Human Rights Committee Adopts Report on Follow-up to Views

The Human Rights Committee this afternoon adopted a report on follow-up to views concerning individual communications relating to Canada, Cameroon, Columbia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russian Federation and Tajikistan.

José Manuel Santos Pais, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to views, said that the individual communication concerning Canada concerned the refusal of a First Nations individual’s application for social services, and preferential treatment of Indian men over Indian women born prior to 1985 regarding social service registration. The Committee commended the State party for allowing the person involved to register, reforming the Indian Act to remove barriers to registration, and for taking steps to address residual discrimination within First Nations groups. It called on the State party to continue discussions with the person involved and First Nations groups and to work on implementing the legislative changes.

Regarding Cameroon, the communication concerned the wrongful imprisonment of an individual. Regarding that case, there had been no response received from the State party to the Committee’s call to immediately release the individual pending trial, to conduct the trial without delay, and provide compensation to the author. The Committee noted the State party’s unsatisfactory response, and proposed to follow-up on the case in the State party’s next periodic report.

On Colombia, the communication concerned the conviction of two former officials, with the State party offering no possibility of review of the cases. The Committee repeated its calls for compensation to be provided to the persons concerned, and for measures to be implemented to prevent repetition of similar incidents. The Committee planned to continue dialogue with the State party on the issue.

Regarding Lithuania, the communication concerned a violation of the rights of an individual in court proceedings, especially when it came to the use of handcuffs and metal cages in court rooms. The Committee closed the dialogue on the communication, noting that although the State party had not yet paid compensation to the person concerned, it had provided an avenue for the person involved to obtain adequate compensation. The Committee commended the State party for having taken measures to eliminate the use of handcuffs and metal cages in court rooms.

As for Netherlands, the communication concerned the right of a child, born in the Netherlands to a stateless parent, to acquire Dutch citizenship. Under former legislation, citizenship was only granted in the Netherlands to stateless persons who had held residence permits for three years. The Committee said that the compensation which had been provided by the Netherlands to the person involved was inadequate, and criticised the State party for not reviewing the author’s application to be recognised as a citizen of the Netherlands. The Committee further faulted Netherlands for not reviewing the living circumstances of the person involved, and not implementing measures to review legislation on determining statelessness and eligibility for citizenship applications.

Regarding the Russian Federation, the communication concerned the arrest without record of an individual, and the failure of the State to provide adequate health care to the individual while in detention. The Committee expressed regret that the State party had not provided compensation to the person involved, and had not taken measures to prevent repetition of similar incidents. The Committee planned to raise the issue with the State party in the upcoming dialogue.

Concerning Tajikistan, the communication related to the torture and death of an individual in police custody. The Committee said that the State party had not sufficiently prosecuted and punished the perpetrators in the case, noting its lack of communication with the author of the communication regarding the progress of the investigation, and not providing the author with adequate compensation. The Committee resolved to close the case with a note of unsatisfactory implementation of the Committee’s views.

The Committee then adopted the follow-up report on views with amendments agreed upon by the rest of the Committee. The report will be available on the Web site of the Committee.

Documents related to the Committee’s one hundred and thirty-fourth session, including reports submitted by States parties, are available on the session’s webpage. The meeting summary releases prepared on the public meetings of the Committee can be found here. The Web cast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed at http://webtv.un.org/.

The Committee is next scheduled meet in public on Thursday, 24 March at 5 p.m. to adopt its annual report.

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CCPR22.009E