Committee against Torture Opens Eighty-Second Session in Geneva

The Committee against Torture this morning opened its eighty-second session, which is being held in Geneva from 7 April to 2 May, during which it will review efforts by Armenia, France, Mauritius, Monaco, Turkmenistan and Ukraine to implement the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, Director of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, opening the session, said that the international system was undergoing a tectonic change, and the edifice of human rights that had been built so painstakingly over the decades had never been under such pressure.  At the root of this upheaval were the intensification of armed conflicts and crises; the growing influence of authoritarian regimes and the increasing control of autocrats over large swathes of the global economy; social tensions and resentments fuelled by growing inequalities and often directed against refugees, migrants and other vulnerable groups; the impact of climate change on the realisation of fundamental rights; and the misuse of digital technologies to repress, restrict and violate human rights.

In these difficult times, Mr. Cisse-Gouro said, independent voices from treaty bodies were more essential than ever to ensure respect for and implementation of international human rights law.  The Committee against Torture played a fundamental role in monitoring and providing guidance to States parties through its concluding observations, general comments and jurisprudence.  Mr. Cisse-Gouro encouraged the Committee to continue its invaluable work to strengthen and clarify the applicability of the Convention in a broad range of situations and promote human dignity and justice in all circumstances.

However, Mr. Cisse-Gouro said, in addition to ongoing chronic resource constraints, the current liquidity situation of the United Nations Secretariat had hampered, and continued to hamper, the planning and implementation of the Committee’s work. The Office of the High Commissioner was doing its utmost to ensure that the treaty bodies could carry out their mandates, including highlighting the direct impact of resource limitations on human rights protection on the ground.  Nevertheless, all indications suggested that the challenging liquidity situation would persist for the foreseeable future.

The treaty body strengthening process had reached a crucial juncture, Mr. Cisse-Gouro noted.  In December last year, the General Assembly adopted the biennial resolution on the treaty body system, which invited the treaty bodies and the Office of the High Commissioner to continue to work to achieve a clear and regularised schedule for reporting by States parties, and to increase their efforts to further use digital technologies in their work.  However, the resolution did not endorse the proposal for an eight-year predictable schedule of country reviews.

On Human Rights Day last year, Mr. Cisse-Gouro said, the Geneva Human Rights Platform organised an informal meeting of the Chairs and focal points on working methods, which explored the latest developments in the treaty body system and sought to improve the harmonisation of procedures.  The Chairs and focal points also had the opportunity to interact with the coordination committee of special procedures mandate holders, discussing independence and an “all mechanisms” approach to the many challenges the human rights mechanisms were facing.  The High Commissioner’s Office would continue to work alongside the treaty bodies to harmonise working methods, particularly in preparation for the annual meeting of the treaty body Chairs in June.

Mr. Cisse-Gouro noted that, at the fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk launched his Office’s report on good practices and lessons learned related to transitional justice processes in the context of sustaining peace and sustainable development, which illustrated powerful practices that were victim-centred, inclusive, gender-responsive and innovative. Additionally, the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief explored the intersections between the right to freedom of religion or belief and the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, with input from the Committee.  It showed that States, courts and even those working directly with victims had not consistently taken these rights into consideration in cases raising overlapping concerns, potentially exposing victims to further abuse.

In closing, Mr. Cisse-Gouro expressed the Office of the High Commissioner's strong support for the Committee’s critical mandate and wished it a successful session.

Claude Heller, Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee agreed that the increasingly deteriorating international situation was fracturing the multilateral system and questioning the values on which United Nations was built.  This was a human rights crisis.  It was deeply concerning to see States fall short of their obligations under human rights treaties or even withdraw from international human rights bodies.  In this context, the Committee needed to continue to fight for these values and principles, the implementation of the Convention, and the prevention of torture.

The United Nations’ liquidity crisis had been felt more deeply recently, Mr. Heller said.  States needed to shoulder their obligations to the treaty body system and do everything they could to maintain its operation.  The Committee was concerned by the impact of the crisis on its activities but would cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner to ensure that the efforts to address the situation were aligned.

During the session, Mr. Heller said, the Committee would conduct dialogues to review the reports of Armenia, France, Mauritius, Monaco, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, and would also prepare and adopt lists of issues for Pakistan and Tajikistan and lists of issues prior to reporting for Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, Iceland, Iraq, Kenya, Montenegro, State of Palestine and Uruguay.  Further, the Committee would examine 27 communications, considering 15 communications on the merits and on admissibility and 12 for discontinuance.

Mr. Heller reported that on Tuesday, 29 April, follow-up reports would be presented by the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, the Rapporteur for follow-up on decisions adopted under article twenty-two, and the Rapporteur on reprisals. The Committee would hear a presentation from the Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment on the Subcommittee’s sixteenth annual report in a public meeting on Monday, 14 April, and was also scheduled to adopt its own annual report in a public meeting on Friday, 2 May.

Mr. Heller concluded by thanking States, national human rights organizations, civil society organizations, particularly the World Organization against Torture, and the Committee’s Secretariat for their support of the Committee’s work.

During the meeting, the Committee adopted its provisional agenda for the session.

Documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, will be 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 will next meet in public on Tuesday, 8 April at 10 a.m. to consider the seventh periodic report of Monaco

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