New York, USA, 03 May 2023-/African Media Agency(AMA)/The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has expressed concern over overcrowding in prisons in Madagascar, which he observed during his first visit to this country located off the southeast coast of Africa.
According to these independent UN experts, extreme prison overcrowding needs to be addressed urgently.
“The extreme overcrowding that we have seen in prisons, almost 1000% in some of them, requires immediate action by the Malagasy authorities,” said Juan Pablo Vegas, who led the delegation during a visit. visit to Madagascar from April 16 to 27.
For the UN subcommittee, with half of its prison population in preventive detention, Madagascar should reconsider its criminal policies.
It is thus a question of adopting urgent measures, including alternatives to imprisonment, to reduce “this serious level of overcrowding which constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions of detention, contrary to the standards of international law”.
A confidential report on how to prevent torture
It should be noted that during its visit to Madagascar, the sub-committee visited 30 places of deprivation of liberty in different regions of the country, including prisons, police and gendarmerie stations, Tobys (private houses affiliated with the churches that house people with mental disorders and practice exorcism among other methods of treatment) and psychiatric establishments.
The sub-committee conducted confidential and individual interviews with persons deprived of their liberty, prison and police officials, as well as health personnel.
The SPT also met with government authorities, the National Assembly, the judiciary, representatives of civil society and the Independent National Commission for Human Rights (CNIDH), which has been designated as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM ), as well as United Nations agencies present in the country.
Following its visit, the subcommittee will share a confidential report with the Malagasy government, which will include its observations and recommendations on how to prevent torture and ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for UN Info.
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)