CAT/C/CR/33/3 page 2 provided both in writing and orally to the questions posed by the members during the examination of the report. B. Positive aspects 3. The Committee notes: (a) the responsiveness of the State party to some of the previous recommendations of the Committee, in particular the closure of certain prison facilities previously found to be problematic, the confirmation that no baton rounds have been fired by either the police nor the army in Northern Ireland since September 2002 and the dissolution of the Royal Ulster Constabulary; (b) the entry into force in 2000 of the Human Rights Act 1998; (c) the entry into force of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 covering acts committed by United Kingdom nationals or residents either in the State party or abroad; and the State party’s commitment to preventing British companies from manufacturing, selling or procuring equipment designed primarily for torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; (d) the judgment of 24 March 1999 of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords in the case of R. v. Bartle and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, ex parte Pinochet holding that the State party’s courts have jurisdiction over acts of torture committed abroad and that a former Head of State does not have immunity for such crimes; (e) the establishment of an independent Police Complaints Commission for England and Wales and, in Northern Ireland, the office of Police Ombudsman, and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission;

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