Norway has strengthened efforts to prevent torture, by ratifying the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture 
Oslo, June 30 (DP.net).─ "Torture is unacceptable and nothing can justify its use. It is therefore vital that we support efforts to strengthen international rules relating to the prevention of torture," said Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (photo).
The objective of the Optional Protocol is to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by establishing a system of regular visits by independent bodies to places of detention, including prisons, police detention cells, psychiatric institutions and other places where people are deprived of their liberty.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman has been designated as the institution responsible for monitoring efforts to prevent torture in Norway. Prisons and other places of detention may also be visited by the UN's Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture.
Whereas 153 states are party to the Convention against Torture itself, only 69 are party to the Optional Protocol.
People may contact the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture here:
Postal address
Secretariat of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 917 93 32
Fax: +41 22 917 90 22
E-mail: opcat@ohchr.org
The SPT was established pursuant to the provisions of the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture ("OPCAT"). The OPCAT was adopted on December 2002 by the General Assembly of the United Nations and entered into force in June 2006.
[ Full text of the Optional Protocol ]