Torture is never acceptable. It is prohibited under international law, in all circumstances, without exception. At its core, the ban on torture protects something fundamental: the dignity of every human being.

This matters most where people are least visible. People behind bars – in prisons, police cells and other places of detention – are among those most at risk of torture, cruel and degrading treatment. They are often out of public view, dependent on the institutions that control their liberty, and least able to seek help when abuse occurs.

Nelson Mandela once said: “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” The way people are treated in detention is one of the clearest tests of whether human rights are real in practice – not only for the powerful, but for those with the least power.

The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is another reminder that prevention matters. Preventing torture is not only about investigating abuse after it has happened. It is about building systems that make abuse harder to hide, easier to detect and ultimately unacceptable, while strengthening the capacity of institutions to treat every person with dignity. Independent monitoring of places of detention is one of the most practical ways to do that.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, known as OPCAT, establishes National Preventive Mechanisms, or NPMs: independent bodies mandated to prevent torture and other forms of ill-treatment through regular visits to places where people are deprived of liberty. In many countries that have ratified OPCAT, national human rights institutions serve as the designated NPMs. In countries that have not yet ratified, NHRIs can still carry out preventive monitoring as part of their broader mandate.

This is the case in Malawi. Although Malawi has not yet ratified OPCAT, people are in detention, in facilities that need independent scrutiny now. Through its constitutional and statutory mandate, the Malawi Human Rights Commission has carried out detention monitoring across prisons and police cells. In 2023 and 2024, with support from the Tri-Partite Partnership to Support National Human Rights Institutions and the UNDP Malawi Country Office, the Commission monitored more than 45 police and prison facilities and spoke with over 22,000 detainees.

The findings pointed to systemic problems: severe overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare, prolonged pre-trial detention, torture and ill-treatment, deaths in custody, and children living with incarcerated mothers without adequate nutrition, care or access to early childhood development services. These are not only detention-management failures. They are the conditions in which torture and ill-treatment become easier to hide, harder to challenge and more likely to recur.

The findings were published, presented publicly and used to press for action from the Prisons Commissioner General, the Malawi Police Service, the Ministry of Justice and other responsible authorities. Through evidence-informed advocacy, in 2025, a new Prison Act was enacted, introducing rehabilitation-focused corrections, parole mechanisms, halfway houses and compassionate release provisions for elderly and seriously ill inmates. Gaps remain, including on parole eligibility, health standards and the enforcement powers of oversight bodies. But this is what structural prevention looks like: hard-won progress that strengthens protection, even as further reforms remain necessary.

The same logic applies well beyond Malawi. In crisis and fragile settings, where conflict, displacement and weak justice systems can push institutions to breaking point, prevention also means keeping justice systems functioning and ensuring that people deprived of liberty are not forgotten. In Liberia, UNDP has supported efforts to reduce prolonged pre-trial detention and prison overcrowding, including through justice-sector coordination and reforms to legal aid. In the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNDP has supported mobile courts, criminal sessions and case reviews to reduce judicial backlogs, address prolonged detention and strengthen accountability across the justice chain. In Yemen, UNDP’s rule of law work has supported access to justice, detainee protection and improvements in basic detention conditions, while helping communities reconnect with justice and security services in a context of prolonged crisis.

Across these contexts, the goal is not only to respond to violations after they occur. It is to strengthen the safeguards, institutions and oversight systems that prevent abuse from taking root in the first place.

On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we honour survivors not only by condemning torture, but by strengthening the systems that prevent it. That means ratifying and implementing OPCAT. It means supporting National Preventive Mechanisms and National Human Rights Institutions. And it means ensuring that places of detention are never beyond scrutiny.

The walls of detention facilities should never be barriers to accountability. Protecting the dignity of people behind those walls is part of protecting the dignity of us all.

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Habiba Osman is the Executive Secretary of the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC). The MHRC is a National Human Rights Institution established by the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi, supported through the Tri-Partite Partnership (UNDP–OHCHR–GANHRI) and the project ‘Strengthening Human Rights for Vulnerable Populations in Malawi,’ funded by the Governments of Iceland and Norway.

Julie van Dassen is a Human Rights Policy Specialist with the UNDP Crisis Bureau. With over twenty years of experience in governance, rule of law and human rights programming – including as UNDP Governance Team Lead in Malawi – she supports UNDP’s global work on human rights-based approaches to development, the strengthening of national human rights institutions, and the integration of human rights standards into justice and security programming.