“Stepped up efforts are made to establish the national anti-torture authority before the end of 2015, which would make Tunisia the first Arab country and the fourth in Africa to set up such a structure, said President of the Electoral Committee at the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) Badreddine Abdelkefi.
In a statement to TAP on the sidelines of the working session held by the Committee to discuss the progress of the process of establishment of that authority, Abdelkefi noted that this meeting focused on the presentation of former applications for the Office of that authority that had reached the Rights and Freedoms Committee of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), after the Administrative Court decided to maintain them to ensure the principle of continuity of the State.
“The committee had received more than 140 applications, i.e. nearly three times the number that has to be submitted to the plenary session that is 48,” added the same source.
Abdelkefi said the establishment of the national anti-torture prevention authority is part of the state’s commitment to create this structure after the ratification of the optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the relevant Law No. 43 dated October 2013.
He said the authority will be composed of 16 members representing various professions such as lawyers and retiring judges, physicians (including necessarily a psychiatrist), besides academic professions and experts in child protection as well as representatives of the civil society.
The law also states that the authority has administrative and financial autonomy and several preventive prerogatives including visits without advance notice to detention centres, the dissemination of the anti-torture culture, access to data, contact with complainants and collect of testimonies.
Part of Monday’s working session focused on ways to hold a workshop next September 17 on the establishment of the national anti-torture authority, in partnership with the Council of Europe and international organisations active in this area.
Source: http://www.tap.info.tn/en/index.php/politics2/29372-stepped-up-efforts-t...
