Webwatch: UK National Preventative Mechanism

The UK National Preventative Mechanism (UK NPM) have just launched their new website.  

The UK NPM was established for the protection of people in detention through independent monitoring and is made up of 20 statutory bodies that monitor places of detention.

In coordination across the four home nations, the UK NPM focuses attention on practices in detention that could amount to ill-treatment, and works to ensure its own approaches are consistent with international standards for independent detention monitoring.

The organisation was established in March 2009 after the UK ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in December 2003.

The UK NPM ensures regular visits to places of detention in order to prevent torture and other ill-treatment, as required by OPCAT. OPCAT recognises that people in detention are particularly vulnerable and requires States to set up a national level body that can support efforts to prevent their ill treatment.

Find oure more at: www.nationalpreventivemechanism.org.uk