CAT/C/CR/30/6
page 3
(g)
The reform on 23 April 2003 of the rules governing the exercise of universal
jurisdiction by Belgian courts in cases involving serious violations of international humanitarian
law, in that in some circumstances the Minister of Justice is in practice authorized to remove a
Belgian judge from a case;
(h)
The lack of legislation on the rights of persons under judicial or administrative
arrest to have access to a lawyer, to inform their family of their detention, to be clearly informed
of their rights and to be examined by a doctor of their choice;
(i)
The lack of an exhaustive list of disciplinary offences in prisons and of any
effective remedy for detainees against disciplinary decisions taken against them;
(j)
Prison violence;
(k)
Information on the lack of access to medical care in prisons, including psychiatric
and psychological care, particularly as a result of the lack of qualified and available staff;
(l)
The possibility of ordering the isolation of juvenile delinquents aged 12 years and
over, for up to 17 days;
(m)
The poor functioning of the administrative commissions, which are internal prison
monitoring bodies;
(n)
The lack of training for prison administrative staff, including medical staff, in
particular on the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, owing especially to
the lack of resources earmarked for that purpose;
(o)
The fact that rules on the exclusion of evidence obtained as a result of torture
have emerged only from the decisions of the courts, and that judges seem to retain discretionary
power in that regard.
D. Recommendations
6.
While the Committee welcomes the decision of the Belgian authorities to extend the
definition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment to the commission of such acts by
non-State actors, even those acting without the consent of a State agent, it recommends that the
Belgian authorities should ensure that all elements of the definition contained in article 1 of the
Convention are included in the general definition provided by Belgian criminal law.
7.
The Committee recommends that the State party should:
(a)
Ensure that officials having subjected any person to degrading treatment should
be liable to criminal penalties, even though they might have acted on the order of a superior, and
explain the concept of a “manifestly unlawful order”;
(b)
Include a provision in the Penal Code expressly prohibiting the invocation of a
state of necessity to justify the violation of the right not to be subjected to torture;