Monitoring of Places of Detention (Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture) Act 2018

This section applies if the subcommittee requests access to a place of detention.

A responsible entity for the place of detention must ensure that the subcommittee and any accompanying expert or assistant are given unrestricted access to every part of the place.

However, if the detaining authority considers that 1 or more grounds mentioned in the Optional Protocol, article 14 (2) may temporarily prevent the carrying out of a visit by the subcommittee, the authority may prohibit or restrict access to the place of detention so that the Commonwealth Attorney‑General may, under a Ministerial arrangement, be requested, and decide whether or not, to object to the visit.

Also, the authority may prohibit or restrict access to the place of detention if––

an objection to the subcommittee’s visit has been made by the Commonwealth Attorney‑General, under the Ministerial arrangements, on 1 or more of the grounds mentioned in the Optional Protocol, article 14 (2); and

the objection has not been withdrawn or otherwise resolved by the Commonwealth Attorney‑General under the Ministerial arrangements.

Note Under the Optional Protocol, art 14 (2) an objection to a visit to a particular place of detention may be made only on urgent and compelling grounds of national defence, public safety, natural disaster or serious disorder in the place to be visited.

In this section:

assistant––see section 11 (3).