COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE OPENS TWENTY-NINTH SESSION

CAT
29th session
11 November 2002
Morning



The Committee against Torture opened this morning its autumn two-week session, adopting an agenda and programme of work and hearing an opening address from Bertrand Ramcharan, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mr. Ramcharan informed the Committee, among other things, about a recent report to the General Assembly titled "Agenda for further change" in which the Secretary-General had expressed the need to modernize the human rights treaty system. The current structure of disparate human rights Committees imposed difficult reporting demands on treaty signatories, Mr. Ramcharan said, and the report suggested that Committees craft a more coordinated approach to their activities and standardize their varied reporting requirements. The document said each State should be allowed to produce a single report summarizing its adherence to the full range of international human rights treaties to which it was a party.
There was one change to the Committee's programme of work. As Egypt had asked to alter the date for consideration of its report because of Ramadan, the fourth report of Egypt will be examined from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. on 14 November.
A Secretariat representative said 19 reports were pending before the Committee in addition to those scheduled for consideration at the current session. The representative added that 38 initial reports were overdue, along with 47 second reports, 43 third reports and 37 fourth reports, for a total of 165. Since the last session of the Committee, the number of ratifications of the Convention against Torture had increased, as Equatorial Guinea and Holy Sea had become States parties. The total number of States parties was now 131.
Alessio Bruni, a representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, updated the Committee on the status of the draft Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, noting that the Commission on Human Rights had adopted the Optional Protocol during its session in April; that the Economic and Social Council had also adopted the Protocol; that the Protocol had been forwarded the General Assembly; and that the Third Committee of the General Assembly had approved the text on the 7th of November with 104 votes in favour, 8 against and 37 abstentions. The Optional Protocol had still to be endorsed by the Plenary of the General Assembly. Once that occurred it could be opened for signatures as early as 1 January 2003.
The Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 12 November, to begin review of a fourth periodic report of Spain. As one of the 129 States parties to the Convention against Torture, Spain is required to provide periodic reports to the Committee on efforts to put the Convention into effect.
The Committee’s twenty-ninth session will conclude on 22 November.

Statement of Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights
BERTRAND RAMCHARAN, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the Committee of a recent report to the General Assembly entitled "Agenda for further change" in which the Secretary-General had expressed the need to modernize the human rights treaty system. The report recalled that in the Millenium Declaration member States had resolved to strengthen their capacity at the country level to implement the principles and practices of human rights. As part of its efforts to support human rights at the country level, the Office of the High Commissioner had began to work through the resident coordinator system to ensure that human rights were incorporated into country level analyses, planning and programme implementation. Mr. Ramcharan said there was still a long way to go and he stressed the importance the conclusions and recommendations of the treaty bodies had in this context. The role of the country teams would also be extremely helpful in assisting States to implement the recommendations of the Committee and to provide it with information about the situation in the country, said.
Mr. Ramcharan said the report of the Secretary-General also had significant implications for the activities of treaty bodies. The current structure of disparate human rights Committees imposed difficult reporting demands on treaty signatories and the report suggested two measures that could alleviate the shortcomings of the current system. The Committees should craft a more coordinated approach to their activities and standardize their varied reporting requirements. Moreover, each State should be allowed to produce a single report summarizing its adherence to the full range of international human rights treaties to which it was a party.
The report called for initiatives to reduce the amount of documentation and improve its quality in the context of streamlining reporting procedures. In this regard, the High Commissioner would like the Committee to examine the issue of length of State reports although it was true that, in view of the nature of the Convention against Torture, the reports prepared by the State parties were, in general, shorter than those addressed to some other Committees, Mr. Ramcharan said.
Mr. Ramcharan encouraged the Committee to start reflecting on new streamlined reporting procedures during the current session, as the process of treaty body reform had been on the agenda of some United Nations member States for some time. The High Commissioner had to submit his recommendations on this point to the Secretary-General by September 2003.



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