FOR : SKP

FROM : MPR
RE : OPCAT-SPT Dialogue last May 26, 2015 with the
Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the
Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs
DATE : June 2, 2015

Background
Members of the OPCAT-SPT Delegation:

1) Ms. Suzanne Jabbour (Head of Delegation), Lebanon

2) Mr. Arman Danielyan, Armenia
3) Ms. Marija Definis-Gojanovich, Croatia
4) Ms. Lorena Gonzalez Pinto, Guatemala
5) Mr. Milos Jankovic, Serbia
6) Ms. Aneta Stanchevska, Former Yugoslav Rep. of Macedonia

Philippine Government Officials

1) Undersecretary Severo S. Catura

Executive Director, Presidential Human Rights Secretariat (PHRC)

2) Gen. Doris R. Dorigo

Retired Jail Chief Superintendent
Detailed at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)

3) Lorena Joy P. Banagodos

Director of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Division
Office of the United Nations and International Organizations (UNIO),
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)

Statements from Ms. Jabbour during the May 26, 2015 Dialogue:

a.) Ms. Jabbour emphasized the mandate of the SPT to visit several
places of detention all over the country during their week-long
visit to the Philippines.

b.) She emphasized that country visits conducted by the SPT where
not geared towards blaming government officials for lapses and
misgivings in the implementation of commitments under the
OPCAT, but rather, their visit was aimed towards assessing the
needs of the individual persons deprived of liberty, the persons
 in charge of detention facilities together with their staff, and the
living conditions of the detention facilities.

c.) She reiterated that the SPT visits were aimed towards assessing
and advising the host government as to the basic elements and
function of a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM).

Suggestions of the SPT towards framing legislation for a National

Preventive Mechanism:

1. The law must have a clear mandate as to the independence,

administration, fiscal autonomy and functional independence of the
NPM.

2. In addition, there is no hard and fast rule as to the crafting of an

ideal NPM law, since it is the choice of the country on which
model to adopt, as long as it is based on the Optional Protocol on
the Prevention of Torture and the country’s domestic laws.