Verkhovna Rada ratifies international human rights documents

Parliament today ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT) with 274 votes “for”, as well as the European Social Charter.

Implementation of OPCAT will be difficult since additional funding has not been allowed for, and such funding will be required. Nonetheless the opportunity has now appeared to demand that the government fulfils Ukraine’s commitments.

As reported already, the Optional Protocol came into effect on 22 June this year.

It envisages visits by experts from the UN Committee against Torture to closed institutions (temporary holding facilities, penal institutions, psychiatric hospitals, etc) and the creation of a system for the monitoring of such closed institutions by independent national institutions.

The law on ratification vests the Human Rights Ombudsperson with the duty of organizing such monitoring.