CAT/C/63/D/717/2015
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
21 June 2018
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 717/2015*, **
Communication submitted by:
A.Sh. et al. (represented by counsel, Angela Stettler)
Alleged victims:
The complainants
State party:
Switzerland
Date of complaint:
25 November 2015 (initial submission)
Date of present decision:
4 May 2018
Subject matter:
Deportation to the Russian Federation
Procedural issue:
Non-exhaustion of domestic remedies
Substantive issue:
Risk of torture upon return to country of origin;
non-refoulement
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainants are A.Sh. and his wife Z.H., born in 1970 and 1974 respectively.
The complaint is also submitted on behalf of their children, Ah.Sh., Ash.Sh. and A.M.Sh.,
born in 2003, 2004 and 2011 respectively. The complainants are ethnic Chechens of the
Muslim faith who hold citizenship of the Russian Federation. At the time of the submission
of their complaint, they were residing in Switzerland and awaiting their deportation to the
Russian Federation, following the rejection of their asylum applications. They claim that
their return to the Russian Federation would constitute a violation by Switzerland of article
3 of the Convention. The complainants are represented by counsel.
1.2
On 30 November 2015, in application of rule 114 (1) of its rules of procedure
(CAT/C/3/Rev.6), the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints and
interim measures, requested the State party to refrain from returning the complainants to the
Russian Federation while their complaint was being considered by the Committee. On 7
December 2015, the State party informed the Committee that it had acceded to that request.
On 8 July 2016, the Committee, acting through the same Rapporteur, denied the State
party’s request of 21 January 2016 to examine the admissibility of the complaint separately
from its merits and to lift the interim measures.
*
**
Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-third session (23 April–18 May 2018).
The following members of the Committee participated in the consideration of the communication:
Felice Gaer, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu, Diego RodríguezPinzón and Honghong Zhang. Pursuant to rule 109, read in conjunction with rule 15, of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, and paragraph 10 of the guidelines on the independence and
impartiality of members of the human rights treaty bodies (the Addis Ababa guidelines), Bakhtiyar
Tuzmukhamedov did not participate in the consideration of the communication.
GE.18-10182(E)