Promoting OPCAT in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines

1. Ratification and implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines Inception Workshop 26-28 February Hong Kong

2. The Inception Workshop has received EU funding Total eligible cost of the action is EUR 498.693. Amount granted from the European Commission of total eligible cost of action is EUR 383.993 (77 %)

3. Overall objective: • To prevent torture and ill-treatment in places of detention in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and the Philippines • Specific objectives: • Promote signature and ratification of the OPCAT in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines • Strengthening the national capacity in the four states to fulfil the obligations under the OPCAT i.e. to prepare for the effective implementation of the OPCAT.

4. Target Groups – subject to Political Mapping Exercise • The three powers of state, ministries including MFA, MOJ and MOI, MOD, police, prison and prosecution authorities, parliamentarians and the courts, • The general public, national human rights institutions, civil society including professional associations and national human rights organisations • UN human rights agencies, EU, International donors and diplomatic community

5. Details of activities Establishment of a regional network • Establish a regional network for promotion the OPCAT in four Asian countries in close cooperation with national networks in the four countries. • Regional network will be maintained by AHRC, and serve as a regional coordinating body for information and experience sharing training and campaign managing between the four countries. • The regional network is a forum, where the national networks may support each other for the prevention of torture through ratification and implementation of OPCAT. • The network will work at the regional level to encourage other countries in the Asian region to take up the issue of the OPCAT and work for its signature and ratification.

6. Initial regional network meeting • The regional network will be established at the first meeting (inception workshop) • During this first meeting the network will draft operational guidelines and develop action plan for the project period in keeping with the action plan in the EU document. • The network will develop a regional strategy for the OPCAT ratification campaign and include specific campaign initiatives such as network contact and important target groups in the four target countries; regionally based training, view exchange meetings and compile and disseminate publications. • The regional strategy will serve as a basis for the national campaign strategies in all of the four target countries.

7. Biannual meetings of the regional network • Biannual meetings in one of the respective partner countries between the regional network coordinator and the four national network coordinators. These meetings shall serve as: • platform for information sharing • allow for the network to make changes to its strategy and action plan and • discuss other operational issues • establish coordinated media, campaigning and lobbying strategies • discuss ongoing surveys and upcoming publications including the final report. • On a daily basis the communication between the regional and the national networks will be via e-mail and internet correspondence. • The project manager (RCT) will partake in all biannual meetings and will also visit each of the national networks in conjunction with the regional meetings in each of the four target countries.

8. Regional Network website • A regional network website will be established through the website of the AHRC: • serve as a forum for the national networks to communicate information of the campaigns • use as a campaigning tool and contain materials on • the national campaigns, • information on human rights mechanisms for the prevention of torture, • domestic and international legal documents and • notices of public events and initiatives • The regional website will be maintained by the regional coordinator and the AHRC. • The national networks shall develop there own websites subject to the technical possibilities and skills in their respective countries.

9. Establish and consolidate national networks • National networks will develop skills in campaigning, lobby and documentation of torture. • No network working specifically with torture prevention in Cambodia. The project aims to establish such a network of civil society organisations working in the field of human rights and torture prevention. • The national networks will be managed by national coordinators recruited through the four partner organisations. The regional coordinator and overall project manager (RCT) shall provide any assistance needed.

10. Introduction of OPCAT into existing national networks • At the first meetings of the national networks, the organisations will undertake • analysis of the torture and detention situation • assess the needs and constraints in their respective countries and • develop a national action plan for the OPCAT campaign • The strategy to be implemented by the network and its individual organisations will identify the target groups, the general approach, the time frame and the individual interventions. • The networks will also prepare a briefing note on the OPCAT, outlining the most important reasons for OPCAT ratification in the four target countries sensitized to the local context.

11. Bimonthly meetings in the national networks • The national network coordinators will be responsible for • arranging meetings and providing administrative support as per requirement of the network. • provide input and material for discussions in the network and • co-ordinate the campaign work and specific activities. • The networks will tentatively hold bimonthly meetings.

12. Lobbying and awareness raising activities (regional and national networks) • Lobbying will be discussed and co-ordinated in the regional and national networks and carried out jointly or separately by civil society organisations represented in the networks. • BRCT, AHRC Cambodia, PAT and BALAY, the regional coordinator and the overall project manager (RCT) will provide administrative support and facilitate and co-ordinate lobbying activities.

13. Conduct political mapping of relevant target groups • The national networks will undertake an intensive political mapping effort to identify key actors within the target groups needed to be contacted to ensure signature and ratification of OPCAT. • At a regional level the network and RCT will seek to identify important international stakeholders that play a role in signature and ratification of the OPCAT.

14. Bilateral contacts and view exchanges with identified target groups • The national networks shall • hold bilateral consultations and view exchange with the target groups to inform about the OPCAT and become supportive of state signature and ratification • provide material on the CAT and OPCAT sensitized to the needs of the local context including the briefing note on OPCAT, as well as material on the documentation of torture • encourage key actors within the three powers of state to visit places of detention to raise their awareness of the situation in detention facilities • The regional network shall • draw upon the experience and existing contacts of the AHRC and RCT with relevant international stakeholders, including in particular the diplomatic community, UN and the EU. • RCT shall continue to keep close contact with members of the European Parliament, who can raise the question of violations of human rights including torture before the European Commission.

15. Seminars and lobbying • Seminars with the three powers of state, civil society organisations, national human rights institutions and professional associations • The national network will hold seminars for the above-mentioned target groups to facilitate debates about the OPCAT and its implications for the country in terms of the prevalence of torture and ill-treatment. • Specific lobbying activities • The national network shall be engaged in • lobby activities aimed at raising awareness and understanding of the OPCAT of the target groups in the four countries • a monthly newsletter to parliamentarians in the four target countries based on the experiences with such a newsletter from Sri Lanka

16. Awareness raising in the general public • Undertake an public information campaign with the aim of raising awareness and understanding of the CAT and OPCAT. • Organise public meetings, hearings and other public awareness-raising activities. • The regional network shall provide assistance to the national networks in planning and executing such events as well as be a platform for dissemination of information on events and initiatives regionally as well as internationally. • The national network shall make use of the independent media in the four target countries in the campaign and lobby work. • The national networks may initiate a street movement for justice

17. Capacity building at the regional and national levels • Training for national coordinators on CAT/OPCAT issues and campaigning strategies • Initially and in conjunction with the first meeting of the regional network the national network coordinators will receive • training on the CAT and OPCAT • information on campaign management and strategies and lobbying initiatives • documentation of torture and the Istanbul Protocol • The training will be facilitated by the regional coordinator and the overall project manager (RCT) and be conducted by resource persons within the network. As the network in Cambodia will be newly established a more intensive training activity will be required.

18. Training of national network • Training of national network members (training of trainers) • national network coordinators having completed the initial training program will now train local member organisations. In turn these representatives of the national networks will be able to provide training for their organisations. • Preparation of country specific promotion material in national languages • national networks will produce information material about the OPCAT aimed at the general public and material for lobbying the state i.e. a basic OPCAT package, manuals, newsletters, leaflets, posters etc. • In order to avoid a duplication of efforts the regional coordinator will undertake to develop a first draft of the information material in close co-operation with the national network coordinators. • On the basis of the information material the networks shall prepare more elaborated training materials that will serve as the basis for the training of the network member organisations. [1]The material will build on already existing material on the OPCAT produced by the Association for the Prevention of torture (APT) and RCT.

19. Monitoring Detention Centres • Conduct visits to places of detention • The national networks shall conduct visits to places of detention in as far as such visits are allowed in the national context. • Preparation of national legislation on OPCAT and advisory role on implementation of OPCAT • The project aims to establish the four national networks as resource bases in regards to knowledge of documentation of torture, prevention of torture in places of detention and specific OPCAT/CAT related issues. • Preliminary drafting of guidelines on the documentation of torture • Based on the study finalised the national and regional networks and RCT shall prepare a preliminary draft of national guidelines for the documentation of torture in the four target countries. • The regional coordinator and overall project manager (RCT) will be responsible for the finalisation of the preliminary drafts and the coordination between the national networks during the drafting phase.

20. Publications • Study of existing standards on documentation of torture in the four target countries • Currently, there are different modalities for carrying out visits to prisons and detention centres in all four countries, conducted either by national human rights institutions or local civil society organisations. The different ways of organising and carrying out visits will be described in the study. • The first drafts will be prepared by the national network coordinators in cooperation with the regional coordinator and the RCT for discussions, revision and adoption in the national networks.

21. Study on lessons learned • Towards the end of the project period, the regional network coordinator and the overall project manager (RCT) will draft a comprehensive study of lessons learned throughout the project, based on the input from the four national network coordinators.

22. Review and evaluation • Implementation will be monitored closely using the project Log Frame on a quarterly basis. • Periodic review meetings with the national network members organised by the national coordinators. • biannual regional meetings with the regional coordinator and the overall project manager (RCT) will help to assess the levels of progress and decide on the measures to be taken to avoid shortfalls. • The necessary monitoring tools will be agreed upon at the initial regional training workshop for the national coordinators. The national coordinators will be responsible for the collection of information about project progress and problems. • In cooperation with the regional coordinator, the overall project manager (RCT) will carry out reviews and advisory missions to ensure that implementation is in line with the project document. • regional coordinator will forward quarterly project progress reports to RCT. Progress reports will include as minimum: • Project progress related to the action plan • Reasons for deviations from plans if any • Financial statements for the reporting period compared to budget • Reasons for deviations from budget, if any • Revised action plan for next reporting period • annual reports with an audited financial statement for the year under review shall be forwarded according to donor requirements. • final evaluation will be organised as an internal participatory exercise halfway into year 3 of the project.

23. Strategic Planning (AI Manual)