Committee against Torture Adopts Reports on Follow-Up to Concluding Observations, Individual Communications and Reprisals
The Committee against Torture this afternoon adopted reports on follow-up to concluding observations, individual communications and reprisals.
Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, Committee Expert and Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations under article 19 of the Convention, presenting his report, said that during the period under review, the Committee had received follow-up reports from Slovakia, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Australia and El Salvador, the latter’s second follow-up report. The willingness of the States parties to provide information regarding measures they had taken to implement their obligations under the Convention was welcomed and appreciated.
Several States had not yet supplied follow-up information that had fallen due: Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Chad, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Holy See, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, Togo, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Zambia. During the period under review, the Committee received alternative follow-up reports from non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders in relation to the follow-up replies submitted by Kazakhstan and State of Palestine.
During the period, the Rapporteur continued assessing the information provided by States parties under the follow-up procedure, and communicated with the concerned States parties once their replies had been received and assessed. Since May 2024, such a communication was sent to El Salvador. In addition, the follow-up replies submitted by Australia, Colombia, Kazakhstan and Slovakia were currently under consideration. Mr. Tuzmukhamedov encouraged States parties to make use of the dedicated web page for the follow-up procedure.
Committee Expert Liu Huawen, Rapporteur on follow-up to communications, presenting the report under article 22 on the individual complaints procedure, said that since the last session, the Committee had not received any information from States parties within the framework of the follow-up procedure to decisions made on individual complaints. Mr. Huawen urged the relevant States parties to comply with the decisions of the Committee according to their obligations under the Convention against Torture in good faith, efficiently and sufficiently.
The Rapporteur on follow-up to reprisals, Committee Expert Ana Racu, said that no new allegations of reprisals had been received from individuals or organizations by the Committee since the last session. The Committee’s petitions section addressed allegations of reprisals in the context of individual communications received under the eight individual complaints procedures currently effective. The section registered these allegations and called on States parties to implement interim protection measures when necessary. Compliance with protection measures was assessed in follow-up reports to individual communications, which were made public.
During the intersessional period, Ms. Racu reported, the Committee contributed updated information to two official reports addressing reprisals. It provided information to the treaty bodies Chairs’ report for the thirty-sixth meeting on reprisals concerning the preventive or protection measures requested of States parties by the Committee. It also provided an update on measures to prevent and respond to allegations of intimidation and reprisals in the Secretary-General’s 2024 report on cooperation with the United Nations in the field of human rights, which had not been published yet.
Documents relating to the Committee’s work are available on the session’s webpage. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, and webcasts of the public meetings can be found here.
The Committee is scheduled to next meet in public on Friday, 26 July at 10 a.m. to conclude its eightieth session.
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CAT24.017E