Satisfied by the outcome of its recently concluded 51st session in Geneva, Switzerland, the 10 independent experts of the Committee against Torture (CAT) of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations for Human Rights on 28 October to 22 November 2013 adopted its concluding observations and recommendations on reports on the implementation of the provisions of the International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Specifically, the Committee against Torture (CAT) emphasized on issues limiting against the promotion of values of the International Convention against Torture and other Cruel, inhuman or degrading Treatment of Punishment in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Uzbekistan, Poland, Latvia, Belgium, Portugal, Andorra and Kyrgyzstan.

Reviewing the challenges in the countries, they recommended that Burkina Faso needed to define and criminalize torture in its domestic legislation by ensuring that all persons deprived of liberty are afforded all fundamental legal safeguards from the outset of their deprivation of liberty. Preoccupied with continuous allegations of torture and ill treatment met with impunity, they highlighted the need for Burkina Faso to ensure prompt, effective and impartial investigations in their efforts to reduce prison population, overcrowding and poor prison conditions.

Several members of the CAT raised the issue of Poland’s complicity in the CIA rendition by not ensuring overall accountability, secret detention programme, abortion, human trafficking, as well as the use of confession made under torture. The experts recommended that the country should ensure pre-trial detention is used as an exception and applied for a limited period of time.

The transformation initiatives of the committee was in doubt in Mozambique, they appealed to the country to enact legislation defining and criminalizing torture because of their deep concerns about allegations of extrajudicial executions by members of police in full impunity. The committee wants the juvenile justice system to be improved on according to the Beijing Rules and more attention should be put in to stop the violence against women and children, including sexual abuse against girls in schools. There was a lot of concern on the legal safeguards, condition of detention, coerced confessions as well as persisting impunity for torture of arrested and detained persons by police officers and prison officials.

The experts were satisfied with the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in Portugal; they identified the alleged complicity into extraordinary renditions during the session, with particular focus on the investigations undertaken into the state’s involvement in rendition flights. Despite some efforts to reduce prison population, overcrowding remains a prime concern, even as they expressed serious misgivings about the regular use and length of pre-trial detention, in particular, the practice of solitary confinement, including for juveniles, which should be changed urgently. The reports of discrimination and abuses of Roma by the police was also a concern.

The statute of limitations for the crime of torture in Latvia was challenged by the committee, which it considered incompatible with the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture and recommended to be lifted. The experts were concern about situation of asylum seekers, human trafficking for purposes of sexual and labour exploitation, as well as violent against women, including domestic violence and marital rape.

According to the initial report of Andorra, the Committee against Torture (CAT) was concerned that the crime of torture is subject to a statute of limitations, which may result in impunity for perpetrators of acts of torture; and the absence of an independent body to investigate allegations of ill-treatment by members of the police force and called for institutional reforms. They stressed the question of violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence, and asked Andorra to adopt measures that will lower the number of pre-trial detainees.

Meanwhile, they were concerned about the on-going and widespread practice of torture as well as the persistent pattern of failure to investigate these allegations in Kyrgyzstan, and requested that the country with a matter of urgency, thoroughly, and impartially investigate all allegations of torture and ill-treatment and persecute those who are responsible. They requested Kyrgyzstan to prohibit de jure and de facto the use of evidence obtained through torture. In the present day Kyrgyzstan, human rights defenders face intimidation, reprisals, as well as threats, especially if they address torture and impunity in the South and the Committee recalled the country to ensure that defenders are protected from intimidation or violence as a result of their activities.

At the closing meeting, Claudio Grossman, the Chairperson of the Committee against Torture (CAT), said that the Committee would make public two statements on reprisals and on its membership. The issue of reprisals was crucial and it affected the core of the Committee’s work. He felt people should not be affected by any measures that limited in any way their work or their cooperation with United Nations human rights machinery. The expert would also like countries to develop an environment where human rights and human dignity would flourish.

Mr. Grossman also bid farewell to three Committee Members whose term will conclude at the end of the year: Nora Sveaass, Fernando Marino Menendez and Xuexian Wang, and he thanked them for their wisdom and knowledge that they had shared with the Committee. The international community owed tremendous gratitude to these esteemed colleagues who had contributed so greatly in the promotion of the values of the International Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

In addition to the consideration of country reports during this session, the Committee met with the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to discuss areas of collaboration.

The next session of the Committee against Torture will be held from 28 April to 23 May 2014 during which it will be reviewing the reports of Cyprus, Holy See, Lithuania, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay. It will also consider the situation in Guinea in absence of a report.