Switzerland

Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)

The OMCT is an independent, non-partisan, non-sectarian, Swiss international non-governmental organisation, founded in Geneva in 1985. It is today the leading global civil society network against torture including more than 200 local member organisations operating in over 90 countries around the world. Driven by the needs of its SOS-Torture Network members, the OMCT engages in all areas of anti-torture work, including prevention, accountability and assistance and protection for torture victims and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs).

The organisation’s International Secretariat is based in Geneva, with offices in Tunis and Brussels. The OMCT is a board member of the European Human Rights Defenders protection mechanism.

Date founded

1986             

Structure type

NGO             

Contact informations

8 rue du Vieux Billard
Secrétariat International, PO BOX 21
CH-1211 Geneva 8
Phone +41 22 809 49 39
Fax +41 809 49 29

Resources

Document(s)

The death penalty and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

on 21 August 2021


2021

NGO report

World Coalition

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

fr
More details See the document

The signatory organizations are convinced that the death penalty is incompatible with the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which is a peremptory norm of international law (jus cogens) and should thus be abolished. The death penalty is only tolerated by international law and standards to the extent that it may only be imposed for the most serious crimes and applied in a way that causes the least possible suffering. However, the signatory organizations believe that from the sentencing to the execution, the death penalty inevitably causes physical harm and psychological suffering amounting to torture or ill-treatments.

The present position paper documents the extent to which international and regional organisation have already recognised a violation of the absolution prohibitionof torture in the application and imposition of the death penalty.