And the commissioner's regional representative for the Pacific says Australia could do more to promote issues about torture in the region, which has one of the poorest rates of ratifying international human rights treaties.

In a statement to mark the international day in support of victims of torture tomorrow, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 had a "devastating impact" on the fight to eliminate torture, with some states previously careful not to practice or condone torture becoming "less scrupulous", and government lawyers looking for "ingenious ways" to get around the UN Convention Against Torture.

As the debate continues in the US over what to do about the Bush administration officials responsible for its torture policies carried out in places such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, Ms Pillay said the Convention Against Torture made it clear that "people who order or inflict torture cannot be exonerated, and the roles of certain lawyers, as well as doctors who have attended torture sessions, should also be scrutinised".

She said there was "still much to do before the Guantanamo chapter is truly brought to a close". This included trying before a court of law its remaining inmates or setting them free, while those who were at risk of torture or other ill-treatment in their country of origin "must be given a new home, where they can start to build a new life".

The UN this week will also publish a report into the gaps in anti-torture policies and laws in the Pacific region, where only two countries - Australia and New Zealand - have ratified the Convention Against Torture.

Matilda Bogner, the regional representative for the Pacific office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Suva, told The Age Australia could "do more in the Pacific region to promote human rights", including to stress the importance of countries signing up to the convention.

"There's great room for improvement," she said.

Ms Bogner said Australia, as a huge aid donor in the region, had a large program on policing and the training of police, and it could strengthen its program to incorporate human rights and issues about torture.

Canberra could also raise the issue at a political level, and "explain what Australia is doing to try and stop torture", and offer help to other states in the region to do the same.

The Federal Government has committed to ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against torture - something the Howard government refused to do.

It has also said it will introduce legislation making torture a federal criminal offence.

But Ms Bogner said Australia had to ensure the systems it put in place under the Optional Protocol to monitor places of detention were strong and independent to deter law enforcement officers and prison officers from breaching laws against torture and ill-treatment.