Committee against Torture

Seventy-seventh session

Summary record of the 2028th meeting

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 21 July 2023, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Mr. Heller

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the Convention (continued)

Seventh periodic report of Spain (continued)

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m.

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the Convention (continued)

Seventh periodic report of Spain (continued) (CAT/C/ESP/7; CAT/C/ESP/QPR/7)

At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Spain joined the meeting.

A representative of Spain, replying to questions put at the Committee’s 2026th meeting, said that the signing of international treaties was regulated under articles 93 et seq. of the Constitution. The relevant provisions had been further developed by Act No. 25/2014 on treaties and other international agreements. In Spain, international law prevailed over all national legal provisions, with the exception of those contained in the Constitution, and must therefore be observed by all public bodies. Treaties were directly applicable in Spain unless their content dictated that a law or regulation on a particular issue must be adopted for the purpose of application.

A representative of Spain said that the delegation did not have the detailed information requested by the Committee with respect to the Ombudsman’s Office and the national preventive mechanism. However, he was given to understand that a representative of the Office had provided that information in an informal meeting with the Committee held the previous week. That information could also be found in the most recent annual reports of those bodies.

A representative of Spain said that the minimum age of criminal responsibility was 14 years. Organic Act No. 5/2000 on the criminal responsibility of minors provided for greater flexibility in sentencing than did the laws governing the criminal responsibility of adults and established that the best interests of the child must be taken into account throughout legal proceedings. In cases involving minors, juvenile court judges imposed measures, rather than penalties, to support the reintegration of the young persons concerned into society. Detention was the most serious of several measures that could be imposed; minors could be detained in open, semi-open or, as was increasingly the case, closed regimes, and those with addictions to alcohol or drugs could receive treatment in detention. Other measures included official warnings, community service, probation, social and educational activities, outpatient treatment, weekend curfews and homestays with foster families or educational groups. Organic Act No. 1/1996 on legal protections for minors, which expressly prohibited the use of mechanical restraint in child and adolescent protection centres, had recently been updated.

A representative of Spain said that national legislation complied with the principles of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) and addressed the specific circumstances experienced by women in prisons. There were four women-only prisons across Spain, and several other facilities had separate units for women. Decisions on the detention of women were made on the basis of an analysis of their individual situations. Some 30 per cent of women prisoners were detained in open prisons, allowing them to engage in work, training, education and family activities during the day. Mothers with children aged under 3 years also had the opportunity to stay in special residences with their children, provided that that served the best interests of the child.

The incidence of self-harm at Ávila prison was comparable to that in other prisons. There had been three reported cases of self-harm there in 2018 and none over the period 2020–2022. All necessary steps were taken to prevent suicide, and there had consequently been no cases of suicide among women detained at the prison in the past three years. A gender perspective was integrated into suicide prevention programmes in prisons with a view to addressing the specific circumstances in which women in prison might find themselves and to eliminating prejudices in relation to, for instance, perceived physical or psychological weakness. New regulations on suicide prevention in prisons published in November 2022 had been informed by a multi-year study.

A representative of Spain said that persons whose asylum applications were rejected could lodge an appeal. The Government would issue appellants with documentation allowing them to continue to enjoy their rights to remain in the country and to work if they had previously been entitled to do so. That documentation would be valid for nine months and that period could be extended until a decision had been made on the appeal. Officials working in the area of asylum received training from the Ministry of the Interior and the European Union Agency for Asylum on topics such as interview techniques, evidence evaluation, trafficking in persons and working with vulnerable persons.

The number of applications for international protection had increased by 800 per cent over the past eight years. In response, the Government had sought to strengthen immigration units by reassigning staff and to increase efficiency and optimize resource use. To accelerate the allocation of appointments, the validity of provisional documents had been increased from six months to one year, thereby halving the number of renewal appointments required and freeing up appointments for those beginning the application process. Police operations had been carried out to tackle the organized criminal gangs who had exploited vulnerabilities in the electronic appointments booking system in order to resell appointments. If budgetary approval was received, a new appointments booking platform would be developed to eliminate the vulnerabilities and language barriers present in the existing system. In the meantime, other methods of booking had been prioritized.

In 2022, the Aliens Act had been amended to expand the list of individuals with the right to be exempted from deportation to include victims of sexual offences. The suggestion that the Government took advantage of bilateral agreements concluded with Morocco and Algeria to carry out deportations without due process was baseless. Expulsions and returns were carried out through formalized, documented procedures and in compliance with the applicable legal guarantees.

A representative of Spain said that the Government had promptly expressed regret regarding the deaths and injuries that had occurred during attempts by migrants to cross from Morocco into the country’s North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and had condemned the involvement in such crossings of criminal gangs who violated the fundamental rights of migrants. The fight against such gangs was a pillar of national immigration policy. The action taken by the Government to prevent the crossings had been compliant with national law, specifically Organic Act No. 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreign nationals in Spain and on their social integration, and with the doctrine and relevant rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. Furthermore, the Grand Chamber of the Court had unanimously decided that rejection of migrants at the border of a country did not violate article 4, on the prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens, of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights), securing certain rights and freedoms other than those already included in the Convention and in the first Protocol thereto as amended by Protocol No. 11, nor did it violate article 13 of the Convention, on the right to an effective remedy. The Ombudsman’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office had investigated the events, with the latter concluding that the Civil Guard officers involved had been in a situation of extreme danger.

A representative of Spain said that age determination reports were based on tests conducted by doctors, in which the size of the minor’s left wrist, development of the third molar and ossification of the clavicle were measured by X-ray and a physical examination was carried out. Those tests did have a margin of error. In the event of doubt as to an individual’s age, the individual would be treated as a minor. The best interests of the minor were taken into account in all cases. If a foreign national who had been treated as an adult was subsequently found to be a minor, the individual would be treated in the same way as an unaccompanied minor and urgently referred to the appropriate protection mechanisms.

In the case of minors accompanied by their parents on entering Spain, the first priority would be to keep the family unit together. However, in the event of doubt regarding the family relationship, minors would be treated in the same way as unaccompanied minors for their own protection while DNA tests were carried out. If a relationship was confirmed, it would be respected and the family would be kept together, in both temporary migrant accommodation centres and migrant detention centres. Unaccompanied minors were placed under protection procedures, and since they were not at risk of expulsion or return, they were never placed in migrant detention centres.

The reform of the regulations on foreign nationals had streamlined the regularization of unaccompanied minors by improving the flexibility and accessibility of the process. The period in which a minor had to wait for a residence permit had been reduced from nine months to three, and the permit issued was valid for an initial period of two years rather than one. The reform had also allowed the legal gap affecting minors who reached the age of majority before regularization to be bridged. In addition, minors holding residence permits were now exempted from providing the documentation normally required in applications for the identity cards issued to undocumented foreign nationals.

In relation to the concerns raised regarding the impact on minors of overcrowding in migrant centres, it should be noted that, in 2020, the Spanish authorities had faced the arrival of an unprecedented number of migrants, during which time temporary migrant accommodation centres had been filled to capacity. That had been a one-off occurrence, however, and occupancy levels had remained sustainable ever since.

A representative of Spain said that the national humanitarian assistance system had the capacity to accommodate more than 11,861 migrants. Services provided to migrants from the point of arrival included the provision of accommodation, clothing and food, washing facilities, specialist programmes, leisure activities, legal advice and social integration services. Of the 26,500 people arriving in Spain via irregular routes in 2022, 96 per cent had received support. The temporary migrant accommodation centres at Ceuta and Melilla were open institutions and stays at those centres were therefore voluntary. The capacity of both centres had been expanded, with the Melilla centre now hosting more than 700 migrants and the Ceuta centre accommodating over 500. The increase in capacity had necessitated an increase in the services provided; as a consequence, migrants now had the opportunity to take part in training and social inclusion programmes. Work was under way to build 17 new migrant centres throughout the country, which would increase the system’s capacity by more than 8,500 places.

A representative of Spain said that Organic Act No. 10/2022 on comprehensive guarantees of sexual freedom had expanded the definition of gender-based violence in national legislation to include sexual violence, sexual assault, rape, forced marriage and genital mutilation. Prior to the Act’s entry into force, the Criminal Code had not contained a definition of consent in sexual relations, meaning that a criminal offence had been committed only if a woman had expressly refused to engage in relations or had been mentally incapacitated or mentally ill. An offender would then have been charged with either sexual assault or, if no force, violence or intimidation had been used, with the lesser offence of sexual abuse; a separate scale of penalties had been stipulated for each offence. The new Act defined consent as the active expression, verbal or otherwise, of willingness to engage in sexual relations; as a consequence, all sexual activity without express consent was now defined as sexual assault. To avoid having an excessively wide range of penalties for the new offence and thus ensure greater legal certainty, the two scales of penalties for the former offences of sexual assault and sexual abuse had been combined into a single scale, which had resulted in the reduction of the minimum and maximum penalties inflictable for certain acts.

Article 2 of the Criminal Code provided for the retroactivity of amendments to criminal law where that was favourable to the offender. In some cases of sexual assault in which the previous minimum penalty had been imposed, it had been decided that the sentence should be revised downwards to align with the new minimum penalty available following the adoption of the Organic Act on comprehensive guarantees of sexual freedom. Nonetheless, in accordance with case law and the decisions of the Supreme Court, all elements of the recent reform were taken into account in sentence reviews, including the aggravating circumstances provided for, and, therefore, the new Act was generally not considered to be more lenient than its predecessor. Furthermore, to address the Act’s unintended consequences, the law had been further reformed with the adoption of Organic Act No. 4/2023, which had established a subtype of the offence of sexual assault involving the use of violence or intimidation and reintroduced the penalties that had been in place for such assaults prior to the adoption of Organic Act No. 10/2022.

A representative of Spain said that the Government had continued to address all forms of violence against women through legislation and other measures to ensure compliance with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) and the recommendations of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in that regard. The Criminal Code had been amended to ban forced or non-consensual sterilization of persons with disabilities and legally incapacitated persons. Organic Act No. 8/2021 on the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents from violence now provided, inter alia, for the withdrawal of parental visitation rights in the event of gender-based violence. Furthermore, children no longer required their fathers’ consent to receive psychological assistance through State-run services. Organic Act No 1/2023, amending Organic Act No. 2/2010 on sexual and reproductive health, addressed all forms of related violence, including forced sterilization, forced contraception, forced abortion and surrogate pregnancies. The Act also envisaged measures to provide comprehensive reparation to victims of such violence. The need to ensure informed consent to sexual and reproductive health care was a focus of the Act.

A plan to improve and modernize efforts to combat gender-based violence had been approved in 2021 to promote coordination between the national government, the autonomous communities and local administrations; more than 100 feminist organizations were involved in the plan’s implementation. A number of urgent measures had been taken under the plan to strengthen institutional responses to gender-based violence, including “vicarious violence”. A comprehensive strategy for combating sexist violence for the period 2022–2025 would also help to align planning and organization at different levels of government. A multiannual joint plan on violence against women for the period 2023–2027 included a system for information-sharing and joint evaluation of policies addressing violence against women, while a plan for protection against sexist violence for the period 2020–2023 provided for the digitalization and modernization of services for victims of violence, which would henceforth include comprehensive 24-hour online services.

The budget for the Ministry of Equality had been increased in recent years, as had the capacity of civil society organizations working on gender-based violence, in line with the recommendations of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. Funding for civil society organizations was available for general activities, for providing support to women and girls who were victims of trafficking and for awareness-raising programmes; between €5 million and €7 million was available for each purpose.

A representative of Spain said that Organic Act No. 6/1985 on the judiciary, as amended by Organic Act No. 1/2014, provided that, when offences that were committed abroad, including torture, constituted genocide or crimes against humanity and the perpetrator was a Spanish national, or the victim was a Spanish national and the perpetrator a foreign national residing in Spanish territory, the offence could be prosecuted in Spain under articles 174 and 175 of the Criminal Code. Spain thus exercised its jurisdiction in the manner envisaged in article 5 of the Convention. Spain would grant requests for extradition if an offence covered by the Convention was committed in 1 of the 40 States with which Spain had an extradition treaty. The offence in question must also be an offence in Spain and the minimum sentence must be at least 1 year. Spain had concluded 31 mutual assistance agreements with other States. The extradition requests submitted by Argentina, to which Mr. Iscan had referred the previous day, had been processed by the Ministry of Justice in line with Spanish law. The Argentinian criminal justice authorities had also submitted more than 100 commissions rogatory, which had been handled by the Spanish judiciary; the judge who had made the requests had been able to come to Spain and take the steps necessary to facilitate ongoing investigations in Argentina.

A representative of Spain said that all professionals working under the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice were aware of the provisions of the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol). Since 1997, protocols had been in place on the use of forensic medicine to establish the facts of a case and, since 1999, it had been stipulated that medical reports should be drawn up by medical professionals and that copies thereof should be provided to the alleged victim and to the competent criminal court. A protocol on the monitoring of prison inspections had been prepared in 2016 and updated in 2018 and 2021. All evidence relevant to allegations of torture was collected and passed onto the judicial authorities within 48 hours to ensure prompt investigations. In 2022, the General Secretariat of Prisons had published guidelines on collecting and storing surveillance footage in prisons and sharing it with judicial authorities and the Ombudsman’s Office.

Prison sentences of under 2 years, or under 5 years when handed down for offences related to drug addiction, could be suspended following an evaluation of the likelihood of reoffending. As an alternative to detention in such cases, the Prison Service had more than 25 addiction treatment programmes operating in 50 provinces and in Ceuta and Melilla; between 80,000 and 90,000 sentences had been thus suspended in the previous decade. Offenders could also be sentenced to community service in lieu of detention; the Prison Service had agreements with municipalities and town halls across the country to ensure that such sentences were beneficial to communities.

A representative of Spain said that Act No. 4/2015 on the legal status of victims of crime had provided for the strengthening of victim support offices. The offices, which were managed by the Ministry of Justice and the autonomous communities, provided free, comprehensive, coordinated and specialized support, including legal, medical, psychological, social and economic assistance, to direct and indirect victims of crime for the duration of criminal proceedings. The offices provided information in multiple languages and in accessible formats. In line with article 116 of the Criminal Code, compensation was granted to victims as part of criminal proceedings, without victims needing to have legal representation or request compensation under a separate procedure.

A representative of Spain said that Spain had participated in the seventh review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and, through the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had been a member of the working group that had developed the Council of Europe Counter-Terrorism Strategy (2023–2027). Spain had not yet ratified the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, but administrative processes were under way to allow ratification in the near future.

A representative of Spain said that efforts to combat terrorism had focused on deradicalization. Since 2016, specific tools for detecting radicalization in prisons had been developed in line with the United Nations Handbook on the Management of Violent Extremist Prisoners and the Prevention of Radicalization to Violence in Prisons and treatment was available for persons identified to be at risk of radicalization. Spain had also been chosen by the European Union to work with Türkiye to establish criteria for managing radicalization and terrorist activities and their impact in prisons. The programme had resulted in the development of manuals, tailored to the situation in Türkiye, for training prison staff and administrators on the issue.

A representative of Spain said thatarticle 527 of the Criminal Procedure Act provided that a judge could, in some circumstances, deprive detained persons of certain rights, including the right to counsel of their choosing. Such a measure could only be taken if urgent action was needed to avoid a serious risk to a person’s life, freedom or physical integrity or to avoid compromising criminal proceedings, as set out in article 507 of the Act. In such cases, the detained person in question would have access to a court-appointed lawyer.

Article 11 of Organic Act No. 6/1985 on the judiciary provided that evidence obtained through any direct or indirect violation of rights or fundamental freedoms was inadmissible. The inadmissibility of such evidence could be claimed by any party to criminal proceedings or could be declared by the presiding judge. In any case, no confession obtained by police, whether under torture or not, would be sufficient evidence on its own to hand down a criminal sentence.

A representative of Spain said that the Supreme Court ruling of 13 June 2023, in which the Court had overturned a decision to award compensation to a victim in implementation of the Committee’s decision regarding communication No. 818/2017, E.L.G. v. Spain, had been consistent with the Court’s 2018 ruling on a decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In that ruling, the Court had established that the decisions of human rights treaty bodies were not legally binding, that there was no legal framework for their implementation and that such decisions were simply one factor to be taken into account when it was established whether the Spanish administration had been responsible for harm caused by the violation of a fundamental right. In the ruling issued in June 2023, the Supreme Court had considered that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that the State had been responsible. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court still held that the recommendations contained in such decisions could be beneficial. Most legislation passed since 2019 cited decisions, recommendations or resolutions of the United Nations or the treaty bodies. Moreover, the second National Human Rights Plan, adopted on 6 June 2023, encouraged the consideration of treaty body decisions in administrative procedures and provided for the establishment of a protocol for their follow-up.

A representative of Spain said that an investigation was carried out into each death in custody to establish whether it was due to natural causes, suicide, physical violence or an overdose of an illicit substance. There had been one death due to physical violence in 2023, but no cases in 2021 or 2022. In 2022, there had been 48 deaths from natural causes in prisons, which was higher than the average of around 20 or 30 each year. It was possible that the increase was related to secondary effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, but there was no scientific evidence to that effect; indeed, in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, there had been no deaths in prison caused by the disease. There was a suicide prevention programme in place in prisons, along with measures to address suicide attempts among female prisoners; statistics showed that the suicide rate was much higher among male prisoners than female prisoners, but that there was a high number of suicide attempts by female prisoners that did not result in death.

A representative of Spain said that the Inspectorate for Security Personnel and Services of the State Secretariat for Security kept statistics on deaths in custody. The National Police and the Civil Guard were required to report deaths to the Inspectorate within 24 hours. Deaths were investigated by a judicial commission, including a forensic doctor who visited the place of death to establish the facts. The National Police and the Civil Guard were among the most highly respected public authorities in the country according to independent public opinion surveys.

A representative of Spain said that, following the revision of European Union Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, member States would be required to establish national referral mechanisms for the early identification of victims of trafficking and the provision of assistance to them. The revised text would also provide for the explicit recognition of forced marriage and illegal adoption as forms of exploitation.

At the national level, discussions on the preliminary draft of the new comprehensive law to combat trafficking and exploitation of human beings had been ongoing when the Prime Minister of Spain had called an early election and the parliament had been dissolved. The law would provide for the punishment of perpetrators of all forms of trafficking and exploitation, including sex, labour and organ trafficking, and the strengthening of measures to detect trafficking, identify victims and provide them with assistance and reparation. It would also provide for the launch of awareness-raising campaigns and related measures to reduce demand for the services of trafficking victims. Moreover, in line with the revision of Directive 2011/36/EU, it would establish an offence of knowingly using such services. Non‑governmental and civil society organizations involved in identifying and reintegrating trafficking victims had participated in the discussions on the draft law.

The Ministry of the Interior was the lead agency for implementing the National Strategic Plan against Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Beings for 2021–2023, known as PENTRA. The Ministry of Justice was creating a space on its website for victims of trafficking, informing them of their rights, and was developing a common protocol for the provision of assistance to victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual or labour exploitation at victim support offices.

A representative of Spain said that the preliminary draft of the new comprehensive law to combat trafficking and exploitation of human beings defined trafficking as delivering a person, by means of violence or intimidation, for the purpose of exploitation, including sexual exploitation. The draft also defined as an offence not only the knowing use of a trafficking victim’s services, but also the provision of premises for the carrying-on of such services.

The State Strategy to Combat Male Violence for 2022–2025, drafted in November 2022, contained measures to prevent trafficking in persons that were consistent with the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, while PENTRA contained measures to support victims and to deal with the organized criminal groups responsible for trafficking. The five main objectives of PENTRA were to detect and prevent trafficking in persons; to identify, protect and support victims; to prosecute perpetrators; to coordinate existing mechanisms for preventing trafficking; and to improve knowledge of trafficking among investigators and judicial officials.

The Operational Plan for Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls Who Are Victims of Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation and of Women in Situations of Prostitution, known as Plan Camino 2022–2026, contained a host of measures to support and enforce the rights of trafficking victims, including a social and occupational integration component aimed at identifying career opportunities for such persons. Funding for the plan totalled €204 million, including €13 million for the social and occupational integration component.

The Action Plan to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in the Child Protection System set out a series of measures to build the capacity of professionals who were in a position to help prevent trafficking and sexual exploitation, such as those working in shelters. Lastly, a macro study was currently being conducted to improve statistics related to trafficking.

A representative of Spain said that, as migrants were particularly vulnerable to trafficking in persons, the Government had rolled out new protocols for the early detection of trafficking in coastal areas and in the territories of Ceuta and Melilla, and for the signposting of trafficking victims to social and legal support services. Several hundred more staff had been hired for those purposes. Further protocols to bolster prevention and support efforts included one to harmonize the information that migrants received in humanitarian assistance settings. Early detection efforts placed an emphasis on migrants who were doubly vulnerable, for example because they had disabilities or had been victims of gender-based violence. Given the vital importance of the work carried out by those who dealt directly with migrants, the Government had made a particular effort to train professionals in migration centres and other relevant institutions. Lastly, under the recently adopted Royal Decree-Law No. 6/2022 of 29 March 2022 on the Adoption of Urgent Measures within the Framework of the National Plan of Response to the Economic and Social Consequences of the War in Ukraine, trafficking victims who had been recognized as such, having duly documented their situation, were eligible for social support and had access to a range of other services in line with the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.

Ms. Racu (Country Rapporteur) said that she would appreciate additional information on employment and education opportunities for women prisoners and on their access to addiction treatment programmes. In addition, she wished to know whether there were enough psychologists and social workers in prisons.

She was grateful for information on updates to the asylum application system, as well as on the events leading to the deaths of over 20 migrants attempting to enter Melilla from Morocco. However, she would like to know the outcome of the investigation conducted into those events and what steps the State party was taking to prevent the recurrence of such an atrocity. She would also like to know the outcome of the investigation into the El Tarajal incident. She would welcome an update on the cases of Mohamed Abdellah and Mohamed Benhalima, whose rights under article 3 of the Convention had reportedly been violated.

It would be useful to know what was being done to address the shortage of medical staff in the Prison Service, in the light of claims that some staff members had left to join the national health service. Moreover, she would be grateful to know what was being done to improve access for inmates to specialist medical services, including psychiatric care, outside prisons, which reportedly had been restricted owing to the limited availability of National Police and Civil Guard officers to escort the persons in question.

She was keen to have additional information on the procedure for the placement of prisoners in solitary confinement, including how long such confinement typically lasted and which categories of prisoner were most often confined, particularly against the backdrop of reports that prisoners could be placed in solitary confinement for more than 14 days and that some prisoners in Catalonia were denied meaningful human contact because they allegedly posed a danger to others. She wondered if juveniles were ever subjected to conditions tantamount to solitary confinement. In addition, she wished to have further clarification of the legal provisions regulating incommunicado detention, in particular articles 384 and 509 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

She welcomed the efforts made to improve the situation of migrants in detention centres but wished to hear the delegation’s response to claims that migrants remained in those centres for an average of 40 days prior to expulsion. Furthermore, she would like to know what steps the State party was taking to support pregnant women and persons with serious health problems in those centres.

Lastly, she would appreciate the delegation’s comments on the reportedly excessive use of body searches by law enforcement officers, as well as an update on the investigation into the excessive use of force by National Police and Guardia Civil officers during demonstrations in Catalonia in 2017. She understood that, in cases of excessive use of force, it was not always possible to identify the officers concerned.

Mr. Iscan (Country Rapporteur) said that he welcomed the adoption in 2022 of Organic Act No. 20/2022 on democratic memory, which provided for the introduction of public policies that promoted the right to truth, justice and reparation for persons who had suffered abuses and persecution during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the dictatorship of General Franco (1939–1975). However, as that Act did not repeal the 1997 Amnesty Act, the perpetrators of acts of torture committed in the past could still benefit from amnesty, if indeed the offences were not time-barred. The Supreme Court, in its judgment No. 138-2021 of 17 February 2021, had ordered the closure of the investigation into the case known as la fosa de los maestros (“the teachers’ common grave”), essentially upholding its judgment No. 111-2012, in which it had held that the authorities should not proceed with the criminal investigation of serious human rights violations that had occurred during the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship on the grounds of the non-retroactivity of criminal law. While the Democratic Memory Act rendered the Government responsible for exhuming and identifying the bodies of the persons in question, it required that such exhumations be carried out extrajudicially. He wondered whether the delegation could shed any further light on the apparent obstacles to the investigation of those human rights violations.

He understood that, in line with a decision handed down by the Supreme Court in March 2022, the bodies of 128 victims of the Spanish Civil War, buried anonymously at the Valle de Cuelgamuros mausoleum near Madrid, would be exhumed and, if identified, returned to their families. In that regard, he would like to know what steps the State party envisaged taking to provide redress in accordance with its obligations under article 14 of the Convention.

He wished to learn what measures the State party had taken to ensure that its policies and actions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic were compatible with its obligations under the Convention. Whereas the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights established the right of States parties to take measures that derogated from their obligations under those instruments in times of emergency, to the extent required and with due regard for the principles of necessity, legality and proportionality, the prohibition on torture was non‑derogable. Therefore, he wished to know whether the State party, when imposing restrictions during the pandemic, had taken measures to uphold the rights of persons deprived of their liberty, including in homes for older persons, hospitals and institutions for persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities.

Lastly, he would appreciate the delegation’s response to claims that 5,379 persons had given self-incriminating testimonies under duress in the Basque country between 1960 and 2014, and that no investigation had been launched in respect of those claims.

Mr. Liu said that he was eager to know whether there was a timetable for the implementation of the draft comprehensive law to combat trafficking and exploitation of human beings following its adoption.

The meeting was suspended at 5 p.m. and resumed at 5.20 p.m.

A representative of Spain said that approximately one third of male inmates attended educational courses, compared to more than half of female inmates. However, 10 per cent of women prisoners and 90 per cent of male prisoners were enrolled in vocational training courses. Over 2,500 jobs were offered to inmates within prisons in coordination with the private sector. The type of work varied and all jobs and training courses were open to men and women alike.

Treatment programmes for drug and alcohol addiction were available to male and female inmates both inside and outside prisons. Certain organizations that provided treatment to prisoners might assign places for persons of a specific sex, but that did not prevent women from receiving treatment.

A representative of Spain said that the Government’s immigration and public security policy conformed to United Nations standards on human security. Police officers received training on human rights upon recruitment and throughout their careers, and knowledge of human rights was essential for promotion within the State security forces. Human rights would be covered in modules on institutional and civil society relations as part of a degree course for members of the National Police that would be offered by the University Training Centre for the National Police, in cooperation with the University of Salamanca, from September 2023.

Spain was required to enforce the Agreement on the gradual abolition of checks at the common borders in Ceuta and Melilla, where the only land borders between the European Union and the African continent were located. In 2020, Cádiz Provincial High Court had stayed the proceedings in a case concerning the incident at the beach in El Tarajal, Ceuta, on the grounds that it had found no causal link between the actions of the Civil Guard officers present and the migrants’ deaths. The Supreme Court had subsequently dismissed an appeal against the Provincial Court’s decision.

A representative of Spain said that in the cases of Mohamed Benhalima and Mohamed Abdellah, the Government had at no point violated the principle of non‑refoulement or article 3 of the Convention. Both individuals had applied for international protection in Spain in 2020, and the application of Mohamed Abdellah had been denied in July 2021. Since Mr. Abdellah had committed a serious offence under the Aliens Act, formal deportation proceedings had been conducted with full legal safeguards, and he had been expelled in August 2021. After his initial asylum application, Mr. Benhalima had filed a second application while at a migrant detention centre, followed by an appeal, all of which had been denied. He had subsequently been deported in March 2022. The asylum applications submitted by both individuals had been refused on the grounds set out in the Asylum Act and the deportation orders had been executed in accordance with article 246 of the Act’s implementing regulations, which stipulated that expulsion orders issued in urgent proceedings were immediately enforceable. Under article 117 of Act No. 39/2015, appeals against such orders did not have suspensive effect.

A representative of Spain said that responsibility for prison administration had been fully transferred to authorities at the autonomous community level in the Basque Country, Catalonia and Navarra, where health care in prisons was now provided by their respective regional ministries for health. In the autonomous communities to which powers had not yet been transferred, the Ministry of the Interior retained responsibility for appointing medical staff in prisons. Medical care was provided to prison inmates on a par with the rest of society.

Around 200 doctors worked in prisons and 7 psychiatrists were employed at the country’s two psychiatric detention centres. Outside the Basque Country, Catalonia and Navarra, the 9,000 inmates in open prisons were free to go to public health centres and hospitals without the need for a National Police or Civil Guard escort. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telemedicine had increased exponentially in prisons and had proved highly effective. Prisoners who required specialist care were transferred, by officers of the State security forces, to hospitals within the province where they were being detained. Given that thousands of prisoners were admitted to hospital each year, care might be delayed in some isolated cases. In medical emergencies, prisoners were taken to hospital immediately.

Confinement could be used as a tool to halt violent conflict in prisons by temporarily separating inmates and lasted only for a matter of minutes. It was distinct from solitary confinement, which was imposed as a punishment for very serious offences and, by law, could last for no more than 14 days. In the event of consecutive solitary confinement orders, the total number of days spent in solitary confinement could not exceed 42. The prison system in Catalonia followed the same principles as in the rest of Spain and, in March 2023, the Catalan prison authorities had denied the existence of the “bombolla” (bubble) protocol in response to a question from the Ombudsman’s Office. A circular issued in 2017 by the Catalan prison authorities regulated the closed prison regime and the use of solitary confinement in Catalonia.

A representative of Spain said that article 527 of the Criminal Procedure Act had been amended pursuant to Organic Act No. 13/2015 to require judges to specify which rights prisoners had had suspended or withdrawn and for how long. The article was applied very rarely, only in serious and exceptional cases, and for the shortest time possible.

A representative of Spain said that in 2019, the Council of Ministers had approved an infrastructure plan to refurbish, extend and improve various migrant detention centres to comply with the recommendations of the national preventive mechanism and the European Union. To date, the refurbishment of centres in Murcia, Valencia and Barcelona had been completed, and improvements to centres in Tenerife and Madrid were under way. Those refurbishments were unrelated to the holding time of migrants, which was decided by the competent authorities and could not exceed 60 days under Spanish law.

A representative of Spain said that all public servants, including National Police and Civil Guard officers, were required to have identification under the Common Administrative Procedures of the Public Administrations Act (No. 30/2015). How identification numbers were displayed was determined by a commission of experts and depended on the type of uniform worn by public servants. Access to DILISES, the digital application for handling official records, was restricted to public servants with identification in order to prevent manipulation.

Body searches by officers of the State security forces were regulated under Organic Act No. 4/2015 on the protection of public safety, which had been declared constitutional on two occasions by the Constitutional Court. They must be carried out in strict compliance with the principles of proportionality, equal treatment and non-discrimination, and in the least invasive manner possible.

A representative of Spain said that, pursuant to Order No. 80/2021 of the Constitutional Court, mechanisms must be established to uphold the rights of victims of enforced disappearance during the Civil War and ensure that investigations were not hindered. Under article 28 of the Democratic Memory Act, a unit of the prosecution service had been set up to investigate violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and the right to have such violations investigated was guaranteed by the State in accordance with article 29. Victims and their families were also able to obtain court declarations stating that the violations had taken place and outlining their circumstances. Excavations were under way at the Valle de Cuelgamuros mausoleum and some of the victims had been identified through DNA testing.

Mr. Fernández-Aguayo Muñoz (Spain), speaking as head of the delegation, said that the excavations at the Valle de Cuelgamuros site had been slow owing to technical difficulties. Funding for the project had been approved in 2021 and work to identify the 128 individuals buried there had recently restarted after several court cases had been resolved. To date, the remains of 9 individuals had been found and 4 had been identified. A total of €22 million had been paid in reparations and compensation to the families of victims who had died or disappeared during the Civil War and the dictatorship.

The Chair said that he wished to thank the delegation for its detailed answers, which reflected the State party’s commitment to defending human rights and implementing the Convention.

The meeting rose at 6 p.m.