Manila: A United Nation’s body is urging the Philippine authorities to address overcrowding in prisons and has called on the government to enact a law that will prevent torture and similar detainee abuses.
The six-member United Nation’s Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) observed and visited various prison and detention facilities in the country over ten-days.
The findings were submitted to Philippine officials along with the recommendations.
Topping the observation is what the SPT delegation described as “chronic” overcrowding in prisons.
“We hope, and expect, that the Government of the Philippines will use our report to improve the conditions of people deprived of their liberty, in particular by dealing with the chronic problem of overcrowding in places of detention. We encourage the Government to find solutions to overcrowding as a priority,” said Suzanne Jabbour, who headed the SPT delegation.
According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the Philippines has 1,137 inmates locked up in seven national prisons and 1,130 city, district, municipal and provincial jails.
The country has a prisoner population rate of 113 per 100,000 in 2013 and pretrial and remand detainees comprise 63.1 per cent of the total.
SPT, whose role is to prevent torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment of detainees, has a mandate to visit all states that are parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
Before the SPT report, Philippine prison conditions had been figuring in leaked, secretly recorded videos, which were posted on websites and highlighted prisoner abuse.
Most of the videos show harsh corporal punishment being imposed on the inmates.
SPT hopes the government would use the findings to improve its correction system.
The SPT also stressed the need for the country to enact a law to establish an effective national independent monitoring body, National Preventive Mechanism (NPM).
“We believe that an effective, independent and well-resourced NPM will be crucial to prevent torture and ill-treatment and to improve conditions of detention through a system of regular visits,” said Jabbour.
She said that the Philippines, to meet its treaty obligations, should have set up such an NPM by April 2013 and encouraged the government to move swiftly to establish it this year.
SPT said that among the places the experts visited were police stations, pretrial facilities, prisons, a juvenile rehabilitation centre, correctional institute for women, and a psychiatric hospital. The SPT delegation met relevant authorities including the Senate, the House of Representatives, members of government departments, and civil society representatives.
