UN Torture Prevention Body Postpones First 2025 Visit Amid UN Liquidity Financial Crisis

GENEVA (20 February 2025) – The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) announced today that it was left with no choice but to postpone its planned first visit of the year to Serbia, owing to the lack of funding as a result of the ongoing UN liquidity crisis.

The SPT had planned Serbia as its first country visit in 2025, followed by Burundi, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, New Zealand, France and Afghanistan.

“We are deeply concerned at being unable to exercise our visiting mandate because of a lack of funds,” said María Luisa Romero, newly elected Chair of the Subcommittee.

“The SPT is a unique treaty body that does not review regular State reports like the other nine UN human rights treaty bodies. Instead, our work is carried out in the field, conducting unannounced visits to various places of deprivation of liberty in our States parties. The current UN liquidity crisis has paralysed our operations, severely limiting our ability to support torture prevention in these countries,” she added.

“The fact that we cannot carry out our essential work must call the most urgent attention of the international community. We urge swift resolution so that we can resume our visiting mandate. Otherwise, the collective commitment to protect people deprived of liberty from torture risks becoming an unfulfilled promise,” she said.

The decision came after the Subcommittee’s conclusion of its most recent session, in which it also debriefed on the two last visits of 2024, to the Plurinational State of Bolivia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In its latest session, the SPT also met with States Parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) to update them on the progress of its work in 2024 as well as held numerous bilateral meetings with the States visited in 2024 and those scheduled for visits in 2025.

During the session the Subcommittee also convened its annual regional meetings with national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) on the newly adopted General Comment No. 1. This seminal document clarifies the broad definition of “places of deprivation of liberty” paramount to the torture prevention work the NPMs and SPT do worldwide.

Additionally, the SPT met with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions and the United Against Torture Consortium to identify areas of common interest and collaboration.

The SPT also discussed and adopted the Subcommittee’s annual report, set for publication in the coming weeks, which will follow a newly streamlined layout. “Our natural partners are the NPMs worldwide. It is crucial that we support the NPMs to enable them to maximise their mandates. Going forward, our annual report will become yet another tool that the SPT will deploy to strengthen its advisory role vis-à-vis the NPMs,” said Romero.

Under the OPCAT, the SPT monitors conditions and treatment for people deprived of liberty by conducting unannounced visits to police stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, immigration detention centres and other places of deprivation of liberty. The SPT also works with domestic monitoring bodies, the NPMs, as well as human rights institutions, government authorities, and civil society to strengthen torture preventive measures.

Since its last session in November, the SPT made public the reports of its visits to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Georgia following the request from the respective States Parties. The SPT welcomed such publications as this contributes to strengthen prevention of torture and ill-treatment. The SPT also transmitted its confidential report to Mongolia following the visit to the State party in May 2024 and invited Mongolia to follow the practice of making the visit report public.

During its 55th session the SPT also elected its new bureau for the 2025-2026 term. In addition to Romero as Chairperson, the following members were elected as Vice-Chairpersons: Marie Brasholt (External Relations), Hamet Saloum Diakhate (Visits), Shujune Muhammad (Rapporteur) and Elīna Šteinerte (NPMs). Anica Tomsic was elected as Rapporteur on reprisals.

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