Consideration of States parties’ reports

The UN Committee against torture monitors the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It considers regular reports sumitted by States parties on how they have been implementing the treaty provisions. This review takes place in the presence of a delegation of the State party and in the light of all information, including further written and oral information provided by the State party, as well as informationreceived from United Nations agencies, national human rights institutions and civil society actors, in particular non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The Committee meets in Geneva and holds normally two sessions per year (of three weeks in May and two weeks in November).

Based on this process, the Committee adopts “concluding observations”, which refer to the positive aspects of a State’s implementation of the treaty and the areas Committee recommends the State to take further action.

FIACAT’s contribution

FIACAT represents ACATs whenever a State Party’report is examined by the Committee where there is an ACAT. FIACAT helps the members of its network to submit alternative reports and other contributions on the implementation of the Convention against Torture by states parties to give the UN experts complementary information on treaty implementation gathered in the course of their activities on the field .

Whenever possible it arranges for a member of the ACAT concerned to attend the session to pass on directly to the Committee’s experts, its concerns.

In order to assist States in implementing the recommendations received, FIACAT introduces procedures in collaboration with the ACAT of the Concerned country to ensure effective follow-up to the concluding observations.

Harmonization of the treaty bodies’working methods

FIACAT is involved in efforts to harmonise the working methods of bodies set up under United Nations treaties since 2002. In 2010, twenty NGOs, including FIACAT, presented a joint response to the Dublin Statement. Numerous recommendations were drafted for the Treaty bodies, the High Commissioner and the States Parties. More details

 More informations on the Committee against torture’s work