Jakarta (ANTARA) - Cooperation for the Prevention of Torture (KuPP) urged the government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), conveyed by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Deputy Chairman Amiruddin Al Rahab.

KuPP comprises five state institutions: Komnas HAM, the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), the Indonesian Ombudsman, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), and the National Commission for Disability.

"We jointly encourage the government to ratify the Optional Protocol for the Convention against Torture," Al Rahab remarked at the press briefing of International Anti-Torture Day or officially the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, here Friday.

Al Rahab remarked that despite torture being unlawful and violating human rights, torture of human beings continued unabated.

"We (the five institutions) are concerned about this, so as not to allow (torture cases) from occurring again in the next 20 years," he stated.

According to Al Rahab, the forms of torture revealed from data received by Komnas HAM were beyond one's comprehension.

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Al Rahab explained that one of the cases of inhumanity was the human cage built by the inactive District Head of Langkat, North Sumatra, behind his house. The human cage had been used for many years, he added.

"This shows what? The state institutions in the region did not serve to prevent (torture), and even the region head did such a thing," he emphasized.

His side pointed out that several cases of torture that had come to light and appeared in the news were only the tip of the iceberg of the actual undiscovered inhuman treatments.

"Therefore, we need a mechanism, so that we can work together, and these human rights institutions and government agencies, the Police, the Prosecutor's Office, and prisons can prevent this together," he affirmed.

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Translator: Anita D, Kenzu T
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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