لجنة مناهضة التعذيب تناقش مسألة التعاون مع صندوق الأمم المتحدة للتبرعات لضحايا التعذيب

10 November 2014

The Committee against Torture this afternoon discussed the inquiry procedure in the framework of cooperation with the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. The Committee also had the opportunity to preview two short movies, one featuring a social worker from VIVRE CAPREC Senegal, an organization assisting victims of torture from all over Africa, and another presenting a medical doctor working for WCHAN, an organization for victims of human rights violations from Iraq.

Alessio Bruni, Committee Expert, briefed the Committee about the meeting held on 1 October with the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims and said that several key points emerged from the discussion, including the need to widely share the General Comment on Article 14. General Comment N°3 offered guidance on compensation and rehabilitation of victims and contained the list of reporting issues for States parties, which was useful for the organizations working in the field in preparing the information to the Committee on the activities of States in the implementation of Article 14.

Jens Modvig, Committee Expert, in his briefing to the Committee, said that the Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture supported a number of non-governmental organizations which also provided information to the Committee and said that it might be useful if the Fund supported the preparation of shadow reports which would also dedicate attention to perpetrators of acts of torture. Concerning the right to rehabilitation concept, Mr. Modvig said that one way forward might be to develop models for the provision of rehabilitation to victims of torture.

In the ensuing discussion, Experts said the Committee had a number of ways to obtain information about the rehabilitation of victims and warned that more thought needed to be given as to the best ways of requesting that information from States.

Claudio Grossman, Committee Chairperson, expressed appreciation for the work of the Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and said that General Comment N° 3 on Article 14 provided a connection to the work of the Voluntary Fund. Further, having a better understanding of the Voluntary Fund’s work would enrich the Committee’s own understanding of the issues in any given country and assist in the preparation of concluding observations.

The Committee agreed to hold, during its next session, a dialogue with the Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and to issue a general statement on the activities of the Voluntary Fund.

Representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in charge of the management of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture said that the Fund granted financial support to over 20 projects which covered over 50,000 victims a year in more than 80 countries. It also had an emergency fund, which was used to support the activities in Syria, Mali and several other hot spots in the world. The Voluntary Fund reported to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly on the contributions by States and the ways in which they were managed, with full transparency. The Voluntary Fund was seen as one of the pillars of the fight against torture; it was a very operational mechanism which reached all the way to the victim. The Board of Trustees wished for a yearly conversation with the Committee in which it could learn more about neglected countries to enable it to build its own strategy and build partnerships to address those situations.

The Committee will reconvene in public on Tuesday, 11 November, at 10 a.m. to consider the second periodic report of Burundi (CAT/C/BDI/2).

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For use of the information media; not an official record