COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE CONCLUDES SIXTY-SEVENTH SESSION

The Committee against Torture this morning closed its sixty-seventh session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Bangladesh, Greece, Poland, and Togo, 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.

Jens Modvig, Committee Chairperson, in his closing remarks, said that during the current session, the Committee had reviewed the reports and adopted concluding observations thereon of Bangladesh, Greece, Poland, and Togo. It had also adopted reports on follow-up to articles 19 and 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as well as on reprisals, and had also adopted the report on 20 communications.

The Committee had discussed the outcomes of the June 2019 meeting of chairs of human rights treaty bodies and the upcoming 2020 Review of the human rights treaty bodies system and the related United Nations budget implications. Mr. Modvig was pleased to announce that, thanks to the mobilization of all treaty bodies and the diligent actions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General, the third session of the Committee against Torture and five other human rights treaty bodies would not be cancelled.

The Committee had heard a thematic briefing on the prohibition of coerced evidence organized by Redress and Fair Trials, noted the Chair and thanked these and other non-governmental organizations and national human rights institution for their contributions to the sixty-seventh session. At its next session, the Committee would hold its yearly meetings with the Sub-Committee on Prevention of Torture and the regional courts and it would hear from two non-governmental organizations - FIACAT would brief the Committee on access of human rights non-governmental organization to places of detention, while Dignity would brief on medical implications when addressing torture and ill treatment under the Convention.

All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, are available on the session’s webpage. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed at http://webtv.un.org/, while summaries of the public meeting held during the session can be read here.

The sixty-eighth session of the Committee against Torture will be held from 11 November to 6 December 2019, during which the Committee will consider the reports of Burkina Faso, Cyprus, Latvia, Niger, Portugal, and Uzbekistan.


For use of information media; not an official record

CAT19.017E