DUSHANBE, July 8, Asia-Plus — A roundtable meeting formally titled “Tajikistan and the UN Committee against Tortures. A Yea After: Achievements and Future Problems” is opening in Dushanbe today.
According to the UNDP CO Tajikistan, the meeting is bringing together more than 30 participants, including MPs, representatives of president’s office, law enforcement agencies, as well as experts and representatives of civil society and international organizations active in Tajikistan to discuss recommendations of the Committee against Tortures, analyze a status of implementation of them by the government over the past year as well as jointly develop a plan of actions for implementation of them.
The meeting is expected to discussing key matters such as the criminalization of torture, ensuring access by lawyers to detainees, the right to lodge a complaint, redress and compensation, the professional training of public officials on the prohibition of torture, and the systematic monitoring of places of detention and possibilities of ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).
The meeting is staged by the UNDP CO Tajikistan and its “Enhancing Peace and Promoting Human Rights in Tajikistan” project in cooperation with the UNCHR CO Tajikistan, OSCE Center in Dushanbe, and the department for constitutional guarantees within President’s Executive Office.
Representatives of the Association for the Prevention of Torture, Mathew Pringle and Vincent Ploton, have been invited to take part at the meeting as experts.
The Committee against Torture was established pursuant to article 17 of the Convention to monitor its implementation. The 10-member Committee began to function on 1 January 1988, six months after the entry into force of the Convention, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1984.
States parties to the Convention must report to the Committee one year after the entry into force of the Convention for the State party concerned. Thereafter, report should be submitted every four years. The Committee examines the reports and issues concluding observations in which it includes its main findings and makes recommendations to the State party.
In addition to the reporting procedure, the Convention establishes three other mechanisms through which the Committee performs its monitoring functions: the inquiry procedure, the examination of inter-state complaints and the examination of individual complaints.
