CAT/C/63/D/719/2015
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
20 June 2018
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 719/2015*, **
Communication submitted by:
H.A. and G.H. (represented by counsel, P.J.
Schuller)
Alleged victims:
The complainants
State party:
Netherlands
Date of complaint:
2 December 2015 (initial submission)
Date of present decision:
17 May 2018
Subject matters:
Risk of torture in the event of deportation to
country of origin (non-refoulement); prevention
of torture
Procedural issue:
Non-exhaustion of domestic remedies
Substantive issue:
Deportation of the complainants from the
Netherlands to Armenia
Articles of the Convention:
3 and 22
1.1
The complainants are H.A. and G.H., nationals of Armenia, born in 1982 and 1983
respectively. They sought asylum in the Netherlands, but their asylum applications have
been rejected twice. They submit that, should the Netherlands proceed with their
deportation to Armenia, it would be violating article 3 of the Convention. The complainants
are represented by counsel.
The facts as presented by the complainants
2.1
H.A. worked as a nurse at Arsen Hayryan Armash Medical Hospital in Armenia.
The director of the hospital was a good friend of Hovik Abrahamyan, the then-speaker of
the National Assembly. On 1 March 2008, the director of the hospital compelled H.A. to
provide medical assistance to the police and the military during demonstrations that took
place in Yerevan in the aftermath of the presidential elections. She was ordered to inject
several civilian detainees with an unknown substance, but she refused and destroyed the
capsules containing the substance. Consequently, she was severely beaten, held at the
hospital overnight and required to turn over her passport. The next day, accomplices of Mr.
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-third session (23 April–18 May 2018).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu, Diego
Rodríguez-Pinzón, Sébastien Touzé, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov and Honghong Zhang.
GE.18-10075(E)