COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE OPENS FORTY-FOURTH SESSION IN GENEVA

The Committee against Torture this morning opened its forty-fourth session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, hearing an address by a representative of the Secretary-General, Mona Rishmawi, Chief of the Rule of Law, Equality and Non-Discrimination Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Committee also swore in a new member, Alessio Bruni of Italy, and elected a new Bureau before adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session.

Ms. Rishmawi, drawing attention to a number of developments that could be of interest to the Committee's discussions, observed that every two years OHCHR developed a Strategic Management Plan, designed to bring more consistency and office-wide coordination and ensuring the best possible use of available resources. In January, the High Commissioner had launched the 2010-2011 Plan. It had six thematic priorities that could be of relevance to the Committee's work, in particular a continued focus on combating impunity and strengthening accountability, the rule of law and democratic societies. Among results it was hoped to achieve on that focus in the next two years were: supporting the increased involvement of the international community in combating impunity through a public information campaign and the issuance of a best practices study based on experiences from all regions; supporting the increased establishment and effective functioning of national accountability mechanisms for combating impunity; supporting the progressive establishment and functioning of transitional justice mechanisms; supporting the empowerment and engagement of democratic institutions in issues related to combating impunity, for example, by addressing human rights in electoral processes; supporting the increased access to justice of marginalized groups, through development of specialized tools and legal aid programmes; and supporting international mechanisms, including international justice mechanisms, in responding to critical violations of human rights.

The other strategic priority of the Management Plan of direct interest to the Committee was strengthening human rights mechanisms and the progressive development of international human rights law. Among anticipated results in that area were achieving more effective follow-up to treaty-body recommendations and enhancing coherence and consistency in the system of human rights mechanisms. In that regard, Ms. Rishmawi noted that, since the Committee's last session, the members of the different treaty bodies had met here in Geneva for the tenth Inter-Committee Meeting at the end of November 2009 to discuss harmonization of working methods. The eleventh Inter-Committee Meeting would take place at the end of June, focusing on the theme of lists of issues prior to reporting that the Committee against Torture had pioneered [as a means of streamlining reporting requirements] and was now being considered by other treaty bodies, as well as the application of the common core document and treaty-specific reporting guidelines. On a broader level, the High Commissioner, in her statement at the twelfth session of the Human Rights Council, had encouraged all relevant stakeholders to initiate a process of reflection on how to streamline and strengthen the treaty body system to achieve better coherence and effectiveness. Subsequently, an informal meeting of a number of former and current treaty body experts had been convened in Dublin last November to reflect on those issues.

Providing some information about related anti-torture mechanisms, Ms. Rishmawi noted that the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture had programmed three regular visits – to Lebanon, Bolivia and Liberia – one follow-up visit, and in-country engagement activities with national preventive mechanisms. Due to the travel disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud, the visit to Lebanon, which had been originally planned for mid-April, had been postponed. The visits to Bolivia and Liberia would take place in the second half of 2010. In addition, in May 2010, the Special Rapporteur on torture would conduct a mission to Papua New Guinea.

Turning to the Committee's present session, Ms. Rishmawi said that the Committee would examine the periodic reports of Austria, Cameroon, France, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Syria, and adopt final concluding observations on the report of Yemen. It would also adopt lists of issues prior to reporting for 16 States parties, in accordance with its new optional reporting procedure, hold a meeting with States parties (tomorrow), and continue to follow-up on its concluding observations and decisions on individual communications as well as on its confidential inquiry procedure. The Committee would also have before it a number of drafts under article 22 of the Convention (individual communications or complaints that an individual’s rights under the Convention have been violated by a State party). In that respect, OHCHR wished to share its concern regarding the growing backlog of pending individual communications under that procedure and the need to find ways and means to deal with it.

Following voting by members, Claudio Grossman (Chile) was re-elected as Chairperson for a second term; Essadia Belmir (Morocco), Felice Gaer (United States) and Xuexian Wang (China) were chosen as Vice Chairpersons; and Nora Sveaass (Norway) was elected as Rapporteur.

In a brief discussion among members on the Committee's programme of work, concern was expressed about the fact that consideration of many individual complaints was very delayed. An Expert said they needed to take steps now to ensure that they considered the maximum number of cases. Asked to detail the exact number, Committee Secretary João Nataf responded that, at this session, the Committee had allotted 10 to 11 hours to consider individual communications. There were 14 cases to be considered at this session, and there were some 100 cases in the backlog. The Chairperson acknowledged that the Committee would have to address this issue, in the context of its discussion on its working methods to be held later in the session.

Mr. Grossman also noted the serious need to have more meeting time, observing that if the 50 or so States parties whose reports were late were to submit those reports, the Committee would not have the time to consider them. The Committee would need once again to lobby on this issue and to request the General Assembly for more meeting time. The other issue pressed by the Chairperson was to continue and further build the relationship between the Committee and the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture. They had a formal meeting with the Chairperson scheduled, but they needed to look at further ways to ensure complementarities between the two bodies.


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