[prisoner-rights] CAT 32nd session: Conclusion and recommendations on report of Germany

UNITED NATIONS
Press Release

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xxxxxxxxxxCOMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE ISSUES
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON REPORT OF GERMANY
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18 May 2004

The Committee against Torture this afternoon issued its conclusions
and recommendations on the third periodic report of Germany on how
that country implements the provisions of the Convention against
Torture.

Cited among positive developments in the report of Germany were the
State party's strengthening of institutional protection for human
rights, including through the establishment of the Human Rights
Committee of the Federal Parliament and the Federal Government's
submission of biennial national human rights reports to the Federal
Parliament; and the State party's passage of legislation to implement
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which
comprehensively codified crimes against international law, including
torture in the context of genocide, war crimes or crimes against
humanity.

The Committee expressed concern, among other things, about the length
of time taken to resolve criminal proceeding arising from allegations
of ill-treatment of persons in custody of law enforcement
authorities, including in particularly serious cases where death had
resulted; and some allegations that criminal charges had been laid,
for punitive or dissuasive purposes, by law enforcement authorities
against persons who had laid charges of ill-treatment against law
enforcement authorities.

Among the Committee's recommendations were that Germany should take
all appropriate measures to ensure that criminal complaints lodged
against its law enforcement authorities were resolved with all
possible expedition, in order to provide prompt resolution to such
allegations and avoid any possible inferences of impunity, including
in cases where counter-charges were alleged to have occurred. Germany
should also provide the Committee with details on how many cases of
extradition or removal subject to receipt of diplomatic assurances or
guarantees had occurred since 11 September 2001, what the State
party's minimum contents were for such assurances or guarantees, and
what measures of subsequent monitoring it had undertaken in such
cases.

The Committee will reconvene in private at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 19
May, to consider information under article 20; and to examine
communications under article 22 of the Convention. It is then
scheduled to open its meeting to adopt lists of issues for its
thirty-third session in relation to Argentina, Canada, Greece,
Finland and Togo. In the afternoon, the Committee is expected to
issue its conclusions and recommendations on reports of Chile and New
Zealand in a pubic meeting.




Conclusions and Recommendations on Third Periodic Report of Germany

The Committee cited among positive developments in the report
Germany's strengthening of institutional protection for human rights,
including through the establishment of the Human Rights Committee of
the Federal Parliament and the Federal Government's submission of
biennial national human rights reports to the Federal Parliament; the
establishment of the German Institute for Human Rights, a focal point
of whose competence was monitoring of the domestic human rights
situation; the State party's reaffirmation of its commitment to the
absolute character of the ban on exposure to torture, including
through refoulement; the State party's commitment to external
scrutiny of its record under the Convention expressed by its
acceptance of the Committee's competence to hear complaints under
articles 21 and 22 of the Convention; the significant improvements
that had been made over the reporting period to the Frankfurt airport
refugee facilities, to the applicable refugee determination processes
conducted there, and the methods exercised in forcibly returning
failed asylum seekers by air; and the State party's passage of
legislation to implement the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court, whose legislation comprehensively codified crimes
against international law, including torture in the context of
genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The Committee expressed concern, among other things, about the length
of time taken to resolve criminal proceedings arising from
allegations of ill-treatment of persons in custody of law enforcement
authorities, including in particularly serious cases where death had
resulted, such as that of Mr. Aamir Ageeb, who died in May 1999; some
allegations that criminal charges had been laid, for punitive or
dissuasive purposes, by law enforcement authorities against persons
who laid charges of ill-treatment against law enforcement
authorities; the fact that in numerous areas covered by the
Convention, the State party was unable to supply statistics, or
appropriately disaggregate those in its possession; and the legal
controls and training provided to private security companies utilized
to provide security to certain facilities at Frankfurt-am-Main
international airport.

Among its recommendations, the Committee said the State party should
take all appropriate measures to ensure that criminal complaints
lodged against its law enforcement authorities were resolved with all
possible expedition, in order to provide prompt resolution to such
allegations and avoid any possible inferences of impunity, including
in cases where counter-charges were alleged to have occurred; take
such measures as were appropriately within its power with respect to
the authorities of the La"nder to ensure the adoption and general
application of measures, which had proven efficacious at the federal
level in improving compliance of the Convention; and comprehensively
group together its criminal provisions relating to torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

The State party was also recommended to provide the Committee with
details on how many cases of extradition or removal subject to
receipt of diplomatic assurances or guarantees had occurred since 11
September 2001, what the State party's minimum contents were for such
assurances or guarantees and what measures of subsequent monitoring
it had undertaken in such cases; offer, as a routine practice,
medical examinations both before all forced removals by air and, in
the event that they failed, thereafter; consider more actively making
use of the Convention's extradition mechanisms with respect to German
nationals who were alleged to have engaged, or be complicit, in acts
of torture abroad or in which German nationals were alleged to be
victims thereof; and make all efforts to ratify the optional protocol
to the Convention.