The Committee against Torture today discussed reports on follow-up to concluding observations, individual communications, and reprisals under the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations under article 19 of the Convention, presenting his report, said that no follow-up reports had been received during the period under review. Several countries had not met the deadlines for submission of follow-up information: Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Benin, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Holy See, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Syria, Togo, Yemen and Zambia. During the period under review, the Committee received no alternative follow-up reports from non-governmental organizations or other stakeholders in relation to the follow-up replies submitted by States parties. There were no State party reports pending consideration.
The Rapporteur encouraged States parties to make use of the dedicated web page for the follow-up procedure. All relevant documents, including the recommendations identified for follow-up by the Committee, the information submitted by States parties, the correspondence with concerned States parties and the public reports submitted by national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders, are available on that web page. A compendium of the follow-up procedure as exercised since 2003 may also be found on that page.
Committee Expert Todd Buchwald, Rapporteur on follow-up to communications presented under article 22 (individual complaints procedure), said the Committee had considered four communications and submitted follow-up observations for each. The communications concerned cases against Morocco, Argentina, Switzerland and Mexico. For the cases against Morocco, Argentina and Mexico, follow-up comments and observations demonstrated a lack of implementation. For the case against Switzerland, follow-up comments and observations demonstrated partial implementation. For each case, the Committee decided to continue follow-up dialogue and consider further steps.
The Rapporteur on follow-up to reprisals, Ana Racu, said that no new allegations of reprisals had been recorded by the Committee since it had last met. Reviewing cases before the Committee, she referred to two cases. The first case concerned alleged reprisals faced in a Cypriot prison. A copy of the State party’s response to allegations was available on the Committee’s website. The complainant had alleged that after lodging a complaint with the Committee, he had become a target of pressure from other prisoners, who were encouraged by the prison administration. The complainant had been pressured to withdraw his complaint with the Committee.
The second case referred to allegations of reprisals in Kazakhstan against an individual imprisoned in a penal colony. The Rapporteur had sent a letter asking the State party to urgently provide information regarding the situation described by the complainant, including measures taken to ensure that he was not subject to reprisals due to his cooperation with the Committee. In response, the State party had denied the allegations of the complainant. The Committee would continue to follow-up on these two cases.
Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the public meetings can be found here. The programme of work of the Committee’s seventy-fourth session and other documents related to the session can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public on Friday, 29 July at 10 a.m. to adopt its concluding observations on the reports of Botswana, Nicaragua, State of Palestine and the United Arab Emirates, which were considered during the session, and conclude its seventy-fourth session.