COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE
Y v. Switzerland
Communication No. 18/1994
17 November 1994
ADMISSIBILITY
Submitted by: Y [name deleted] [represented by counsel]
Alleged victim: The author
State party: Switzerland
Date of communication: 16 September 1994
The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Meeting on 17 November 1994,
Adopts the following:
Decision on admissibility
1. The author of the communication is Y, a Zairian citizen, currently residing in Switzerland.
He claims to be a victim of a violation by the Swiss authorities of article 3 of the Convention
against Torture. He is represented by counsel.
The facts as submitted by the author:
2.1 The author, who was born in 1963, lived in the north of Zaire, until 1983. His father was
arrested in 1968 for political reasons and kept in detention for five years, until his death in
1973. In 1983, the author moved for professional reasons to another town, where he lived
with an older cousin. After President Mobutu, on 24 April 1990, had announced the end of
the one-party system, the author joined the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social
(UDPS), the opposition party. On 30 April 1990, the UDPS organized a peaceful
demonstration in Kinshasa, which was violently dispersed by the police. Many more clashes
between members of the opposition movement and government forces followed, and in June