Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 2002

Since the advent of democracy in 1994, the South African government has keenly supported the human-rights cause both nationally and internationally. South African lawyers, too, have played a prominent role in the international criminal tribunals created to try allegations of grave human rights violations. At the national level, the courts have over the past decade given concrete meaning to the fair-trial principle. Yet, for all the enlightened accomplishments in the area of criminal justice, the practice of torture, cruel or inhuman treatment or punishment reminds us that the constitutional command that the State protect and respect the dignity and inviolability of the person is violated repeatedly.