Doha: (NHRC: 3-4/10/2010): The Workshop on "Protection of Prisoners and Persons Deprived of their Liberty" concluded it deliberation this afternoon: (Monday: 4/10/10) in the Diplomatic Club. The Workshop was jointly organized by NHRC and "Association for the Prevention of Torture-APT" in Geneva.
At the end of the session, certificates of participation in the Workshop were presented to participants by Mr. Sultan Jamali, NHRC head of the administrative and financial Affairs, Mr. Abdullah Al-Mahmoud, and NHRC head of public relations and, Ms. Esther Schaufelberger from the APT.
Preceding the seminar, the APT provided one-day training on detention monitoring to the staff of the NHRC.
The seminar was opened by H.E. Maryam Bint Abdallah Al-Attiya, Secretary General of NHRC. In her speech, her Excellency said jail authorities all over the world must provide humanitarian conditions to the convicts who are paying for the crimes they committed.
She said preserving the dignity of prisoners was part of the rehabilitating process to make them good citizens. Al-Attiya recalling Qatar’s entry to the anti-torture covenant, reminded that the Qatari law prevented torturous methods to extract confessions.
The following experts provided inputs: Nayef Alshamari from the NHRC, Nidal Jurdi from the Regional Office of OHCHR in Beirut, Wolfgang Heinz from the German Institute of Human Rights and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Europe and Esther Schaufelberger from the APT.
The seminar focused on the prohibition and prevention of torture in international law and provided an opportunity to share experience on prison standards. Participants also discussed the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT). In the framework of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council Qatar has accepted a recommendation to examine the possibility to ratify OPCAT.
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