Committee against Torture Discusses Reports on Follow-up to Concluding Observations, Individual Communications, and Reprisals

The Committee against Torture this afternoon discussed reports on follow-up to concluding observations, individual communications, and reprisals under the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations under article 19 of the Convention, presenting his report, said since the last progress report to the Committee during the seventy-fifth session, follow-up reports were received from Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Serbia and Sweden. The willingness of the above-mentioned States parties to provide information regarding measures taken by them to implement their obligations under the Convention was welcomed and appreciated. To date, the following States reviewed had not yet supplied follow-up information that had fallen due: Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Benin, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Congo, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Holy See, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Syria, Togo, 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 Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Nigeria and Serbia.

During the period under review, the Rapporteur, in consultation with the Country Rapporteurs and with the assistance of the Secretariat, continued assessing the information provided by States parties under the follow-up procedure in order to monitor whether all the issues identified by the Committee for follow-up had been addressed by the concerned States parties and whether the information provided responded to the Committee's concerns and recommendations included in its concluding observations. Since November 2022, such communications were sent to Bolivia, Nigeria and Sweden. Communications sent by the Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations were available on the Committee's web page.

Committee Expert Huawen Liu, Rapporteur on follow-up to communications presented under article 22 (individual complaints procedure), said the report was a compilation of information of cases in which States parties and others had had exchanges since the seventy-fifth session of the Committee in the framework of the follow-up procedure. There were currently 10 cases. On communication 573/2013, with Georgia, while the State party had launched an investigation into the incident in question, it had not informed the Committee about its termination or result, and therefore the dialogue remained open. On 759/2016, with Mexico, there was partial implementation of the Committee's decision, and the State party had made guarantees of non-repetition of the event, however, the Committee noted the important discrepancy between the amount awarded for reparation and the complainant's expectation, and therefore the dialogue remained open.

On 854/2017, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, since there had not been significant progress, the Committee maintained the dialogue. On 871/2018, with Morocco, there was a conflict between the information received from the State party and from the complainant, and therefore the follow-up dialogue was ongoing. The last five cases concerned Switzerland. On 872/2018, 887/2018, 909/2019, 972/2018 and 1081/2021, there had been full implementation, so the Committee had decided to close the dialogue. On 934/2019, there was a partial implementation of the Committee's recommendations, and the Committee had decided to keep the dialogue ongoing. The Swiss Government was to be commended as to its efforts.

The Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to reprisals, Ana Racu, said since December 2022, no recent allegations on reprisals had been received, and no corresponding protection requests sent to States parties. On the article 19 procedure, in 2023, the Committee had received allegations of possible intimidations and reprisals in the context of a State party report that had been under consideration in 2022. The Committee had required further information; this had been received and was being further assessed.

On individual communications, the Committee continued to monitor the situation in two cases in Morocco. In November 2022, Ms. Racu had given a short presentation on the Committee's mandate on reprisals for the newly-elected treaty body members. In January 2023, the Rapporteurs on reprisals for the treaty bodies had held a virtual meeting to discuss challenges linked to acts of reprisal perpetrated against those who communicated with the treaty bodies. In February 2023, the focal point on reprisals had made a relevant contribution to the latest reprisals report for the annual Chairs' meeting, including some general remarks and recommendations. On reprisals under article 20, there were no new allegations of reprisals that would be eligible to be taken under consideration by the members of the Committee.

Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, and webcasts of the public meetings can be foundhere. The programme of work of the Committee's seventy-sixth session and other documents related to the session can be found here.

The Committee will next meet in public on Friday, 12 May at 10 a.m. to adopt its concluding observations on the reports of Colombia, Brazil, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia, which were reviewed during the session, and close the session.

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