27 Jun 2013

UN call on Pacific to support anti-torture policies

1:41 pm on 27 June 2013

The United Nations Human Rights Office is urging governments in the region to ratify policies to help address and prevent torture being practiced in the Pacific.

The Office's Pacific regional representative, Nancy Robinson, says recent cases of police in Papua New Guinea slashing the Achilles tendons of men, and a video showing two handcuffed men being beaten in Fiji show that torture does occur in the Pacific.

She says governments need to put legislative frameworks in place to articulate the absolute prohibition of torture and strengthen the mechanisms of accountability within the justice system.

Ms Robinson says only four countries in the Pacific have signed the UN Convention against Torture and there is no reason why other countries can't.