Committee against Torture Opens Eighty-First Session in Geneva

Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, Director, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, opening the session, said the culmination of the celebrations marking the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention gave the opportunity to review a year filled with important events aimed at promoting the prevention of and fight against torture.

The United Nations anti-torture mechanisms and their respective secretariats, under the leadership of the Committee against Torture, had carried out a series of events throughout the year to highlight the successes of the past four decades, creating momentum for the legal reforms and mindset changes needed to combat torture globally. The celebrations would culminate with the organization of a high-level event in Geneva on 14 November, underlining the commitment to upholding human dignity and ensuring that the Convention remained a cornerstone in the global fight against torture.

Mr. Cisse-Gouro said the United Nations treaty body system had been severely impacted by chronic resource constraints, compounded by the ongoing liquidity crisis, which prevented the treaty bodies from fully and effectively carrying out their mandated activities. The resources allocated to the treaty bodies needed to be increased to reflect the growing number of ratifications, initial and periodic reports, individual communications, and urgent action requests.

Despite these constraints, the treaty body strengthening process had led to significant results following the adoption of General Assembly resolution 68/268. During their meeting with Member States on 26 June, the Chairs of the treaty bodies urged them to endorse the introduction of a predictable eight-year review schedule, with follow-up reviews, and called for resources to implement these proposals. Since then, the Secretary-General had strongly supported the conclusions of the treaty body Chairs and called on Member States to support their implementation.

The latest annual report of the Secretary-General on intimidation and reprisals for cooperating with the United Nations indicated that the number of reported acts of intimidation and reprisals by State and non-State actors against individuals or groups cooperating with the United Nations remained high. Notably, the report highlighted the preventive measures implemented by the Committee against Torture in response to concerns expressed by civil society actors fearing reprisals for their engagement with the Committee, which was commendable.

The publication of the Secretary-General’s report on human rights in the administration of justice was also a topic that was highly relevant to the Committee’s mandate. The report highlighted best practices in applying digital technologies and artificial intelligence within the justice system, as well as the human rights challenges and potential negative impacts these technologies could have on safeguarding rights in criminal justice. Mr. Cisse-Gouro concluded by reiterating the Office’s strong commitment to supporting the Committee in its critical mandate during and beyond the anniversary year of the Convention.

Claude Heller, Committee Chairperson, said 14 November marked the fortieth anniversary of the Convention, which would be a good opportunity to assess the Committee’s achievements, as well as pending challenges. During the session, the Committee would conduct in-person dialogues to review the reports of Cameroon, Jordan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Namibia and Thailand, as well as private meetings with national human rights institutes and non-governmental organizations from those States. He said that the cessation of hybrid meetings continued to negatively impact the work of Committee members, civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, national preventive mechanisms, United Nations entities and other stakeholders.

Further, Mr. Heller reported, the Committee would, during the session, consider 22 individual communications. It would consider 10 communications on the merits, one on admissibility, as well as 12 requests for discontinuance of communications.

On Monday, 18 November, follow-up reports would be presented by the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations and by the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up on decisions adopted under articles 19, 20 and 22. The Committee’s Rapporteur on reprisals would also present cases and allegations of reprisals. The Committee would hold a private meeting with the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture on Monday, 11 November. A high-level event would be held in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on 14 November.

In closing, Mr. Heller thanked States, national human rights organizations, civil society organizations, in particular the World Organization against Torture, and the Secretariat for their support of the Committee.

During the meeting, the Committee adopted its provisional agenda for the session.

Documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, will be available on the session’s webpage. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, and webcasts of the public meetings can be found here.

The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 29 October at 10 a.m. to consider the fourth periodic report of Kuwait (CAT/C/KWT/4).

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