CAT/C/GBR/CO/6
form part of the equipment of custodial staff in prisons or any other place of
deprivation of liberty, including mental health settings.
Extraterritorial effect of the Convention
30.
The Committee regrets that the State party continues to maintain the position that the
Convention is “primarily territorial” and does not have “extraterritorial effect” (see
CAT/C/GBR/6 and Corr.1, para. 9) (art. 2 (1)).
31. Recalling the Committee’s previous recommendation (CAT/C/GBR/CO/5, para.
9), the State party should take effective measures to prevent acts of torture, not only in
its sovereign territory, but also “in any territory under its jurisdiction”, as required
under article 2 (1) of the Convention. In that respect, the Committee draws the State
party’s attention to paragraph 16 of its general comment No. 2 (2007) on the
implementation of article 2 by States parties, in which “any territory” includes all
areas where the State party exercises, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, de
jure or de facto effective control, in accordance with international law. The
Committee considers that the scope of “territory” under article 2 must also include
situations where a State party exercises, directly or indirectly, de facto or de jure
control over persons in detention.
Accountability for abuses in Iraq
32.
The Committee observes with concern that while the Iraq Historic Allegations Team
has received around 3,400 allegations of unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment
committed by the United Kingdom armed forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2009, no
prosecutions for war crimes or torture have resulted from the Team’s investigations.
Moreover, before its work ceased in June 2017, the Team’s remaining investigations were
transferred to the Service Police, which had closed 1,127 of the 1,280 cases of allegations
transferred to it as of 31 December 2018. While 19 full and 18 more limited investigations
involving 151 allegations are still being carried out in the framework of the Service Police
Legacy Investigations, the Committee is concerned about reports indicating that cases
transferred for investigation under this framework might have been closed “based on an
arbitrary and conceptually underinclusive ranking of their severity” (arts. 2, 12–14 and 16).2
33.
Recalling its previous recommendation (CAT/C/GBR/CO/5, para. 16), the
Committee urges the State party to take all necessary measures to establish
responsibility and ensure accountability for any torture and ill-treatment committed
by United Kingdom personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2009, specifically by establishing a
single, independent, public inquiry to investigate allegations of such conduct. The
State party should refrain from enacting legislation that would grant amnesty or
pardon where torture is concerned. It should also ensure that all victims of such
torture and ill-treatment obtain redress.
Allegations of United Kingdom complicity in torture overseas
34.
The Committee further regrets the State party’s failure to establish an independent,
judge-led inquiry into allegations of torture overseas, including by means of complicity, as
a result of the State party’s military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite previous
assurances to the Committee. In that connection, it takes note with concern of the findings
contained in the 2018 reports on detainee mistreatment and on rendition of the Intelligence
and Security Committee of Parliament, following its inquiry into the actions of United
Kingdom security and intelligence agencies in relation to the handling of detainees overseas
and rendition. In addition to the disturbing findings contained in the reports indicating that
the State party may have been complicit in cases of torture and ill-treatment, the Committee
notes with concern that the inquiry was prematurely closed due to lack of access to key
evidence, as the Government refused to provide access to witnesses from the State party’s
2
Cited in Redress, The UK’s Implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Civil Society Alternative Report (London, March
2019), p. 73.
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