ADVANCE UNEDITED VERSION Distr.: General 9 February 2018 Original: English Committee against Torture Sixty-second session 6 November – 6 December 2017 General Comment No. 4 (2017) on the implementation of article 3 of the Convention in the context of article 22  I. Introduction 1. On the basis of its experience in considering individual communications under Article 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter referred to as the Convention), addressing allegations of violation by States parties of article 3 of the Convention, the Committee against Torture (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) at its fifty-fifth to fifty-eight sessions in 2015 and 2016 discussed and agreed to revise its General Comment No. 1 entitled “General comment on the implementation of Article 3 of the Convention in the context of Article 22” which had been adopted on 21 November 1997 (A/53/44, Annex IX). 2. At its 59th session, in November - December 2016, the Committee began the drafting process of the revised General Comment, taking into account the recommendations for the consultation process in the elaboration of general comments made by the Chairpersons at their twenty-seventh meeting in San José in Costa Rica, from 22 to 26 June 2015 (A/70/302, paragraph 91). 3. The Committee, during its 62nd session, at the 1614th meeting held on 6 December 2017, decided to replace the text of its initial General Comment No. 1 by the following text which it adopted on the same date. 4. For the purpose of this General Comment, the term "deportation" includes, but is not limited to, expulsion, extradition, forcible return, forcible transfer, rendition, rejection at the frontier, pushback operations (including at sea) of a person or group of individuals from a State party to another State.  The present General Comment replaces General Comment No. 1 (1997): Implementation of Article 3 of the Convention in the context of Article 22 (A/53/44, Annex IX).

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