COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE BEGINS REVIEW OF REPORT OF SWEDEN

The Committee against Torture this afternoon began its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Sweden on the efforts of that country to give effect to the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Introducing the report, Carl Henrik Ehrenkrona, Director-General for Legal Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, said that torture was not an issue in Sweden and there were no examples of torture committed by public officials being reported by the media or from other independent sources. There were however examples of police assault, but they were limited in number and not for the purpose of forcing a person to provide information. On the issue of introducing the definition of torture into the Swedish penal legislation, the Swedish position remained unchanged. The Government considered that all the Convention’s requirements were met by general Swedish penal law.

Regarding Swedish troops deployed in Afghanistan, Swedish courts had jurisdiction with regard to all crimes committed abroad in the course of duty, regardless of the laws of the State where the criminal act had been committed, noted Mr. Ehrenkrona. Concerning the events during the Summit in Göteborg in 2001, the investigating committee had submitted its report and the criticism it had levelled at police methods employed at large gatherings of people had led to the development of special police tactics. On efforts to combat terrorism, the counter-terrorism capacity of the Swedish Security Services had been substantially increased in 2007. At the same time, additional procedural safeguards had been introduced. All measures had to be based on the rule of law.

Serving as Rapporteur for the report of Sweden, Committee Expert Claudio Grossman said that as had been noted by the Swedish Red Cross, by not defining torture, it gave the impression that there was no torture happening in the country. As long as there was no definition, there would be no convictions and thus no statistics. The expansion of the definition for asylum seekers on grounds of sexual orientation was welcomed but it was believed that having statistics on this matter would be very helpful.

Xuexian Wang, the Committee Expert serving as Co-Rapporteur for the report of Sweden, wondered about what had happened to the asylum-seeking children that had disappeared and where they were now. On the issue of discrimination, information showed that Roma people were suffering from discrimination in Sweden, and he wished to hear the comments of the delegation on this topic.

Other issues of concern raised by Experts included the criteria used for the detention of children, and whether they were in accordance with international principles? How was the taping of interrogation of detainees by the police taking place? Were there special interrogation techniques used by secret services? Could people remain in Sweden for humanitarian reasons? How were personnel in Swedish embassies trained to respond to asylum requests? Was Sweden planning to ratify the Convention against Enforced Disappearances?

Also representing the delegation of Sweden were members of the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sweden is among the 145 States parties to the Convention and as such it must present periodic reports to the Committee on how it is implementing the provisions of the Convention.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 30 April, it will hear the answers of Sweden to the questions posed by Experts today.

Report of Sweden

The fifth periodic report of Sweden (CAT/C/SWE/5) states that on police training, the basic training of police officers devotes a great deal of time to the issue of professional ethics. In line with the special ethics programme, the police services have appointed and trained special ethics supervisors. Human rights form an integral part of the basic two-year police training. The first semester of the basic police training takes as its starting points the United Nations and the Council of Europe’s conventions on human rights and the paramount importance of equal rights of all persons is underlined. An act of torture according to Article 1 of the Convention would constitute a criminal offence under Swedish law. Therefore, if a policeman or a prosecutor uses means of torture to produce evidence, he or she will commit a criminal offence. A statement made as a result of torture has no legal value.

On places of detention, the report says that the National Police Board and the Office of the Prosecutor General have produced an information sheet specifying the rights of detained persons. The information sheet is still to be issued pending translation into appropriate languages. The standards within police establishments as regards size, equipment etc. of cells had undergone significant improvement in recent years. The design of cells and the standards of their equipment form part of the daily work of the technical service of the police. Several improvements have for instance been made to avoid that detained persons hurt themselves or even try to commit suicide.

On the issue of whether asylum-seekers have been sent to countries of their own choice, or countries with which they have real ties, it is a problem of great concern that over 90 percent of the asylum-seekers in Sweden do not present any form of passports, identity cards or other documents that can prove their identity or indeed show that they are citizens of a country they claim to come from. Linguistic tests can be used together with knowledge tests as a complement to other methods of investigation regarding the origin of asylum seekers. However, such tests are never used as a sole method of determining the origin of an asylum seeker.

Presentation of Report

CARL HENRIK EHRENKRONA, Director-General for Legal Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, said that Sweden was not a country where torture was practised as an interrogation method. Torture was not an issue in Sweden and there were no examples of torture committed by public officials being reported by the media or from other independent sources. There were however examples of police assault, but they were limited in number and not for the purpose of forcing a person to provide information. The Government had recently submitted a bill to Parliament on human rights, where the prevention of torture had been identified as one of the priorities. Like the Committee, Sweden was concerned by the challenges posed by the fight against terrorism. This challenge called for increased efforts to protect human rights standards. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture had visited Sweden in March 2008 and its members had met with several officials and had visited a number of police stations and remand prisons.

Mr. Ehrenkrona noted that Sweden had received the list of issues only in March and had not been able to prepare fully. Also, several of the questions raised in the list of issues seemed to be only remotely connected to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It was believed that such issues would be more adequately addressed by other treaty bodies. On the issue of introducing the definition of torture into the Swedish penal legislation, the Swedish position remained unchanged. The Government considered that all the Convention’s requirements were met by general Swedish penal law. It was true that there was no specific prohibition in law as regards the use in court of information obtained under torture. However, the Swedish procedural and penal system contained safeguards to prevent public officials from using torture in criminal investigation. An act of torture would clearly constitute a serious criminal offence. Further, a statement made as a result of torture had no legal value.

New legislation provided that everyone who was questioned during a preliminary investigation had the right to have counsel present at the questioning, provided that this was not to the detriment of the investigation, said Mr. Ehrenkrona. A public defence counsel would however still only be appointed when the investigation had resulted in the person being considered a suspect. On the issue of interpretation, if a person was incapable of understanding the Swedish language, an interpreter was engaged by the court. Specific legislation was also aimed at preventing and prohibiting trade and export of equipment specifically designed to inflict torture.

Regarding Swedish troops deployed in Afghanistan, Swedish courts had jurisdiction with regard to all crimes committed abroad in the course of duty, regardless of the laws of the State where the criminal act had been committed, noted Mr. Ehrenkrona. The Swedish International Security Assistance Force contingent in Afghanistan was acting under the mandate of the United Nations Security Council. Sweden did not exercise jurisdiction over detained persons in Afghanistan. Swedish Armed Forces were instructed to observe international law.

On the issues regarding the police, detention centres and prisons, there were no statistics available on the number of complaints of torture and ill-treatment. In Sweden’s view, remand prisons were of a good standard. To meet the needs arising from overcrowding, a number of new prisons were being built. From an international point of view, Sweden had relatively short periods of detention. Measures had been taken in relation to procedure to be followed in cases of complaints against misconduct by police and prison staff. Amendments had been made to the Police Ordinance in 2005 to ensure that investigation of complaints against police employees were independent, prompt and effective. A national unit had been established in 2005 with the task of investigating complaints against police officers and the prison administration had a special panel authorized to make decisions in cases of complaints against prison staff.

Concerning the events during the Summit in Göteborg in 2001, the investigating committee had submitted its report and the criticism it had levelled at police methods employed at large gatherings of people had led to the development of special police tactics, Mr. Ehrenkrona said. The Government attached the greatest importance to training and education in the field of human rights. Such education was part of the training of judges and prison staff. On the issues of asylum and migration, a new aliens act had been adopted. It reflected the absolute prohibition against torture. Refusal of entry and expulsion of an alien should never be enforced to a country where there were reasonable grounds for assuming that the person would be in danger of suffering from torture or death. Decisions of the migration board could be appealed to a court of law.

One important new feature in the new aliens act was the amendment to the definition of who shall be regarded as a refugee, underlined Mr. Ehrenkrona. The definition now clearly included aliens who were outside their country because of a well-founded fear of prosecution on grounds of gender or sexual orientation. The sexual orientation of asylum seekers was not registered as statistical data. Asylum applications were examined on an individual basis. It was noted that a number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had disappeared from the migration board’s special unit. As a result, border control police, the migration board and the social services had agreed on a common action plan to address this problem.

Turning to mental care, Mr. Ehrenkrona said that specific acts stipulated that a patient may not be isolated from other patients unless it was necessary. An isolation order was valid for up to eight hours. On the situation of the Ombudsmen, it was noted that the Government had proposed to Parliament to merge the current four Ombudsmen. Also, in 2005 the Government had tasked a commission to review the Swedish penal legislation against trafficking in human beings. The Government was now working on two national action plans against trafficking. One of them concerned the work against prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes and the other one trafficking for other purposes, such as labour or removal of organs.

Finally, on efforts to combat terrorism, Mr. Ehrenkrona noted that the counter-terrorism capacity of the Swedish Security Services had been substantially increased in 2007. Law enforcement agencies now had more effective tools and working methods to enable them to prevent and combat terrorism. At the same time, additional procedural safeguards had been introduced. All measures had to be based on the rule of law.


Questions Raised by Committee Experts

CLAUDIO GROSSMAN, the Committee Chairperson serving as Rapporteur for the report of Sweden, said that, as had been noted by the Swedish Red Cross, by not defining torture, it gave the impression that there was no torture happening in the country. As long as there was no definition, there would be no convictions and thus no statistics.

On the cases of the two expelled Egyptian asylum seekers who had been tortured in Egypt despite diplomatic assurances, the Swedish plan to grant compensation was very much welcomed and valued. How long would it take to implement this decision and grant the compensation? The expansion of the definition for asylum seekers on grounds of sexual orientation was welcomed but having statistics on this matter would be very helpful to the Committee. On place of detentions, what amount of cell space was made available to prisoners?

XUEXIAN WANG, the Committee Expert serving as Co-Rapporteur for the report of Sweden, wondered about what had happened to the asylum-seeking children who had disappeared and where they were now. On the issue of discrimination, information showed that Roma people were suffering from discrimination in Sweden, and he wished to hear the comments of the delegation on this topic. Also, on the issue of providing translation in court to people that did not understand Swedish, it was noted that this was a basic right and thus, the language in the report should rather read “must be provided” rather than “should be provided”.

Other Committee Experts asked questions related to the isolation of detainees. Who ordered such isolated detention to take place? Also what were the criteria used for the detention of children, and were they in accordance with international principles? How was the taping of interrogation of detainees by the police taking place? Were there special interrogation techniques used by secret services? Could people remain in Sweden for humanitarian reasons? How were personnel of embassies trained to respond to asylum requests? Was Sweden planning to ratify the Convention against Enforced Disappearances?


For use of the information media; not an official record

CAT08004E