The particular relevance of the UN Committee against Torture in times of Covid-19

Thank you, Mr Chairperson.

I would like to thank the Committee for giving the opportunity to OMCT and our Network member, ICJ Kenya, to speak here today. I will provide you with a global view while my colleague Elsy Sainna will give you a perspective from the field.

And before turning to my intervention, I would like to congratulate the new and re-elected members of the Committee. We are looking forward to working with you.

Over the past few months, we have all witnessed how the Covid-19 pandemic has been exacerbating violations of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. We have seen the spread of abusive policing when enforcing curfews and distancing rules. And how, when faced with protests, the police resorts to excessive use of force.

Poor and underprivileged people are disproportionately affected. In the Philippines, children were reportedly locked in a coffin and youths in a dog cage. In Argentina, a video has been authenticated in which a police officer hits a homeless person because he was on the streets during confinement.

The Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a contrast fluid showing the protection gaps and the vulnerabilities of marginalized groups. People deprived of liberty live, in many countries around the world, in overcrowded, unhygienic conditions. Personal distancing is hardly possible, leading to high infection rates.

Migrants and refugees are stuck in overcrowded housing, camps, or detained in centers, without appropriate health care. Others are left on the street exposed to the virus and targeted with inhuman and degrading treatment. Women worldwide face an alarming increase of domestic violence and face difficulties in accessing judicial, police and health services.

We are witnessing how governments have stepped up harassment and arrest of human rights defenders, opposition activists and independent journalists. In the name of protecting against Covid-19, civil society space is further closing.

Concurrently, there is a collapse of the protection systems, with courts only partially operational, national preventive mechanisms not fully operational, civil society obstructed in monitoring human rights violations, and the international anti-torture bodies challenged in their operation.

We need the Committee’s leadership

This is creating a frightening accountability vacuum that States are using. This is why, now more than ever, we need the Committee against Torture’s leadership, as the prime global independent anti-torture body. It is crucial that the Committee address the failures of the policing and detention systems, to protect the vulnerable and marginalized, to respond to the people who search its protection, to hold States accountable.

The pandemic has certainly drawn everyone’s attention to the need to strengthen capacities to engage and interact online, as the treaty bodies have increased their remote work.

The OMCT is a member of TB-NET, an informal group of international NGOs and networks who work closely with the UN treaty bodies. We have developed a paper to inform the discussions on the opportunities and challenges for treaty body online work in relation to Covid-19. This paper was presented at the informal treaty bodies’ chairpersons meeting in June. We urged caution in embracing online activities when it comes at the expense of the quality of the meetings. Nevertheless, we recognize that the Committee against Torture cannot stop operating as torture continues across the globe. Solutions need to be found urgently to start closing the international protection gap and, even if the conditions are not ideal, to enable the treaty bodies to continue their work in this time of crisis.

Exploring new working methods

TB-Net suggested the following overall requirements for online meetings: a safe technology platform, equality in access for all treaty body members, provision of interpretation in the working languages of the Committees and the webcast of the online public meetings. Moreover, full, meaningful and safe civil society engagement must be guaranteed. In fact, with timely and transparent outreach and appropriate safeguards, online work could expand access and facilitate the participation of civil society.

The OMCT welcomes the fact that the Committee continued its work relating to the Lists of Issues and the Lists of Issues Prior to Reporting during the suspended April/May session. We also welcome that you included specific questions relating to rights restrictive measures adopted in response to Covid-19.

Other mandates were able to continue other tasks remotely, like the handling of individual communications, including the adoption of views as victims are waiting, and justice delayed is justice denied. In times of crisis it is important that the dialogue between the Committee and States continue between the country reviews. The follow-up procedure is the eminent procedure to fulfil this role.

Now, regarding the State reporting procedure, nothing can replace the quality of a face to face meeting. However, if travel restrictions due to Covid-19 were to be prolonged, it does become inescapable to hold virtual States parties’ dialogues. Such a solution should always be temporary until travel restrictions are lifted. Wherever possible, the on-line meetings can take place in a “mixed mode”, meaning with on-site participation of Committee members, State delegations and NGOs who are able to be present physically. We encourage the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to explore with the Committee all possibilities to ensure the execution of its mandated activities, while maintaining the quality of its work. The OMCT with TB-Net would support the assessment of the possibilities by collecting feedback from civil society who would explore these new working methods.

We understand that the OHCHR is facing a funding crisis due to delays in payments by Member States to the UN and that this liquidity crisis may be the other cause of further disruptions of treaty body in-person sessions until the end of 2020. This situation is not new. Last year too, the funding situation was so critical that the autumn sessions were threatened to be cancelled. Urgent intervention is needed to ensure that States are supporting and funding the human rights treaty body system. The inability to convene in-person sessions of its prime human rights bodies is shocking and cynical, especially in the year that the General Assembly is reviewing resolution 68/268 on the human rights treaty body system.

Thank you Mr Chairperson.