Committee against Torture

Forty-sixth session

Summary record of the first part (public)* of the 1017th meeting

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, at 3 p.m.

Chairperson:Mr. Grossman

Contents

Adoption of the annual report of the Committee

The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.

Adoption of the annual report of the Committee (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.1-8)

The Chairperson invited Ms. Sveaass to introduce the draft annual report of the Committee.

Chapter I: Organizational and other matters (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.1)

Ms. Sveaass (Rapporteur) said that section E (Participation of Committee members in other meetings) would be expanded to include the joint meeting held with the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva on 7 May 2011 and the meeting of representatives of treaty bodies and States parties attended by the Chairperson in Sion, Switzerland, on 12 and 13 May.

Referring to section I (Informal meeting with the States parties to the Convention), she said that representatives of 31 States parties had attended.

Mr. Bruni asked whether the Committee intended to include further information in paragraph 21 regarding measures to improve the effectiveness of its working methods in response to General Assembly resolution A/65/204.

Ms. Sveaass said that, in her view, it was as yet too early to assess the Committee’s new working methods.

The Chairperson said that the Committee would be discussing its working methods on the final day of the session. Its decisions could be reflected in paragraph 21.

Chapter I was adopted on that understanding.

Chapter II: Submission of reports by States parties under article 19 of the Convention (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.2)

Ms. Sveaass (Rapporteur), referring to section B (Optional reporting procedure), said that 3 States parties, Algeria, China and Uzbekistan, had rejected the new procedure; 53 had accepted and 19 had not yet replied.

Mr. Wang Xuexian proposed that paragraph 24 should indicate the total number of reports considered to date by the Committee.

It was so agreed.

Mr. Bruni, referring to the list of States parties in paragraphs 34 and 35, to which the Committee had sent reminders concerning overdue initial reports, asked whether the situation in any of those States might be reviewed, pursuant to rule 67 of the rules of procedure, in the absence of a report. He gathered that in some cases the reports were seriously overdue.

Mr. Nataf (Secretary of the Committee) said that the due dates for all overdue reports of all States parties concerned, including initial reports, were listed in the annotations to the agenda of the session (CAT/C/46/1), and read out the dates of the latter.

Mr. Bruni noted that the initial reports of some States parties were almost 20 years overdue. He proposed that a limited number should be informed that the Committee intended to review their compliance with the Convention if they failed to submit a report for consideration at the forty-eighth session in 2012.

Mr. Wang Xuexian said that it was preferable to alert the States parties concerned before mentioning such action in the annual report.

Mr. Bruni said that it had not been his intention to mention the fact in the current annual report.

Mr. Nataf (Secretary of the Committee) said that the Committee had decided three years previously to warn all States parties with initial reports overdue for three or more years of the possibility that rule 67 might be invoked. He drew attention in that connection to the last sentence of paragraph 35 of the annual report. In consequence, the backlog had dropped in the meantime from 40 reports to about 30, showing the usefulness of the reminders.

The Chairperson said that the Committee could consider Mr. Bruni’s idea of sending an explicit warning to certain States parties whose initial reports were seriously overdue when it discussed its working methods on the final day of the session.

Chapter II, as amended, was adopted.

Chapter III: Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the Convention (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.3)

Ms. Sveaass (Rapporteur) said that the Committee’s concluding observations concerning the States parties listed in section A would eventually be incorporated in section B.

Chapter III was adopted on that understanding.

Chapter IV: Follow-up to concluding observations on States parties’ reports (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.4)

Ms. Sveaass (Rapporteur) said that the tables would be updated to reflect the report of the Committee’s Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations.

Chapter IV was adopted on that understanding.

Chapter V: Activities of the Committee under article 20 of the Convention (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.5)

Chapter V was adopted.

Chapter VI: Consideration of complaints under article 22 of the Convention (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.6)

Ms. Sveaass (Rapporteur) said that the Committee had not completed its consideration of communications at the current session. A number of paragraphs in the first three sections would therefore be updated at the end of the session.

Chapter VI was adopted on that understanding.

Chapter VII: Future meetings of the Committee

Ms. Sveaass (Rapporteur) said that reports by nine States parties would be considered in November 2011. They included two initial reports, two reports under the new optional procedure and five reports under the traditional procedure. The country rapporteurs for the States parties concerned were: Mr. Gallegos Chiriboga and Ms. Gaer (Belarus); Ms. Kleopas and Mr. Wang Xuexian (Bulgaria); Mr. Bruni and Mr. Grossman (Djibouti); Mr. Grossman and Ms. Kleopas (Germany); Ms. Sveaass and Mr. Wang Xuexian (Greece); Ms. Belmir and Mr. Gaye (Madagascar); Mr. Gaye and Mr. Gallegos Chiriboga (Morocco); Mr. Mariño Menéndez and Ms. Sveaass (Paraguay); and Ms. Gaer and Mr. Bruni (Sri Lanka).

Mr. Nataf (Secretariat) said that periodic reports of the following States parties would be examined at the forty-eighth session of the Committee in May–June 2012: Albania, Armenia, Canada, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Russia and Rwanda. Lists of issues would not be prepared for Rwanda, which was submitting its initial report, or to Mexico and Russia, which had elected to submit their periodic reports under the new optional reporting procedure.

Lists of issues for the remaining five States parties would be adopted at the Committee’s forty-seventh session in November 2011, and the following members would be the rapporteurs for those lists: Mr. Bruni and Mr. Gaye (Albania); Ms. Gaer and Mr. Wang Xuexian (Armenia); Mr. Gallegos Chiriboga and Ms. Belmir (Canada); Mr. Mariño Menéndez and Ms. Sveaass (Cuba); Mr. Grossman and Ms. Kleopas (the Czech Republic).

The Chairperson wished to underline that the list of rapporteurs referred only to the drafting of the lists of issues for adoption at the Committee’s forty-seventh session. No decisions had been taken as to which Committee members would serve as rapporteurs at the forty-eighth session.

Chapter VII was adopted.

Chapter VIII: Adoption of the annual report of the Committee on its activities (CAT/C/46/CRP.1/Add.8)

Chapter VIII was adopted.

The annual report as a whole was adopted subject to the amendments agreed upon during the discussion and the addition of the customary annexes.

The public part of the meeting rose at 3.50 p.m.