English  |  Français  |  Español
 
OMCT LogoOMCT logo
Make a donationRSSOMCT on FacebookOMCT on TwitterOMCT BlogHomeAbout OMCTActivitiesCATOMCT NetworkOMCT EuropeContactsMake a donation
  • Urgent campaigns
  • Assistance to victims
  • Human rights defenders
  • ESCR
  • Rights of the child
  • Violence against women
  • Monitoring protection mechanisms
 Save as PDF Print version
Monitoring protection mechanisms / Reports and Publications / 2015 / August

OMCT provides expert briefing to UN anti-torture body: ‘Urgent need to prevent transfers to torture’

Geneva, 07 August 2015. With migration pressures increasing around the world, new conflicts emerging and an aggressive counter-terrorism debate portraying foreigners and migrants as unwanted or security threats, the OMCT warns of an increasing risk that States are sending people back to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.


In a thematic briefing to the UN Committee against Torture, the UNs main anti-torture body, the OMCT presented its concerns regarding the lack of implementation and protections against transfers to torture as a growing and under-reported global problem.

‘States who send persons back to real risks of torture are complicit for such violations under article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It is alarming to see that protections against such transfers are lacking or not applied in many regions of the world. There is a need to think collectively on how to reinforce an effective protection strategy to prevent transfers to torture in reality”, said Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General.

The briefing set out the legal framework on the principle under comparative human rights law, the implementation of fundamental preventive safeguards and the reinforcement of effective national and international remedies against return. Another key topic has been the numerous legal policy challenges posed by counter-terrorism laws and practices post 9-11. States have sought to limit or circumvent this fundamental principle and transferred persons to countries with a real risk of torture. The OMCT called for the development of a clear, comprehensive and systematic set of guidelines on how to enforce the prohibition of refoulement and how to put in place effective remedies against it - including reparation. Indeed the Committee against Torture has reaffirmed at numerous occasions the absolute nature of the principle. States should apply no exception based on national security concerns and counter-terrorism policies.

The briefing to the UN Committee Against Torture included Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General, and OMCT legal experts, Helena Solà Martín and Nicole Buerli, and other international experts, including Dr. Fabián Salvioli, the Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Committee, Dr. Mark Villiger the Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, and leading civil society experts Carla Festmann, Director of Redress, and Ian Seiderman, Head of Legal Policy at the International Commission of Jurists.

Please see also:

OMCT submission to the UN Committee Against Torture

OMCT briefing paper on the UN Convention Against Torture

OMCT Handbook for further details on the jurisprudence of CAT on non-refoulement

For further information, please contact:

Astrid Salcedo Pinzon

asp@omct.org, +41 22 809 49 39

Properties

Date: August 11, 2015
Activity: Monitoring Protection Mechanisms
Type: Reports and Publications
Subjects: Torture and violence

Attachments

  • OMCTbriefingpaperonarticle3
    15 pages / 239 KB

Share this

Tweet

Related articles

  • Joint NGO submission regarding the Revised General Comment no. 1 (2017) on the non-refoulement prohibition
    Reports and Publications / April 3, 2017

Languages

This page is available in:

English


You can also translate it on the fly:

Recently Viewed Articles

OMCT International Secretariat
PO Box 21, 8, rue du Vieux-Billard, CH-1211 Geneva 8, Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 809 4939
Fax: + 41 22 809 4929
E-mail:
OMCT Europe
Rue Franklin 111
1000 Brussels
Tel. / Fax: +32 2 218 37 19
E-mail:
OMCT TUNIS
3, Rue Hassen Ibn Nooman
Cité Jardins | Tunis 1002
Tel: +216 71 791 114
Fax: +216 71 791 115
E-mail:
  • Blog
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Rss
  • Privacy Policy