CAT/C/CR/33/3
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(f)
the State party’s assurance that the United Kingdom Armed Forces, military advisers,
and other public servants deployed on operations abroad are “subject at all times to English
criminal law” including the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment;
(g)
the State party’s affirmation that “evidence obtained as a result of any acts of torture
by British officials, or with which British authorities were complicit, would not be admissible
in criminal or civil proceedings in the United Kingdom,” and that the Home Secretary does
not intend to rely upon or present “evidence where there is a knowledge or belief that torture
has taken place”;
with respect to the British Virgin Islands, the establishment of the Human Rights
(h)
Reporting Coordinating Committee; with respect to Guernsey, the enactment of the Human
Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2000; with respect to Isle of Man, the enactment of the
Human Rights Act 2001; and with respect to Bermuda, the complaint mechanism introduced
by the Police Complaints Act 1998; and
(i)
the State Party’s reaffirmation of its unreserved condemnation of the use of torture;
the early ratification by the State party of the Optional Protocol to the Convention; and its
active pursuit through diplomatic activity, practical projects and research funding in support
of universal ratification of the Convention and its Optional Protocol.
C. Subjects of concern
4.
The Committee expresses its concern at:
(a)
remaining inconsistencies between the requirements of the Convention and the
provisions of the State party’s domestic law which, even after the passage of the Human
Rights Act, have left continuing gaps; notably:
(i) article 15 of the Convention prohibits the use of evidence gained by torture
wherever and by whomever obtained; notwithstanding the State party’s assurance set
out in paragraph 3 (g), supra, the State party’s law has been interpreted to exclude the use of
evidence extracted by torture only where the State party’s officials were complicit; and
(ii) article 2 of the Convention provides that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever
may be invoked as a justification for torture; the text of Section 134(4) of the Criminal Justice