COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE CONCLUDES SIXTY-SECOND SESSION

The Committee against Torture today concluded its sixty-second session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Italy, Mauritius, Republic of Moldova, Rwanda and Timor-Leste on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the reviewed countries will be available on the session’s webpage later today.

Summarizing the sixty-second session, Jens Modvig, Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee had adopted concluding observations on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Italy, Mauritius, Republic of Moldova, Rwanda and Timor-Leste. It had also adopted the list of issues prior to reporting on Austria, Malawi, Serbia, Slovakia, Somalia, Spain and Switzerland, as well as the list of issues on Mauritania and Tajikistan.

During the session, the Committee had undertaken activities on follow-up under articles 19 and 22 of the Convention and in relation to reprisals, and examined relevant matters under article 20 of the Convention. It had adopted decisions on 16 individual complaints and discontinued nine other cases.

Following the completion of the first reading of its revised draft General Comment on article 13 of the Convention, the Committee had carefully considered the many written and oral contributions from States, United Nations human rights mechanisms, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, specialized agencies, regional bodies, academia, and civil society representatives. The Committee was still in the process of its second reading of the draft General Comment.

The Committee held a joint meeting with the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture to discuss issues of common interest and areas of cooperation. It had benefited from a thematic briefing on the issue of ill-treatment in psychiatric institutions organized by the Association for the Prevention of Torture. For the first time, the Committee had held a joint meeting with representatives of the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Despite an invitation sent to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the latter had not attended the meeting.

The Committee thanked the World Organization against Torture for its coordination role vis-à-vis non-governmental organizations, as well as other civil society representatives, in particular the Association for the Prevention of Torture and the Foundation René Cassin, which had made a special contribution to the session.

Announcing special events for the sixty-third session of the Committee, which would be held in April and May 2018, Mr. Modvig said that the Committee would hold a thematic briefing on how the Convention against Torture applied to children, and a thematic briefing on the Dublin Regulation. Also, the Chair of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture would present its annual report to the Committee against Torture, and the Committee against Torture would also hold its regular meeting with the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. The Committee would also hold a plenary meeting with the Convention against Torture Initiative, it would meet with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and it would hold a meeting for States with overdue initial reports to assess their needs.

Finally, Mr. Modvig paid tribute to the three outgoing Committee members, Sapana Pradhan-Malla, Alessio Bruni, and Kening Zhang.

Live webcast of the Committee’s public meetings is available at http://webtv.un.org/ and comprehensive meetings coverage of all public meetings held during this session, including the country reviews, here.

The sixty-third session of the Committee against Torture will take place from 23 April to 18 May 2018 at the Palais Wilson in Geneva during which it will consider the reports of Belarus, Czechia, Norway, Qatar, Senegal and Tajikistan, available here.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CAT17.012E