Committee against Torture adopts Annual Report

Committee against Torture

1 June 2011

Discusses program of work for future sessions

The Committee against Torture this afternoon adopted its annual report following a discussion among Committee Experts. The annual report covers the period from 1 November 2010 to 3 June 2011 and the 45th and the 46th session.

The annual report, which was introduced by Committee member Nora Sveaass, notes that the membership of the Committee remained the same during the period covered by the report. The list of members with their term of office would appear in the annexes of the report.

Committee Members had participated in different meetings, including the 11th Inter-Committee Meeting held in Geneva from 28 to 29 June 2010, the 22nd Meeting of Chairpersons, held in Brussels on 1 and 2 July 2010, and the first session of the Inter-Committee Meeting Working Group on Follow-up to Concluding Observations, Inquiries, Visits and Decisions, held in Geneva from 12 to 14 January 2011.

The Chairperson of the Committee had presented an oral report to the General Assembly at its 65th session, on 19 October 2010, and a joint meeting had been held on 16 November 2010 between the members of the Committee against Torture and the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

At its 46th session on 16 May 2011, the Committee held an informal meeting with representatives of 31 States parties to the Convention to discuss several matters such as the independence of treaty bodies. The full list of points of discussion was provided in the report. On 12 May 2011 the Committee held an informal meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations.

Ms. Sveaass said that the Committee had completed the revision of its rules of procedure, amended previously at its 13th session, at its 45th session.

As for the submission of reports by States parties under article 19 of Convention, Ms. Sveaass noted that the Committee had received a total of 249 reports and that 311 reports were overdue.

At its 46th session, the Committee had decided to send reminders to the following State parties whose initial reports were three or more years overdue: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Holy See, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Timor-Leste.

In accordance with its rules of procedure, the Committee had established the post of Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, appointing Ms. Gaer to that position. In November 2010 and May and June 2011, the Rapporteur had presented a progress report to the Committee on the results of the procedure.

The 47th session of the Committee would be held in Geneva from 31 October to 25 November 2011, the 48th session from 7 May to 1 June 2012, and the 49th session from 29 October to 23 November 2012. At its 47th session, the Committee would examine the reports of Djibouti, Madagascar, Greece, Paraguay, Morocco, Bulgaria, Sri Lanka, Belarus and Germany.

Experts then discussed a number of questions before adopting the Committee’s annual report.

The concluding observations on the periodic reports of States examined during this session, Finland, Ghana, Ireland, Kuwait, Mauritius, Monaco, Slovenia, and Turkmenistan, would be made public on Friday, 3 June 2011.

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For use of information media; not an official record