(source)
There’s an optional protocol to the CAP, which provides for the establishment of “a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. The following countries have signed or ratified this protocol:
(source)
If it’s generally true that countries sign treaties because they believe in them, then we can claim that the first map shows the extent of the universal acceptance of the immorality of torture, not of course the extent of actual torture. It corroborates what I wrote before on the legal and moral universality of human rights. For a more pessimistic view of legal universality, go here.
More about the CAT is here; more on torture here; other maps on international support for human rights are here; other human rights maps are here.
- U.N. urges Iraq to ratify convention against torture (cnn.com)
- NGOs, CSOs task FG on criminalising torture (vanguardngr.com)
- MI5 Agents ‘At Risk’ Over Torture Guidelines (news.sky.com)
