Monitoring places of detention

OPCAT is an international human rights treaty designed to support the protection of individuals in places of detention from torture and other ill treatment.

Rather than create new human rights, it builds on the existing obligations to prevent torture and other ill treatment contained in the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

OPCAT recognises that places of detention are where risks of torture and other ill treatment can be at their greatest. As a result, OPCAT establishes a system of regular visits by independent bodies to places of detention, to improve treatment and conditions and support the prevention of torture and other ill treatment before it occurs.

To undertake these regular visits, OPCAT requires countries to establish independent monitoring bodies known as National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs).

It also requires countries to accept visits from the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT).

The places of detention subject to NPM and SPT oversight under OPCAT include, but are not limited to:

• prisons
• youth detention
• police holding cells
• court cells
• closed mental health facilities
• immigration detention facilities
• military detention
• forensic disability settings.

Australia became a party to OPCAT in December 2017, and was required to have established its own NPM by January 2023.

Australia has a ‘multi-body’ NPM consisting of different monitoring bodies known collectively as the Australian NPM.

However, membership of the Australian NPM is incomplete, as some governments are yet to nominate NPMs for their respective jurisdictions. Despite this, the members of the Australian NPM remain committed to the objectives of OPCAT.

Latest Publications from OPCAT

• 16 January 2025
  The Commonwealth NPM published a Post Visit Summary of their OPCAT monitoring visit to Defence detention facilities.

• 13 January 2025
  The Commonwealth NPM published a Post Visit Summary for their NPM visit to the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre.

• 17 December 2024
  The Commonwealth NPM published a Post Visit Summary of their OPCAT monitoring visits to the Brisbane Immigration Detention Centre and APOD

• 17 December 2024
  The Commonwealth NPM a Post Visit Summary of their OPCAT monitoring visits to Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre and Broadmeadows Residential Precinct.

• 12 December 2024
  The Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) launched their Global Report on Women in Prison.
  
  Along with NPMs from 45 other countries, members of the Australian NPM contributed to the report’s development. The APT’s report highlights significant challenges and systemic discrimination faced by women in prisons around the globe, calling for urgent reforms and greater use of alternatives to detention.

• 18 October 2024
  Members of the Australian NPM made a joint statement expressing deep concerns about the Northern Territory’s proposal to reintroduce the use of spit hoods on children.

• 14 October 2024
  Members of the Australian NPM made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee's inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system.

Further reports are available on the publications and resources pages for the Australian NPM and Commonwealth NPM.