The Federal Government is moving to ratify an optional protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and is also considering bringing in legislation to formally outlaw it in Australia.
ABC Local
Attorney-General Robert McClelland has told Alexandra Kirk on ABC Radio's AM that the Government also considers the controversial practice of waterboarding as a method of torture.
The Government is consulting with the states about signing up to the optional protocol, which means UN inspectors could visit Australian detention facilities.
Mr McClelland says the move signifies that the Government is re-engaging with the international community.
"I think the United Nations will appreciate it's more than a gesture," he said.
"It's significant. It helps to facilitate and give credibility to the international human rights framework.
"It's quite hypocritical for a modern and advanced nation to call upon neighbouring countries to lift their standards in a number of human rights areas if we aren't prepared to set our own example."
While Mr McClelland admits there are already laws against assault and detention which protect Australians against torture, he says there are still benefits to enacting a specific domestic law.
"The international body that monitors the convention thinks it is desirable where countries can specifically state and declare a specific offence of torture and that's what we're also exploring and canvassing the views of the states about," he said.
Mr McClelland says the practice of waterboarding is "unquestionably" torture but would not specify if Australia's latest move was aimed at putting pressure on the US to outlaw it.
"We would like to think that the greater number of countries that sign up to these international human rights standards and adhere to them sets an example for all other countries without specifically identifying any country," he said.
Waterboarding, where water is repeatedly poured over a person's face, has been used by the US as an interrogation method.
However former attorney-general Philip Ruddock says the UN's treaty system needs significant reform, and to sign up to the treaty denies Australia's chance to influence any sort of reform.
"It is preferable if you have a system in which if people have complaints to be made, there is one body which deals with those issues - that you have consistency in decision making," he said.
"At the moment what you have is a multiplicity of bodies.
"Usually these things arose in relation to asylum claims. To countries that treat their obligations seriously, as Australia always has, that means that there are often quite significant delays, there is often overlap.
"And at times you can even get different interpretations developed depending on the different treaty body views."
Adapted from interviews by Alexandra Kirk
viewed 08/08/08 at 9:30
