Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) has restated the need for Nigeria to commit more to the eradication of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners.
The group noted that despite the enactment of the Anti-torture Act of 2017 and the accession to the Convention Against Torture and the Optional Protocol, torture remains widespread in the country.
Its Executive Director Uju Agomoh, made the call Sunday in a statement to commemorate the annual June 26 United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, expressing worry that accountability for perpetrators and remedy for victims are far from being actualized.
The statement urged the federal goverment to comply with its reporting obligations to the Committee Against Torture in line with Article 19 of the Convention Against Torture and to quickly take actions to implement the 2021 CAT.
”The continued inability of the Nigerian government to meet its reporting obligation, is a blight on our international image and any delay in implementing the Committee report, will further impugn the reputation of our country,” it said.
”Torture is described by the United Nations as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings. Torture is a crime against humanity which is said to seek annihilation of the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being. United Nations Convention Against Torture provides for absolute prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and calls on all nations of the world to do so in their national laws,” statement added.
The statement therefore urged the National Justice Institute to start massive training of judicial officers on the international, regional and national legal instruments that prohibit torture, to equip them with the right knowledge to superintend over torture related cases.
It also called on the National Assembly to kickstart the process for amendment of the Antitorture Act of 2017, to align it with the provisions of the Convention Against Torture especially as it concerns rehabilitation of Torture Victims and grant the National Committee on Torture, the requisite legal backing to adequately and independently discharge its mandate in line with the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.
”The federal government and the subnational units, should set up a committee to see to the implementation of the recommendations of the #ENDARS panel report relating to torture, and mandate the attorneys general to initiate legal proceedings against state officials accused of torture.
”The safeguards contained in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019, Police Act 2020 and other legislations, regarding pretrial detention, independent monitoring of places of detention, recording of arrests and database of persons in detention, should be quickly operationalized,” it added.
