UK Network on the Prohibition of Torture

Establishing a network of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers offering cross-disciplinary insights and policy recommendations on torture prohibition.

This project enabled the establishment of a network of practitioners, policymakers, and researchers with a professional and/or scholarly interest in actively contributing to torture prohibition. The network offers cross-disciplinary insight on torture prohibition and draws on the complementary strengths of participants spanning diverse sectors, organisations and disciplines.

The project held a workshop, held in London in November 2017, to offer cross-disciplinary insight on torture prohibition and to draw on the complementary strengths of the assembled participants spanning diverse sectors, organisations and disciplines. The wide range of participants in the workshop combined analytical expertise on torture prohibition with deep substantive knowledge on specific domains, sectors, and developments at all levels. Following this, a comprehensive report The Prohibition of Torture: Future Priorities for Research, Policy and Practice was published, led by UCL academics from the Faculty of Laws, the Global Governance Institute and the Institute of the Americas.

The report contains concrete proposals for input to and collaboration with the UK National Torture Prevention Mechanism established as part of the UK's international obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). The new Network on the Prohibition of Torture hopes to hold future policy exchanges and launch a project on immigration detention.

The workshop and establishment of the Network created a new collaboration between UCL Laws, the Global Governance Institute and the Institute of the Americas. One of the organisers and participants, UCL’s Dr Par Engstrom said, “The Network and the workshop was genuinely cross-disciplinary in spirit and in action, and involved a wide variety of stakeholders as reflected in the report. The workshop and the Network launch would not have been possible without interaction across disciplinary boundaries and the active involvement of external partners.”