BackOn 9 May 2013 the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution appointing the Portuguese Ombudsman as the National Preventive Mechanism envisaged in the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).
It should be recalled that, in February 2013, pursuant to a proposal from the Portuguese Ombudsman, a law came into force amending the Statute of this institution, to include, inter alia, a new provision explicitly stating that the Ombudsman may carry out the function of independent national institution for the monitoring of the implementation of international treaties and conventions on human rights, when appointed to that effect.
Prior to this, in September 2012, the Portuguese Ombudsman, Mr. Alfredo José de Sousa, had addressed a letter to the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, stressing the need to urgently conclude the process for ratification of the OPCAT, so as to comply with Portugal’s human rights international obligations in that domain.
In his letter Mr. de Sousa also noted that the ratification process had been pending for years and that the Portuguese Ombudsman had already manifested his availability to take on the role of National Preventive Mechanism – a solution which he considered to be the most effective, since the Ombudsman already complied with the requirements of articles 1, 3, 4 and 19 of the OPCAT and had, since the nineties of the twentieth century, carried out sustained work with regard to the penitentiary system and the rights of inmates, in an independent way and with specialized staff.
source: Portuguese Ombudsman
