Committee against Torture
Fifty- ninth session
Summary record of the first part (public)* of the 1504th meeting
Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Wednesday, 7 December 2016, at 10 a.m.
Chair:Mr. Modvig
Contents
Organizational and other matters (continued)
Closure of the session
The meeting was called to order at 10.05 a.m.
Organizational and other matters (continued)
The Chair said that the country rapporteurs for the State party reports to be considered at the Committee’s sixtieth session were: himself and Mr. Hani for Afghanistan; Mr. Heller Rouassant and Mr. Zhang for Argentina; Mr. Bruni and Ms. Belmir for Bahrain; Mr. Touzé and Mr. Hani for Lebanon; Ms. Racu and Ms. Pradhan-Malla for the Republic of Korea; and Ms. Gaer and Ms. Belmir for Pakistan. The consideration of each report would be preceded by confidential briefings, where appropriate, by United Nations institutions, national human rights institutions and NGOs.
The country rapporteurs for the State party reports to be considered at the Committee’s sixty-first session were: Mr. Touzé and Mr. Bruni for Antigua and Barbuda in the absence of a report; Ms. Gaer and Ms. Racu for Ireland; himself and Mr. Heller Rouassant for Panama; and Mr. Heller Rouassant and Ms. Belmir for Paraguay.
At its sixty-second session, the Committee would consider reports from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Italy, Mauritius, the Republic of Moldova, Rwanda and Timor-Leste.
During the current session, the Committee had adopted concluding observations on Armenia, Cabo Verde in the absence of a report and of a delegation, Ecuador, Finland, Monaco, Namibia, Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan. The Committee’s consideration of the situation in Cabo Verde had been its first review of a State party in the absence of an initial report and of a delegation.
The Committee had adopted lists of issues prior to reporting on Australia, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Montenegro, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States of America.
At its sixtieth session, the Committee would adopt lists of issues prior to reporting on Colombia, Luxembourg, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, New Zealand and Romania and would adopt a list of issues on Rwanda. At its sixty-second session, the Committee would adopt lists of issues prior to reporting on Austria, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland, and would adopt a list of issues on Tajikistan.
During the current session, the Committee had conducted follow-up activities under articles 19 and 22 of the Convention and in relation to reprisals. Particular attention had been paid to the follow-up replies provided by Burundi to the Committee’s concluding observations concerning its special report as well as to the follow-up replies provided by Turkey to the Committee’s concluding observations on its fourth periodic report and in the aftermath of the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016 and the subsequent declaration of a state of emergency.
The Committee had adopted 25 decisions on individual communications, including 11 decisions on the merits.
The first reading of a draft revision of general comment No. 1 on article 3 of the Convention had been completed. Mr. Bruni had prepared the draft with cooperation from a dedicated working group. At its sixtieth session, the Committee would put the draft to public consultation.
A thematic discussion on fundamental legal safeguards had been initiated, and it would be continued at the sixtieth session.
The Committee had held a joint plenary meeting on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) with the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Penal Reform International (PRI) and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) had facilitated the meeting.
The Committee had held its first ever meeting with the European Court of Human Rights, at which issues of common interest and potential areas of cooperation had been discussed, and a follow-up meeting with INTERPOL, which had been facilitated by Fair Trials and REDRESS.
He had been nominated as the focal point for the Committee in a stocktaking initiative on the implementation of the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) launched by Physicians for Human Rights, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) and REDRESS.
At its fifty-eighth session, the Committee had invited NGOs and other relevant bodies to hold thematic briefings in 2017 on the following priority issues: the extent to which it was possible to define cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; ill-treatment and torture in health-care settings; mentally ill persons in prison; overcrowding; the applicability of the Convention to minors; torture by non-State actors; and the inclusion of the prohibition against torture in training programmes for relevant officials.
The Committee was pleased to announce that, at its sixty-first session, PRI would conduct a thematic briefing on overcrowding and that, at its sixty-second session, APT would conduct a thematic briefing on ill-treatment and torture in psychiatric institutions and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) would conduct a thematic briefing on the applicability of the Convention to minors.
The Committee wished to thank OMCT, which had coordinated with NGOs, and all the other civil society organizations which had contributed to the session.
At its sixtieth session, the Committee would hold meetings with the Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, as well as informal meetings with States parties and NGOs.
Closure of the session
The Chair, after thanking the many individuals who had facilitated the work of the Committee, said that the current meeting marked the closure of the Committee’s fifty-ninth session.
The public part of the meeting rose at 10.15 a.m.