CAT/C/71/D/866/2018
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
8 September 2021
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 866/2018*, **
Communication submitted by:
T.K.T. (represented by counsel, Tarig Hassan)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Switzerland
Date of complaint:
16 March 2018 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decisions taken pursuant to rules 114 and 115 of
the Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted
to the State party on 22 March 2018 (not issued
in document form)
Date of present decision:
19 July 2021
Subject matter:
Deportation to Ethiopia
Procedural issue:
Exhaustion of domestic remedies
Substantive issues:
Non-refoulement; torture
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainant is T.K.T., a national of Ethiopia born in 1986. She claims that by
deporting her to Ethiopia, the State party would violate article 3 of the Convention. The State
party has made the declaration pursuant to article 22 (1) of the Convention, effective from 2
December 1986. The complainant is represented by counsel, Tarig Hassan.
1.2
On 22 March 2018, pursuant to rule 114 of its rules of procedure, the Committee,
acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints and interim measures, requested the State
party to refrain from returning the complainant to Ethiopia while her communication was
under consideration by the Committee. On 23 March 2018, the State party informed the
Committee that, in compliance with the interim measure, it had suspended the complainant’s
deportation.
Factual background
2.1
The complainant claims to be a politically active individual and to have fled Ethiopia
after her activities for the clandestine party Ginbot 7 were reported to the authorities by her
boyfriend. She submits that in Switzerland she continued to oppose the Ethiopian regime and
to advocate for human rights. She is still a member of Ginbot 7. Since 2017, she has been a
member of the Executive Committee of the Ethiopian Human Rights and Democracy Task
* Adopted by the Committee at its seventy-first session (12–30 July 2021).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Claude Heller, Erdoğan İşcan, Liu Huawen, Ilvija Pūce, Ana Racu, Diego RodríguezPinzón, Sebastian Touzé, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov and Peter Vedel Kessing.
GE.21-12560(E)