The National Preventive Mechanism A Key Human Rights Component of Well-Functioning Democracy

Pavel Doubek

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 15卷2期 (2019/12) Pp. 165-194

摘要

The concept of a liberal democratic society requires that the state power is governed by the principle of rule of law and respects, protects, and fulfills the fundamental human rights and basic freedoms of every human being. A democratic society further establishes active oversight mechanisms, ensuring that its foundations are effectively protected. The National Preventive Mechanism, a unique oversight body that reveals and addresses torture and ill-treatment, acts which attack the very nature of democratic values, is indisputably a key component of a well-functioning democracy. However, only the understanding of how the NPM truly works and what its philosophy is will create a genuinely effective guardian of human rights and democratic values.

關鍵字

Convention against Torture ； human rights ； ill-treatment ； National Preventive Mechanism ； Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture ； ombudsman ； place of detention ； torture

參考文獻

Aharon Barak, Human Dignity-The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Art. 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

art. 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 10th Anniversary of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) (2016), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/OPCAT/Pages/OPCAT10.aspx (accessed May 20, 2019).

Steven Caruana, Enhancing Best Practice Inspection Methodologies for Oversight Bodies with an Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture Focus-UK, Norway, Switzerland, Malta, Greece, New Zealand, Churchill Fellowship (2017), p. 19, https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/media/fellows/Caruana_S_2017_inspection_methodologies_for_oversight_bodies_with_an_OPCAT_focus.pdf (accessed May 10, 2019), 19.