A Disability Aware Approach to Torture Prevention? Australian OPCAT Ratification and Improved Protections for People with Disability

Abstract

In 2017, Australia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). Ratification of OPCAT presents as a unique opportunity to highlight the institutional treatment of people with disability in a range of sites of detention within Australia and build on advancing international protections for people with disability, including those articulated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(CRPD).This article considers the opportunity presented by OPCAT for improving protections for people with disability against torture and ill-treatment. The article argues for an expansive definition of ‘sites o..