Committee against Torture

List of issues prior to submission of the third periodic report of Chad *

Specific information on the implementation of articles 1–16 of the Convention, including with regard to the Committee’s previous recommendations

Issues identified for follow-up in the previous concluding observations

1.In its previous concluding observations, the Committee requested the State Party to provide information on follow-up to the Committee’s recommendations regarding the excessive use of force during the demonstrations of April 2021 and October 2022, conditions of detention, deaths in custody and statistical data collection. The Committee regrets that it has received no information from the State Party on the implementation of these recommendations, despite a reminder sent by the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations on 16 April 2024.

Articles 1 and 4

2.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on the measures taken to amend article 323 of the Criminal Code to ensure that the definition of torture contains an express mention of the phrase “other person acting in an official capacity” contained in article 1 of the Convention and is not limited to traditional authorities acting in an official capacity. Please specify the measures taken to ensure that acts of torture that do not lead to the death of the victim, permanent loss of the use of all or part of a limb, organ or sense, or illness or incapacity to work of more than 30 days are punishable by penalties that take into account their grave nature, in accordance with article 4 (2) of the Convention. Lastly, please indicate the measures taken to ensure that the offence of torture is not subject to a statute of limitations, even in cases where it is not classified as a crime against humanity or a war crime, in order to avoid any risk of impunity.

Article 2

3.Please indicate the steps taken to establish mechanisms and procedures to ensure protection from reprisals for subordinates who refuse to obey unlawful orders, including those relating to acts of torture, issued by a competent authority, and the measures adopted to ensure that all law enforcement officers are informed of the prohibition against obeying such unlawful orders and are made aware of these mechanisms and procedures. Please provide information on the measures taken to incorporate the principle of command responsibility or superior responsibility for the offence of torture and other ill-treatment, according to which hierarchical superiors are held criminally responsible for the conduct of their subordinates where they knew or should have known that the conduct was occurring, or was likely to occur, and they failed to take reasonable and necessary preventive measures or to refer the case to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.

4.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that all persons who are arrested or detained, including those detained for offences related to national security and terrorism, are in law and in practice afforded all fundamental legal safeguards against torture from the outset of their deprivation of liberty. Please describe, in particular, any measures taken to ensure that such persons: (a) are informed of the reasons for their arrest, the nature of the charges against them and their rights, in a language that they understand; (b) have access to the services of a lawyer of their choice without delay and in full confidentiality, and to free legal aid if they do not have sufficient means to pay for legal representation; (c) are able to notify a relative or any other person of their choice of their detention and whereabouts; (d) can request and receive a free and confidential medical examination by an independent medical doctor or pay to be examined by a doctor of their choice; (e) are brought promptly, within 48 hours, as provided by law, before a judge; and (f) can challenge the lawfulness of their detention, in accordance with international standards. Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that registers are kept that contain comprehensive, detailed information, including on interrogations and incidents in detention, and medical records for each detainee, and that registers are accessible to the lawyers of detained persons at any time. Please describe the measures taken to ensure respect, in practice, for all fundamental legal safeguards by members of law enforcement agencies and other public officials. Please provide information on any disciplinary measures taken since the consideration of the State Party’s previous periodic report against law enforcement officials who did not immediately allow detained persons to benefit from these safeguards.

5.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on the measures taken to ensure the functional autonomy of the National Human Rights Commission, particularly by ensuring that it has an adequate budget for recruiting staff, establishing regional offices and fully executing its mandate, in accordance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles). Please describe the measures taken to ensure the independence of the Commission from the executive branch, particularly with regard to the selection and appointment of members and the Commission’s activities and decision-making processes. Please specify the measures adopted to enable the members of the Commission to conduct regular, unrestricted and unannounced visits to all places of deprivation of liberty and to communicate confidentially during those visits with any persons deprived of their liberty, and indicate the steps taken to ensure effective follow-up to the findings of these visits and the recommendations arising from them. Please indicate the steps taken to ensure that the recommendations of the Commission regarding individual complaints are taken into account and effectively implemented, including by communicating such recommendations to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in cases where torture or ill-treatment is found to have occurred. Please provide updated information, including statistical data, disaggregated by year and by age group (minor or adult), sex, national or ethnic origin and nationality of the victim, on the complaints examined by the Commission in relation to alleged torture or ill‑treatment, and specify how many such cases have been submitted to the competent authorities for prosecution, including the details of such cases. Please clarify whether all civil society organizations authorized to visit the country’s places of detention to complement the monitoring undertaken by the Commission are granted access and under what conditions. Please provide information on the civil society organizations that have reportedly been denied access to places of detention. Please report on the status of any plans to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention, with a view to establishing a system of regular, independent and unannounced visits by a national preventive mechanism and by the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

6.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide up-to-date information on legislative or other measures taken during the reporting period to counter all forms of violence against women, including spousal abuse and sexual violence, in particular in cases where the public authorities or other entities are alleged to have committed acts or to be responsible for omissions engaging the State Party’s international responsibility under the Convention. Please indicate what measures have been taken to amend the Criminal Code to criminalize incest, marital rape and sexual harassment, to decriminalize adultery and to ensure that perpetrators of spousal abuse are not exempt from criminal prosecution, including in cases where a spouse is caught in the act of adultery. Please describe the efforts made to ensure the strict application of criminal law provisions relating to protection against spousal abuse and sexual violence, including capacity-building programmes for law enforcement officials. Please specify the measures taken to ensure that customary law and practices are not a substitute for positive law and that their application does not lead to the termination of criminal proceedings in cases of spousal abuse or sexual violence. Please provide updated data, disaggregated by the victims’ age, national or ethnic origin and nationality, on the number of complaints filed, investigations carried out, prosecutions brought and convictions and sentences handed down, and on protection orders issued by Chadian courts and redress afforded to victims, in cases of gender-based violence since the consideration of the State Party’s previous periodic report. Please indicate the measures taken to improve security in refugee camps and sites for internally displaced persons to ensure that women and girls are effectively protected from sexual and gender‑based violence.

7.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on action taken to combat persistent harmful traditional practices such as child marriage, sororate and levirate marriage, and polygamy. Please indicate what new measures have been taken to eliminate female genital mutilation, especially by ensuring strict enforcement of the provisions criminalizing this practice, in particular article 318 of the Criminal Code, so that persons who perform such acts, including doctors, are prosecuted and duly punished. Please provide updated information, including statistical data disaggregated by the age, ethnic or national origin and nationality of the victims, on the number of complaints of female genital mutilation, the number of investigations and prosecutions initiated, the convictions secured, the sentences imposed on perpetrators, and any redress provided to victims. Please specify the measures taken to strengthen cross-border cooperation and awareness-raising among judges, prosecutors and police officers, religious and traditional leaders, educators, health professionals, social workers and the general public about the criminal nature of the procedure, its adverse effect on women’s health and the exercise by women of their human rights, and the need to eradicate it and its underlying cultural justifications.

Article 3

8.Please provide information on the measures taken during the reporting period to ensure that no person is returned to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture. Please provide information on the current asylum, return and extradition procedure and, in particular, on the protection afforded to refugees, asylum-seekers and persons who are being extradited or returned, in order to avoid any risk of refoulement. Please describe the action taken to ensure that all applicants for international protection at the border and in reception centres, particularly refugees and asylum-seekers from the Sudan and the Central African Republic, are promptly registered, referred to the appropriate asylum authorities and informed about refugee status determination procedures. Please state whether persons threatened with expulsion, return or extradition are informed in practice of their rights to request asylum and to appeal against a deportation order, and whether such appeals have a suspensive effect. Please indicate what measures have been taken to strengthen the National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees and Returnees and provide it with sufficient human and financial resources to enable it to discharge its mandate effectively, and specify whether its appeals subcommittee has been reactivated. Please provide information on the measures taken to identify and immediately refer vulnerable asylum-seekers, particularly victims of torture, of trafficking in persons and of gender-based violence, as well as unaccompanied minors or children separated from their families, to the appropriate services and to ensure that their needs are taken into consideration and addressed in a timely manner.

9.Please provide updated data for the period since November 2022, disaggregated by year and sex, country of origin or nationality and age group (minor or adult) of persons seeking asylum, on: (a) the number of asylum applications received during the period under review; (b) the number of successful applications for asylum, refugee status or other forms of humanitarian protection, specifying the number of persons whose applications were accepted because they had been tortured or might be tortured if returned to their country of origin; (c) the number of persons extradited, expelled or returned since the consideration of the State Party’s previous periodic report, and the countries of return; (d) the number of appeals filed against expulsion decisions; and (e) the number of successful appeals, specifying the number of decisions regarding return or expulsion that were reviewed on the grounds that the applicants had been tortured or that there were substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being subjected to torture if they were returned or expelled. Please state how many removals, extraditions and expulsions were carried out during the reporting period on the basis of diplomatic assurances or the equivalent thereof, specifying the States that provided the assurances, the minimum assurances or guarantees that were required and the mechanisms put in place to monitor whether such assurances or guarantees were respected. Please indicate any instances where the State Party has offered such diplomatic assurances or guarantees, and the measures taken in such cases with regard to subsequent monitoring.

Articles 5 and 9

10.Please provide information on any new legislation or measures that have been adopted to implement article 5 of the Convention. Please indicate what measures have been adopted by the State Party to comply with its obligation to extradite or prosecute (aut dedere aut judicare). In particular, please provide updated information on cases in which the State Party has agreed to extradite a person for torture or related offences. Please also indicate whether the State Party has rejected, for any reason, the request of a State for the extradition of an individual suspected of having committed torture and whether, in such cases, it has started prosecution proceedings against such an individual. If so, please provide information on the status and outcome of such proceedings. Please also inform the Committee of any extradition treaties concluded with other States Parties and indicate whether the offences referred to in article 4 of the Convention are included as extraditable offences in such treaties. Please indicate what treaties or agreements on mutual legal assistance the State Party has entered into, and whether such treaties or agreements have led to the transfer of any evidence in connection with prosecutions concerning torture or ill-treatment. Please provide examples.

Article 10

11.Bearing in mind the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide updated information on the training and education programmes developed by the State Party to ensure that all public officials who participate in detention-related activities are fully acquainted with the provisions of the Convention, including the absolute prohibition of torture, and are made aware that violations will not be tolerated, that allegations of torture and ill-treatment will be investigated and that those responsible will be prosecuted and, if found guilty, duly punished. Please indicate whether these training programmes are mandatory or optional, how often they are conducted, how many law enforcement officials, prison staff, personnel of the National Security Agency and of the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation, immigration service staff, border control officers and members of the military have already completed them, what percentage of all such personnel have completed them and what measures have been taken to train the remaining personnel. Please provide details on the programmes used in the training of police officers and other law enforcement officials in non-coercive investigating techniques. Please further indicate whether the State Party has developed any methodology to assess the effectiveness of training and educational programmes in reducing the number of cases of torture and ill-treatment and, if so, please provide detailed information on that methodology. Please also provide information on the programmes aimed at training judges, prosecutors, forensic doctors and other medical personnel who deal with persons deprived of their liberty to detect the physical and psychological consequences of torture, to ensure the effective documentation of torture and to verify the admissibility of confessions. Please specify the extent to which these programmes contain specific training in the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol), as revised. Lastly, please indicate the measures taken to give effect to article 10 (2) of the Convention.

Article 11

12.Please describe the procedures in place for ensuring compliance with article 11 of the Convention and provide information on any interrogation rules, instructions, methods or practices and any arrangements for custody that may have been introduced since the consideration of the State Party’s previous periodic report. Please specify the frequency with which these are reviewed and report on the procedures established for this purpose.

13.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide, for the period under review, annual statistical data on the capacity of all places of detention and their occupancy rates, and indicate the number of remand and convicted prisoners at each facility, ensuring that these data are disaggregated by sex, age and national or ethnic origin and nationality of the prisoners. Please provide information on measures taken to address the overuse of prolonged pretrial detention, particularly in the case of individuals arrested in the fight against terrorism. Please provide statistical data for the period under review on the use of alternatives to pretrial detention.

14.Bearing in mind the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide detailed information on the measures taken to improve conditions of detention at police and gendarmerie stations, prisons and other places of deprivation of liberty, in accordance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules). In particular, please indicate the steps taken to reduce overcrowding in places of detention, including through the use of alternatives to detention both before and after trial, particularly in the case of children in conflict with the law, and to improve sanitation, ventilation and the quality and quantity of food and water, as well as healthcare, including psychiatric care, provided to prisoners. Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to ensure that prisoners have access to educational, recreational, vocational, physical and intellectual activities, and to facilitate family visits. Please describe the measures taken to increase the number of trained and qualified prison staff, including medical staff. Please describe the measures taken to address the special needs of: (a) children in conflict with the law, including with regard to rehabilitation and education services; (b) women deprived of their liberty, in particular pregnant women and women held in detention with their children; (c) persons with disabilities; (d) lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons; and (e) older persons. Please provide information on measures adopted to ensure, in practice, the separation of pretrial detainees from convicted prisoners, children from adults and men from women, and specify at which facilities detainees are not yet separated in this way. Please provide details on the State Party’s legislation and practice regarding solitary confinement and indicate the maximum and average duration of solitary confinement. Please describe the steps taken to ensure that solitary confinement is not imposed on children and adolescents or on persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities where this practice could worsen their condition. Please specify whether solitary confinement and other isolation regimes are monitored by an independent mechanism.

15.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, and in view of reports that public officials, including members of the National Security Agency, sometimes resort to arbitrary detention without charge or judicial oversight, incommunicado detention in an unofficial location, abduction and false imprisonment, torture or ill-treatment, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions, please indicate whether the State Party has initiated any investigations into these alleged practices or into cases involving such practices. If so, please describe the outcome of these investigations and indicate whether those exercising effective control over unofficial places of detention have been brought to account and what type of disciplinary measure or punishment has been administered against these persons. Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that national laws are enforced effectively throughout the country and to close all unofficial places of detention immediately. Please specify the action taken to place persons who may be detained in such places, including persons suspected of terrorism, under court supervision and ensure that they enjoy all fundamental legal safeguards to prevent and protect them from acts of torture or ill-treatment. Please describe the measures taken to ensure the full transparency of the activities of the National Security Agency and the exercise of civilian control over and effective monitoring of these activities.

16.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations and to reports of deaths in custody in suspicious circumstances that have remained unresolved by the courts, including the deaths of 44 suspected members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram in a cell at a gendarmerie station in N’Djamena in April 2020 following alleged torture and ill-treatment, please provide statistical data on deaths in custody during the reporting period, disaggregated by year, place of detention, sex, age, national or ethnic origin and nationality of the deceased and cause of death. Please provide detailed information on the number and outcomes of investigations conducted in such cases, specifying whether forensic medical assessments, including autopsies, were performed, and on the number of deaths that there is reason to believe were caused by assaults committed or tolerated by government officials, excessive use of force or negligence. Please also provide information on the number of convictions handed down, the criminal and disciplinary penalties imposed and the steps taken to prevent the recurrence of such acts. Please indicate whether the relatives of deceased persons received compensation in any such cases. Lastly, please describe the steps taken to strengthen the monitoring and management of inter-prisoner violence in penitentiary institutions, to investigate all incidents of violence and to ensure that prison officials are held accountable in cases when they fail to take reasonable measures to prevent and respond to such violence.

Articles 12 and 13

17.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that all allegations of torture or ill-treatment committed by public officials, in particular police officers and gendarmes during the arrest, transport, custody and interrogation of persons and in the course of law enforcement activities, as well as prison staff, military personnel and members of the National Security Agency, are promptly, effectively and impartially investigated by an independent body, and that suspects are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, sentenced to penalties commensurate with the seriousness of their actions. Please specify whether steps have been taken to set up an effective and independent mechanism for monitoring the aforementioned public officials. Please describe the efforts made to ensure that persons suspected of having committed acts of torture or ill-treatment are immediately suspended from their duties for the duration of the investigation. Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that the authorities launch investigations on their own initiative whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that an act of torture or ill-treatment has been committed. Please specify whether an effective, independent, confidential and accessible complaints mechanism has been set up in each place of detention. Please report on the measures taken to increase the number of judges, prosecutors and lawyers throughout the country and systematically train judges, prosecutors and lawyers to apply the laws in force, in particular article 323 of the Criminal Code concerning the punishment of torture. Please provide information on the measures taken to guarantee the full independence and impartiality of the judiciary, in particular in the examination of cases of torture and ill-treatment. Please explain the measures adopted to ensure, in law and in practice, access to free legal aid services for victims of torture and ill‑treatment, to implement legal literacy programmes and to raise awareness of the available legal remedies. Lastly, please describe the measures taken to ensure that customary law and practices, such as the payment of blood money (diya), do not replace justice mechanisms based on positive law in cases of torture and ill-treatment and to ensure that they are not invoked to justify the violation of the absolute prohibition against torture.

18.Please provide annual statistical data for the period under consideration, disaggregated by type of offence and by sex, age group (minor or adult), national or ethnic origin and nationality of victims and the services to which the persons accused of committing acts of torture belong, on: (a) the number of complaints regarding offences such as actual or attempted acts of torture or ill-treatment or complicity, or the participation in or consent to such acts; (b) the number of complaints that have led to criminal or disciplinary investigations and the number of cases dismissed; (c) the number of ex officio investigations opened into the aforementioned offences; (d) the number of prosecutions carried out; and (e) the number of convictions secured, and the penal and disciplinary sanctions imposed, specifying the length of any prison sentences.

19.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please inform the Committee of further measures taken to ensure that prompt, impartial and effective investigations are undertaken into all allegations of excessive use of force by law enforcement officials and members of the armed forces and security services, that the alleged perpetrators are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished with appropriate penalties, and that victims or their families receive adequate reparation. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that the legislative and regulatory provisions governing the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the use of force and firearms are in full compliance with the Convention, the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the United Nations Human Rights Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement. Please indicate whether mandatory training on the use of force is regularly provided to all law enforcement officials to ensure that they apply non-violent measures prior to any use of force when controlling demonstrations and that they respect the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality and accountability. Please indicate whether the State Party intends to repeal the amnesty law adopted on 23 November 2023 with a view to ensuring that all allegations of excessive use of force, including lethal force, arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions and transfers of detainees to the Koro Toro high-security prison, acts of torture and ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances attributed to the security forces, intelligence services and unidentified armed groups during and following the demonstrations that took place in April 2021 and October 2022 are promptly, effectively and impartially investigated by an independent body, that suspects are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, sentenced to penalties commensurate with the gravity of their acts, and that victims or their families receive adequate reparations. Please describe the measures taken to cooperate fully with the international fact-finding mission dispatched by the Economic Community of Central African States to shed light on the events of 20 October 2022 and specify whether the mission report has been made public and whether measures have been taken to provide effective follow-up to the conclusions and recommendations issued by that mission.

Article 14

20.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please indicate whether measures have been taken to ensure, in law and in practice, that victims of torture or ill-treatment may seek and obtain prompt, fair and adequate compensation and the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible, including in cases where the civil liability of the State Party is involved. Please provide statistical data on redress and compensation measures, including means of rehabilitation, ordered by the courts or other State bodies and actually provided to victims of torture or ill-treatment or to their families during the period under review. Please indicate the number of applications made for State compensation for torture and ill-treatment, the number of claims that were time-barred owing to the courts’ inaction, the number of applications granted and the amounts ordered and actually provided in each case. Please specify whether legislative or administrative measures have been taken to ensure that civil proceedings for reparation can be initiated by victims of torture or ill-treatment, their families and the person defending them independently of any criminal proceedings that might have been initiated or completed, including in cases in which the perpetrator has not been identified or found guilty of an offence. Please also provide information on any ongoing rehabilitation programmes for victims of torture and ill-treatment and on the resources allocated to those programmes.

21.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please specify the efforts made by the State Party to encourage its partners to contribute to the trust fund set up by the African Union for victims of the crimes of Hissène Habré in order to make it operational without delay. Please indicate what measures have been taken to fully implement the ruling of the Special Criminal Court in N’Djamena with a view to providing due compensation to the victims of the serious human rights violations committed by agents of the Documentation and Security Directorate, specifying the number of victims compensated, the amounts paid and the obstacles encountered during that process. Please provide information on the measures taken to erect the memorial dedicated to the victims of the Hissène Habré regime, the creation of which was ordered by the Court.

Article 15

22.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please indicate what measures have been taken to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to explicitly prohibit the use as evidence in judicial proceedings of confessions or other statements obtained through torture, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that such a statement was made under duress. Please describe the measures taken to ensure that, in practice, confessions and other statements obtained under torture or ill-treatment, including any evidence derived from such confessions or other statements, cannot be invoked in any proceedings. In this regard, please indicate the measures that have been taken to ensure that, in cases of alleged torture, it is for the prosecuting authority to establish that the evidence has not been obtained under duress, and specify the measures taken to make retrial possible if confessions or other statements obtained through torture or ill-treatment are alleged to have been used during the original trial. Please indicate whether judges have refused to admit evidence in any cases during the reporting period on the grounds that it was obtained through torture or ill-treatment.

Article 16

23.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please inform the Committee of the measures taken to ensure that all death sentences handed down prior to the adoption of the legislation abolishing this practice are commuted to prison sentences. Please indicate the efforts made by the State Party to enshrine the abolition of the death penalty in the 2023 Constitution and accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

24.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please respond to the numerous allegations of threats, harassment, intimidation, assault, abduction and false imprisonment, arbitrary arrest and detention, incommunicado detention, prosecution and conviction on politically motivated charges, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions of human rights defenders, members of civil society, journalists and political opponents who are critical of the Government. Please describe the measures taken to ensure the effective protection of these persons with a view to enabling them to conduct their legitimate activities freely. Please provide statistical data for the reporting period on the number of complaints related to these allegations, the outcomes of any investigations initiated in response and the sentences and penalties handed down. In particular, please indicate the measures that have been taken to thoroughly investigate the death of Yaya Dillo, leader of the Parti socialiste sans frontières (Socialist Party without Borders), during an attack by the security forces on that party’s headquarters, and to prosecute and punish those responsible for his death. Please also provide information on the alleged arbitrary arrest and detention of Succès Masra, former Prime Minister of Chad and President of the Les Transformateurs (The Transformers) party, who was reportedly abducted from his home, placed in pretrial detention and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for incitement to hatred.

25.Please indicate the measures taken to repeal article 354 of the Criminal Code with a view to decriminalizing sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex. Please also elaborate on the measures taken to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons against harassment, discrimination and violence and to provide access to justice and remedies for victims.

Other issues

26.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide updated information on the measures taken by the State Party to respond to threats of terrorism. Please indicate whether those measures have affected human rights safeguards in law and in practice and, if so, how they have affected them. Please also describe how the State Party has ensured that those measures are compatible with all its obligations under international law, especially the Convention. Furthermore, please indicate what training is given to law enforcement officers in this area; the number of persons who have been convicted under legislation adopted to combat terrorism; the legal remedies and safeguards available in law and in practice to persons subjected to counter-terrorism measures; and whether there have been complaints of the non-observance of international standards in applying measures to combat terrorism and, if so, what the outcome was. Please provide information on the measures taken to amend Act No. 003/PR/2020, the Counter-Terrorism Act, in order to ensure that the definition of terrorism therein complies with international standards and reduce the maximum length of time that a person suspected of terrorism can be held in police custody.

27.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please indicate the concrete measures taken by the State Party to strengthen its capacity to collect, disaggregate and analyse relevant statistical data in a targeted and coordinated manner with a view to ensuring effective monitoring of the fulfilment of its obligations under the Convention.

General information on other measures and developments relating to the implementation of the Convention in the State Party

28.Please provide detailed information on any other relevant legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures taken since the consideration of the State Party’s previous periodic report to implement the provisions of the Convention or the Committee’s recommendations, including institutional developments, plans or programmes. Please indicate the resources allocated and provide statistical data. Please also provide any other information that the State Party considers relevant.