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Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment - Note by the Secretary-General (A/79/181) [EN/AR/RU/ZH]

Attachments

Seventy-ninth session
Item 71 (b) of the provisional agenda*
Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights
questions, including alternative approaches for improving
the effective enjoyment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms

Note by the Secretary-General

Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, presents her annual overview of trends and developments in line with paragraph 1 (g) of Human Rights Council resolution 52/7, as well as a thematic study focused on good practices and challenges in investigating, prosecuting and preventing wartime sexual torture, and providing rehabilitation for victims and survivors. The Special Rapporteur considers that the torture framework has strong advantages when considering sexual aggression in wartime and other similar security situations, especially for survivors but also for investigators and prosecutors, and sets out a call for action. The report concludes with several recommendations.

I. Trends and developments

1. The year 2024 marks the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This treaty, representing the most effective international instrument to reduce this brutal practice, is approaching universal ratification, with 174 States parties. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the accession of Tuvalu and congratulates Europe, Latin America and the League of Arab States for having achieved regional universality. She commends the efforts of the Convention against Torture Initiative in leading the campaign.

2. Slovakia and the Congo joined the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. Also notable was the establishment of a new national preventive mechanism in Burkina Faso and two local preventive mechanisms in Brazil.

3. The Special Rapporteur welcomes amendments to the Penal Code in Côte d’Ivoire to ensure acts of torture are considered as crimes in all circumstances. At least 39 torture cases were or are being prosecuted through universal jurisdiction involving multiple offenders. While the number of prosecutions and convictions for torture are growing, many States continue to fail to investigate allegations of torture. Following the latest judgment of the European Court of Human Rights against Lithuania in respect of Central Intelligence Agency renditions, she laments the limited domestic criminal proceedings pursued by some countries in respect of earlier rulings.

4. Over the past year there has been a devastating rise in torture and other outrages on human dignity in armed conflict. Evidence gathered by the mandate holder demonstrates that torture and other inhuman cruelty is part of State policy by Russia in its war in Ukraine to intimidate, instil fear, punish or extract information and confessions (A/HRC/55/52/Add.1). In the Sudan, the primary warring parties are engaged in systematic campaigns involving arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment of civilians.

5. Evidence from the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 convincingly indicate that grave violations of international law took place, including killings, hostage-taking, torture and sexual torture. The Special Rapporteur intervened with Israel regarding allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against detained Palestinians. She welcomes the decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice ordering the closure of the Sde Teiman military detention camp.

6. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the binding and urgent provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice on the Syrian Arab Republic in November 2023, to take all measures necessary to prevent acts of torture and other ill-treatment and to preserve evidence. However, she has received current and large-scale allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in the country. She calls on the Syrian Arab Republic to adhere to the provisional measures without delay.

7. The Special Rapporteur has also received communications and/or intervened on torture cases relating to conflict in, inter alia, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, the Syrian Arab Republic, Uganda and Yemen.

8. The general trend towards authoritarianism in this year of elections is worrying. Recent protests have been driven by a desire for political change, by the continuing cost of living crisis and by reaction to global events. In many instances peaceful protests have been policed with excessive force or violence. Over the past year there have been protests that resulted in violence in, inter alia, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Comoros, the Congo, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Senegal, Serbia, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Türkiye and the United States of America.

9. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the Model Protocol for Law Enforcement Officials to Promote and Protect Human Rights in the Context of Peaceful Protests, authored by the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (A/HRC/55/60).

10. States are reminded of the call by the Special Rapporteur in her previous report (A/78/324) for a global agreement to regulate the trade in torture-capable weapons, tools and equipment widely used by law enforcement and other public authorities. Renewed diplomatic vigour is needed. She wrote to France after illegal torture tools were found on sale at an arms fair in Paris.8 The mandate holder will continue to monitor arms fairs globally.

11. Torture and intimidation to quash dissent and political opposition continues. The Special Rapporteur has intervened in multiple cases. The death of Alexei Navalny while in custody in the Russian Federation was a bleak day for human rights. The mandate holder remains deeply concerned about the admission of evidence in the Jimmy Lai case in Hong Kong, China, that was allegedly secured through torture in China. While the release of Julian Assange is a welcome relief, the Special Rapporteur encourages the United States to update their espionage and extradition laws to include safeguards for journalists and whistle-blowers. The decision by the highest court of Suriname to uphold the prison sentence of the former President, Dési Bouterse, for torture and extrajudicial executions was welcomed.

12. The repression of human rights defenders is a significant trend globally and the Special Rapporteur has received information on cases in, inter alia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Eritrea, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Palestine, Myanmar, the Russian Federation, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe. These countries represent a fraction of the States in which this type of repression takes place. The use of “hostage-diplomacy” is also troubling and will be an ongoing focus for the mandate. The Special Rapporteur has intervened on behalf of Ryan Corbett, a citizen of the United States detained in Afghanistan.

13. As noted in the recent report by the Special Rapporteur on global prison conditions (A/HRC/55/52), far too many people are imprisoned, for too long, in severely overcrowded facilities in all regions. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned by indeterminate sentences for public protection that were introduced, then disbanded, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland yet continue to affect thousands and result in psychological torture. The incoming Government must end this injustice. The Supreme Court ruled in Brazil on the widespread violation of fundamental rights in prisons and the Special Rapporteur urges the Government to swiftly draw-up the required nationwide action plan to end abuses. She welcomes the decision by the Australian Federal Police to stop using inhuman spit hoods on detainees. She also acknowledges the arrest of 13 prison guards in Milan, Italy on charges of torture in juvenile centres. She shares the concerns of the Committee Against Torture of the treaty between Denmark and Kosovo to outpost foreign prisoners in Kosovo.

14. Women and girls remain at heightened risk of severe and gender-specific forms of torture and other ill-treatment. Their near total exclusion from public life in Afghanistan heightens the risk they face of violence. In Gaza, military strikes by Israel have destroyed the capacity to provide adequate medical care for mothers giving birth. Reproductive restrictions continue in the United States where 14 states have criminalized abortion. The decision of the United States Senate to block the federal right to contraception access is regrettable.

15. Death row has long been characterized as a form of inhuman treatment. Serious allegations were received about executions in Afghanistan, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Yemen. The execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama in the United States with experimental nitrogen gas inhalation was a horrific development. The Special Rapporteur welcomed the decision of the Iranian courts to overturn the death penalty for rapper Toomaj Salehi, though he remains in detention and ought to be released. The reinstatement of the death penalty in the Congo, after two decades, is a step back.

16. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the prohibition on refoulement is not being respected. She is concerned about plans of returning Syrians to the Syrian Arab Republic by a number of countries. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned about the situation of refugees in Libya who have allegedly been held captive and tortured. The Special Rapporteur joined the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons in writing to airlines and aviation authorities warning them not to facilitate unlawful removals from the United Kingdom to Rwanda. The incoming United Kingdom Government’s immediate decision to revoke the inhuman asylum transfer scheme is welcomed. The evacuation by Australia of the last refugee from the terrible conditions at the offshore processing facility in Nauru was short-lived, with the island now allegedly housing 100 or more asylum-seekers. The judgment by the High Court of Australia that the system of indefinite immigration detention is unlawful was welcomed.