The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its impact on the prevention of torture were some of the issues subjected to debate and analysis in an event organised in Argentina by the London University and the Institute for the Study of the Americas.
During the course of the event, from 13-14 December 2011, the APT highlighted the importance of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture and the role of the National Preventive Mechanisms, as powerful instruments to prevent the deplorable practice of torture in the region. APT encouraged participants to use the UPR process to ratify and implement the abovementioned Protocol.
Throughout this initiative, sponsored by the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, an important number of national human rights institutions from the region (some of them in charge of NMP mandates) shared their experiences with scholars and representatives of the universal and the Inter-American systems in the context of the UPR.
Similarly, participants raised challenges they would face in the near future regarding the prevention of torture in a region where the high impunity rate towards perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment has turned into an important problem to address when we talk about torture.
