Torture and inhumane treatment in prisons was ”a casualty of Africa’s war on crime” international human rights expert Mumba Malila told a conference in Cape Town on Thursday.
Malila is special rapporteur on prisons for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The conference, attended by United Nations officials, representatives of the South African and other African human rights commissions, and academics, was called to debate mechanisms, including the United Nations’s Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat), to deal with abuse in prisons.
Opcat seeks to establish an international inspection system for prisons and other places of detention, including psychiatric hospitals.
Malila told the conference that people in Africa felt that a prison term was preferable to alternative forms of punishment, and that criminals deserved their punishment.
He spoke of the challenges facing Africa’s ratification of Opcat and national ”preventative mechanisms”.
”There is a significant level of ignorance regarding Opcat’s provisions and even its existence in Africa,” he said.
There was also a lack of political will as well as financial and administrative challenges, he said.
Malila said many African countries would be overwhelmed by the demands of the treaty.
He said that governments and decision makers were promoting longer prison terms and harsher prison conditions as the answer to crime.
A change of attitude among citizens and governments in Africa needed to be looked at, and prison authorities needed to be acquainted with human rights instruments for the mechanisms like Opcat to be successful.
Silvia Casale, chairperson of the UN subcommittee on the prevention of torture, said 35 countries had signed Opcat, of which five were in Africa.
Dr David Johnson, from the regional office of the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that few Southern African countries were ratifying the treaty.
”I don’t think it’s due to opposition or resistance,” he said.
He said he hoped the conference would help encourage more governments to follow the Opcat protocol.
Bacre Waly Ndiaye, director of the OHCHR’s human rights council and treaties division, said torture continues to be widespread in African prisons.
”Assaults on prisoners by warders and other prisoners remain a serious problem, including widespread prisoner-on-prisoner rape.
”Prisons lack basic infrastructure such as running water, sanitation and adequate food.” – Sapa