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FACT SHEET
Monitoring of Places of Detention (Optional Protocol
to the Convention Against Torture) Bill 2013
The Bill is based on a national model Bill to allow Australia to
ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment which Australia signed in 2009.
The Optional Protocol establishes a system of regular visits
undertaken by independent international and national bodies to
places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to
prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
This Bill provides for periodic visits to places of detention by
the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of
Torture.
The Bill provides the United Nations Sub-Committee with
access to places of detention, as well as information on
detainees and sets out duties of detaining authorities.
A place of detention is any place where a person is deprived of
their liberty, including prisons, police stations, psychiatric
institutions, juvenile detention centres, and migrant detention
centres.