COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE AND SUBCOMMITTEE ON PREVENTION OF TORTURE HOLD ANNUAL MEETING

The Committee against Torture this afternoon held its annual meeting with the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture to discuss their common obligation to prevent torture, the two bodies evolving approach to their work and looking to the future, and information sharing and coordination between them.

Opening the meeting, Malcolm Evans, Chairperson of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, said the Subcommittee was pleased to play host to this meeting at the Palais des Nations and looked forward to enjoying the reciprocated hospitality by the Committee against Torture next year. They would discuss approaches to the concept of prevention. The Committee against Torture had produced a General Comment on Article 2 of the Convention against Torture looking at the element of the obligation to prevent. The Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture had also issued a paper on prevention after the General Comment. The Committee and the Subcommittee were doing the same work on prevention of torture with different methodologies. They would also discuss the Committee and the Subcommittee’s evolving approach to their work and looking to the future, as well as information sharing and coordination between the two bodies.

Miguel Sarre Iguiniz, member of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, said that concerning prevention, a year ago, the Subcommittee had put forward a document on the specific nature of their mandate. They had produced a document on the concept
of the prevention of torture which came after the Committee against Torture’s General Comment. They felt that now was not the right time to develop a definition, but rather to focus on the procedure to prevent torture. Their mandate was founded on a specific role to visit prisons and detention centres and then produce comments which would contribute to the prevention of torture. The Subcommittee also interacted with national prevention mechanisms.

Claudio Grossman, Chairperson of the Committee against Torture, said the Committee was satisfied with meeting with the Subcommittee. Even though it was said that in Geneva, whatever you asked for, the answer would be no, they should try to see if in future they could meet in the same building. It was important to stress that both bodies pursued the same goal, a world without torture. The Subcommittee’s role was prevention through visits, while the Committee did so through its work, their methodology was different but the goal was the same. It was necessary to broaden the concept of prevention, and this called for communication, exchange and constant dialogue.

Zdenek Hajek of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, speaking about their approach to field activities in the future, said the Subcommittee now had 25 members and they would try to carry out more visits and would try to carry out visits in a combined way in order to be able to visit more countries. The Subcommittee would produce a list of countries it would visit soon.

Mario Luis Coriolano of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, speaking about future coordination, said that there had been progress in the cooperation between the Subcommittee and the Committee but they should talk about cooperation in a more coordinated way. The minimum obligation to meet once a year was useful but there could be other ways of meeting together. The Working Group had been supported by civil society organizations. The Subcommittee supported the need to re-establish, maintain and strengthen their work with the Committee against Torture. They could have meetings together with regional organizations. They could maintain the Working Group and institutionalize the rules and specific procedures of its meetings. They could also have more meetings in between the annual obligatory meeting. Also the Special Rapporteur on torture should come to this annual meeting, he had done so last year but unfortunately not this year. They should strengthen and institutionalize a group of contacts for the annual obligatory meeting and should strengthen contacts with civil society and non-governmental organizations.

In concluding remarks, Mr. Evans said that the Subcommittee and the Committee would continue to discuss how to institutionalize deeper levels of cooperation.

The Committee against Torture is holding its forty-seventh session from 31 October to 25 November. It will meet in public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 17 November, to discuss follow-up to Articles 19 and 22 of the Convention against Torture.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CAT11/044E