Malta made progress in the prevention of torture and ill-treatment of people deprived of their liberty but more needed to be done, UN rights experts said.

In a statement following their first official visit to the country between Monday and today they said: “We acknowledge the first step the Maltese authorities have taken towards preventing torture and ill-treatment by ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and designating two monitoring bodies,” Mari Amos, who headed the delegation from the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, said.

However, she said that significant work still needed to be done to make these bodies fully independent and effective in line with the protocol and other relevant international standards

During its visit, the delegation held capacity-building exercises with the boards of visitors of the prisons and detained persons. It also conducted a number of joint visits to places of detention. It said that separate confidential reports with observations and recommendations would be submitted to the government and Maltese national preventive mechanisms.

The SPT’s role is to prevent and eliminate torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment of detainees. It has a mandate to visit all States that are parties to OPCAT and to make recommendations to the authorities to provide for effective safeguards against torture and ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.

For the subcommittee, the key to preventing torture and ill-treatment lies in building constructive relations with the state concerned, and its guiding principles are cooperation and confidentiality.

The Optional Protocol on the Prevention of Torture has to date been ratified by 73 countries.