Torture Prevention: UN Anti-Torture Bodies Warn Liquidity Crisis Is Halving Detention Visits and Meeting Time

Summary

On 15 October 2026, the chairs of the two United Nations treaty bodies dedicated to the prohibition of torture briefed the Third Committee of the General Assembly in New York. Claude Heller, Chair of the Committee against Torture, and María Luisa Romero, Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, presented their annual reports remotely and described how the Organization's liquidity crisis has reduced their capacity to monitor places of detention and review States.

According to UN Meetings Coverage, Ms. Romero told delegates that "prevention cannot be done from afar" and that "no crisis can be above and beyond our collective responsibility to prevent torture." This report summarises the two chairs' findings, the wider warnings about the treaty body system heard the same day, the views expressed by Member States and the relevant international standards.

Background: The UN Anti-Torture System and the Liquidity Crisis

The Committee against Torture monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, reviewing periodic reports from States parties and examining individual complaints. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture was established under the Optional Protocol to the Convention (OPCAT) and carries out preventive visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty, working alongside national preventive mechanisms that States parties are required to set up.

According to UN Meetings Coverage of the same day's proceedings, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio reported that 40 per cent of the human rights treaty bodies' meeting time was cancelled in 2025 because of the liquidity crisis. She said the cuts had "reduced deliverables and have limited access and remedies for rights-holders and victims of human rights violations," and urged Member States to ensure predictable funding and submit their reports on time.

Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture: Fewer Visits and Sessions

Presenting the Subcommittee's 19th annual report, Ms. Romero said that only four of eight planned visits could be carried out in 2025, to Peru, Serbia, New Zealand and Mozambique. During those missions, she said, the Subcommittee visited more than 100 places of deprivation of liberty and interviewed more than 900 people, finding recurrent problems including overcrowding, excessive use of pretrial detention, limited alternatives to detention and alarming situations for children deprived of liberty.

According to the UN's automatically generated transcript of the meeting, she said the Subcommittee's visit budget for 2026 was again halved. She listed visits to France and Sri Lanka, with Paraguay and Ghana planned before the end of the year, and said cost control measures had allowed additional visits to Mexico in 2026 and to Rwanda in January 2027.

Ms. Romero said the Subcommittee was meant to meet for four weeks a year but met for three weeks in 2025 and will meet for only two weeks in 2026, with its first 2027 session not expected until May. She appealed to States to restore funding for eight visits and four weeks of meetings each year, while acknowledging efforts to "do more with less."

National Preventive Mechanisms and Ratification

Ms. Romero expressed concern that 12 States parties have not yet established national preventive mechanisms as the Optional Protocol requires, and welcomed the establishment of such mechanisms in 2025 by Australia, Benin, Madagascar, Nigeria and South Africa. She said OPCAT now has 96 States parties, following recent ratifications by Bangladesh and Colombia, and that around 80 national preventive mechanisms operate worldwide.

Committee against Torture: Lost Meeting Time and Postponed Reviews

Mr. Heller said that, because of the Organization's financial situation and cash conservation measures adopted between July 2025 and December 2026, the Committee will have lost nine weeks of meeting time. He also cited the termination of contracts of staff supporting the Committee's secretariat and the OHCHR Petitions Section.

According to the meeting transcript, the Committee adopted concluding observations on eight State reports during the period covered by its annual report (A/81/44), half the number originally planned, and six country reviews scheduled for this year have been postponed because sessions for 2027 have not been confirmed. The Committee examined 41 individual complaints across its last two sessions. Mr. Heller also called for the reinstatement of hybrid meetings, saying their discontinuation since January 2024 has limited participation by civil society organisations.

Wider Warnings Across the Treaty Body System

UN Meetings Coverage reported that other treaty body chairs raised similar concerns. Preeti Saran, Chair of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, said that "crisis management is not reform." Changrok Soh, Chair of the Human Rights Committee, reported that an entire session had been cancelled for the second consecutive year and said: "I appeal to the General Assembly to ensure that the treaty bodies can operate properly."

Views Expressed by Member States

In a statement published by the European External Action Service, the European Union said: "Torture is an abhorrent attack on human dignity. It can never be justified, whether in times of conflict, political instability or public emergency." UN Meetings Coverage reported that the EU representative called on Member States to pay their assessed contributions in full and on time. Switzerland and Ireland, according to the transcript, expressed concern about the effect of the liquidity crisis on the Committee's sessions and the Subcommittee's preventive visits, and Cameroon noted that treaty body chairs had been required to present their reports virtually rather than in person.

Other delegations, while affirming their commitment to the absolute prohibition of torture, raised concerns about the working methods of the treaty bodies. According to the transcript, China urged the Committee to remain objective, impartial and non selective and to avoid relying on unverified information, Israel said treaty bodies should examine submissions more critically and keep their reports free of political bias, and Iran described what it called selectivity and double standards in the work of some human rights mechanisms. The delegations of Ukraine and the Russian Federation each accused the other side's forces of torturing prisoners of war, and each called for international scrutiny of those allegations.

The Chair's Response

In his reply, according to the transcript, Mr. Heller said the Committee considers all communications it receives, compares them with its various sources and draws its own conclusions. Responding to Israel, he said the Committee's concluding observations following its dialogue with Israel unambiguously condemned the atrocities committed on 7 October 2023. Responding to the Russian Federation, he pointed to paragraphs 17 and 18 of the Committee's concluding observations on Ukraine, which he said address secret detention centres and violations against Russian prisoners in Ukraine.

Relevant International Standards

The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is absolute and non derogable under article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture, which provides in article 2 that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked as a justification. The Optional Protocol, which entered into force in 2006, obliges States parties to receive visits from the Subcommittee and to maintain independent national preventive mechanisms. The funding of treaty body meetings is drawn from the UN regular budget, which is financed by assessed contributions from Member States.

Taskforce Note

The Global HR Taskforce will continue to monitor developments, including General Assembly budget decisions affecting the treaty bodies, the Subcommittee's remaining 2026 visits and the scheduling of postponed reviews by the Committee against Torture. Sources: UN Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, "No Crisis Can Supersede Our Collective Responsibility to Prevent Torture, Third Committee Hears, as Funding Cuts Cripple Human Rights System," GA/SHC/4444, 15 October 2026; UN Transcripts, Third Committee, 17th meeting, 81st session, 15 October 2026 (automatically generated, not an official record); European External Action Service, EU Statement at the Third Committee interactive dialogue with the Chairs of the Committee against Torture and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, 15 October 2026; Report of the Committee against Torture, A/81/44; Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.