HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONCLUDES EIGHTY-SEVENTH SESSION

The Human Rights Committee concluded today its eighty-seventh session, during which it considered and adopted concluding observations and recommendations on the reports submitted by the Central African Republic and the United States on how they implement the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee also considered and adopted concluding observations on the report of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on the human rights situation in Kosovo since 1999, marking the first time that a United Nations mission has reported to a treaty body on measures taken to implement the provisions of a treaty.

The Governments of the Central African Republic and the United States sent delegations to answer questions raised by Committee Experts in keeping with their obligations as States parties to the Covenant. UNMIK’s report was presented in response to a request by the Committee in its final observations on the initial report of the then Serbia and Montenegro, submitted in 2004, and was introduced by a joint delegation from UNMIK and the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government. The Committee also heard an introductory statement from a Serbian delegation, as Kosovo is a separately administered province of Serbia, which is one of the 156 States parties to the Covenant.

Concerning the second periodic report of the Central African Republic, the Committee noted the efforts undertaken to ensure greater respect for human rights and to establish the rule of law in the country. The Committee was particularly concerned by the delegation's statement that, while the Central African Republic wished to undertake reforms to combat discrimination against women, it was the women themselves who did not wish to enjoy the same rights as men. The Committee, among other things, requested the State party to strengthen its efforts to raise women's awareness of their rights, and to promote their political participation and access to work and education.

Following its consideration of the combined second and third periodic reports of the United States, the Committee welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) establishing the applicability of common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 in any armed conflict. The Committee was concerned by credible and uncontested information that the State party engaged in the practice of detaining people secretly for months and years on end. With regards to the Patriot Act, the Committee was concerned that the State Party still monitored phone, e-mail, and fax communications of individuals within and outside the United States, and requested the State Party to ensure that interference in privacy was conducted only where strictly necessary, under protection of the law, and that appropriate remedies were made available.

Among positive aspects in the report submitted by UNMIK on the human rights situation in Kosovo since 1999, the Committee noted that the Covenant was part of applicable law in Kosovo, and was subsequently included in the Constitutional Framework for the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government. The Committee was concerned about the absence of information on the number and nature of allegations concerning excessive use of force by UNMIK, the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the Kosovo Police Service, and about the reported failure to investigate such acts. UNMIK, in cooperation with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government and KFOR, should ensure that such complaints were investigated. It should also intensify efforts to ensure safe conditions for sustainable returns of displaced persons; and ensure freedom of movement and access to essential services to minority communities.

During the session, the Committee considered communications from individuals submitted under the first Optional Protocol to the Covenant. The Protocol, for the 105 States that have ratified it, allows review by the Committee of complaints from persons alleging violations of the terms of the Covenant. Such reviews are carried out in private meetings, and the Committee's conclusions on cases considered during the session will be released at a later date.

Also during the session, the Committee held a discussion on its revised General Comment on article 14 of the International Covenant on the right to a fair trial.

During the course of its session, the Committee adopted a report by its Special Rapporteur for Follow-up to Views, Nisuke Ando, which analyses and makes recommendations for action on individual communications that are before the Committee. In addition, it adopted the report of its Special Rapporteur for Follow-up to Concluding Observations, Rafael Rivas Posada, which outlines States parties' activities to address the Committee's recommendations made following a periodic review, and recommends actions to be taken by the Committee in that regard. Both those documents are incorporated in the Committee's Annual Report to the General Assembly, which it adopted towards the end of the current session and which covers issues relating to the eighty-fifth, eighty-sixth and eighty-seventh sessions of the Committee.

At its last meeting, the Committee announced the results of Bureau decisions, appointing Committee Expert Ivan Shearer as Special Rapporteur for Follow-up on Views, Committee Experts Abdelfattah Amor and Michael O'Flaherty as representatives of the Committee to the Working Group on Treaty Body Reform, and requesting Committee Expert Hipolito Solari-Yrigoyen to send the Committee's concluding observations on the Central African Republic and UNMIK to the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Mendez.

The next session of the Committee will take place from 16 October to 3 November in Geneva, at which time the Committee will consider periodic reports from Honduras, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and the Republic of Korea.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON COUNTRY REPORTS

Central African Republic

Concerning the second periodic report of the Central African Republic, the Committee noted the efforts undertaken by the State party to ensure greater respect for human rights and to establish the rule of law in the country, as well as the commitment of the delegation to the swift implementation of the Committee's recommendations. The Committee welcomed the adoption of Ordinance No. 05.002 of 22 February 2005 on freedom of the press and communications, which decriminalized a number of press-related offences. The Committee noted with satisfaction the measures taken by the Central African Republic with regard to juvenile justice matters, such as the establishment of juvenile courts and the fact that minors were no longer subject to incarceration.

The Committee noted with concern the persistence of discrimination against women both with regard to the exercise of political rights and in the sphere of education, as well as regarding their legal rights as wives and mothers. The Committee was particularly concerned by the delegation's statement to the effect that, while the Central African Republic wished to undertake reforms to combat discrimination against women, it was the women themselves who did not wish to enjoy the same rights as men. The Committee, among other things, requested the State party to strengthen its efforts to raise women's awareness of their rights and to promote their political participation and access to work and education. The Central African Republic should abolish polygamy and effectively combat the social climate that fostered it. It should also intensify efforts to raise awareness about female genital mutilation, in particular among those communities where it was prevalent, in addition to criminalizing that practice and punishing those who perpetrated it.

The Committee remained concerned by the large number of forced disappearances and summary and/or arbitrary executions that took place in the Central African Republic. It was similarly perturbed by reports that torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment were systematically practised, and that the justice officials responsible appeared to enjoy a wide impunity. The Committee was further troubled by the excessive length of police detentions, which could be extended to 16 days – and often exceeded that limit in practice – and that systematic access to a lawyer, a doctor or family members was not guaranteed. The State party should monitor conditions of detention in penal institutions to ensure that they complied with the minimum United Nations standards for the treatment of detainees and that all prisoners were adequately nourished. In that connection, the Central African Republic was encouraged to strengthen its prison reconstruction efforts.

United States

Following its consideration of the combined second and third periodic reports of the United States, the Committee welcomed a number of Supreme Court decisions including Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), establishing the applicability of common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 in any armed conflict; Roper v. Simmons (2005), holding that the execution of persons who were below the age of 18 when their crimes were committed violated the Constitution; Atkins v. Virginia (2002), holding that the execution of mentally retarded criminal defendants was a cruel and unusual punishment; and Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which declared unconstitutional legislation criminalizing homosexual relations between consenting adults. The Committee also welcomed the adoption of the National Detention Standards in 2000, establishing minimum standards for detention facilities holding Department of Homeland Security detainees.

The Committee was concerned by credible and uncontested information that the State party had detained people secretly for months and years on end. It was also concerned that for a period of time the State party had authorized interrogation techniques such as prolonged stress positions and isolation, sensory deprivation, hooding, exposure to cold or heat, and 20-hour interrogations. While the Committee welcomed the assurance that those techniques were no longer authorized under the present Army Field Manual, the United States should ensure that the Manual only permitted techniques consistent with the prohibition contained in article 7 of the Covenant, and that those techniques were binding on all agencies of government and others acting for them. The Committee also noted with concern shortcomings in relation to the independence, impartiality and effectiveness of investigations conducted into allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in detention facilities in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other overseas locations, and into alleged cases of suspicious death in custody in those locations.

The Committee was further concerned that the State party appeared to have adopted a policy to send, or to assist in sending, suspected terrorists to third countries for purposes of detention and interrogation, without the appropriate safeguards to prevent treatment prohibited by the Covenant. With regard to the amended Patriot Act, the Committee was concerned that the State Party had monitored and still monitored phone, e-mail, and fax communications of individuals both within and outside the United States. The State party should ensure that interference in privacy was conducted only where strictly necessary, under protection of the law, and that appropriate remedies were made available. Within the framework of discrimination, the Committee remained concerned about information that poor people, and in particular African-Americans, had been disadvantaged by the Hurricane Katrina rescue and evacuation plans, and continued to be disadvantaged under the reconstruction plans. In addition, the State party should assess the extent to which the death penalty was disproportionately imposed on ethnic minorities and on the low-income population, and adopt all appropriate measures to remedy that situation.

United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo

Among the positive aspects in the report submitted by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo on the human rights situation in Kosovo since 1999, the Committee noted that the Covenant was part of applicable law in Kosovo, and was subsequently included in the Constitutional Framework for the PISG. The Committee welcomed the work accomplished by the Ombudsperson Institution created by UNMIK as an independent institution reporting to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, while noting that its mandate was terminated by the provision for a local Ombudsperson by the Assembly of Kosovo. The Committee welcomed the promulgation of a Provisional Criminal Code which included chapters on crimes under international law, on sexual offences, and on new forms of alternative punishment such as orders for community service, and of a Provisional Criminal Procedure Code that sought to strengthen judicial oversight of detention.

The Committee noted with concern that UNMIK and the PISG had not always extended due cooperation to the Ombudsperson, and that the Human Rights Advisory Panel established to receive and examine complaints against UNMIK lacked the necessary independence and authority. In that regard, UNMIK should ensure that full cooperation was extended to the new Ombudsperson, in particular by the PISG, and should reconsider arrangements for the authoritative human rights review of acts and omissions by UNMIK. The Committee was also concerned about the persistence of male-dominated attitudes within Kosovar society, and requested UNMIK to take prompt measures with the goal of achieving equal representation of women in public offices, and to intensify training for judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers to combat gender discrimination and domestic violence.

The Committee was concerned about the continuing impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed prior to UNMIK's mandate and about ethnically motivated crimes perpetrated since June 1999, and regretted the failure of UNMIK to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. It was also concerned that some 1,774 ethnic Albanians and 690 non-Albanians continued to be reported as missing at the end of 2005 and that low priority had been given to investigation of those cases. The Committee was concerned about the absence of information on the number and nature of allegations concerning excessive use of force by UNMIK, KFOR and the Kosovo Police Service, and about the reported failure to investigate such acts. UNMIK, in cooperation with the PISG and KFOR, should ensure that such complaints were investigated. It should also intensify efforts to ensure safe conditions for sustainable returns of displaced persons; and ensure freedom of movement and access to essential services to minority communities.

Membership of Committee

The States parties to the Covenant elect the Committee's 18 expert members who serve in their individual capacity for four-year terms. Article 28 of the Covenant requires that "they shall be persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights."

They are: Abdelfattah Amor (Tunisia); Nisuke Ando (Japan); Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (India); Alfredo Castillero Hoyos (Panama); Christine Chanet (France); Maurice Glèlè-Ahanhanzo (Benin); Edwin Johnson Lopez (Ecuador); Walter Kälin (Switzerland); Ahmed Tawfik Khalil (Egypt); Rajsoomer Lallah (Mauritius); Michael O'Flaherty (Ireland); Elisabeth Palm (Sweden); Rafael Rivas Posada (Colombia); Sir Nigel Rodley (United Kingdom); Ivan Shearer (Australia); Hipolito Solari-Yrigoyen (Argentina); Ruth Wedgwood (United States); and Roman Wieruszewski (Poland).

For use of the information media; not an official record

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