A/HRC/43/49/Add.1
9.
In Moroni, the Special Rapporteur met with officials from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior
(and its gendarmerie and the National Police Intervention Unit (Groupe d’intervention de la
Police Nationale)), the Ministry of Health, the Prosecutor’s Office in Moroni, the Office of
the Commissioner for Gender, and the National Commission for Human Rights and
Freedoms, as well as representatives from civil society organizations and victims. The
Special Rapporteur also met with the prosecutor of Anjouan. The Government cancelled the
meeting with representatives of the Supreme Court. Due to the suspension of the visit, the
Special Rapporteur was not able to have the envisaged joint meeting with civil society in
Anjouan.
II. Legal framework
A.
International and regional levels
10.
The Comoros follows a monist system that establishes the primacy of international
law. The ratification of any international legal instrument thus implies its automatic
incorporation into domestic legislation.
11.
The Comoros has ratified a number of core international human rights treaties 3
relevant to the prohibition and prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. The State has ratified the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (25 May 2017) and has signed but
not yet ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. In
2012, the Comoros ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The State is
a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1 November 2006) and it
adopted Law No. 11-042/AU of 13 December 2011 on the implementation of the Rome
Statute. On 13 January 2007, the Comoros adopted Law No. 07-002/AU on cooperation
with the International Criminal Court.
12.
At the regional level, the Comoros has ratified a number of instruments, including in
2004 the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol to the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. In 2003, the
State ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the
Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, thereby accepting the
competence of the Court to receive and examine cases from individuals and nongovernmental organizations, in accordance with article 5 (3) of the Protocol.
B.
National level
13.
The Human Rights Delegation, under the Ministry of Justice, was established in
2001 and formally took up its duties in 2011 (Decree No. 11-139/PR) to promote and
implement the Government’s human rights policies, including the implementation of
relevant legislation.
14.
In 2014, a new Penal Code (containing amendments to strengthen procedural
safeguards and including the abolishment of the death penalty) was submitted to the
parliament, but it has not yet been adopted and it needs to be promulgated by the President.
15.
The National Commission for Preventing and Fighting Corruption was an
independent administrative authority established to combat corruption. In September 2016
the President repealed the provisions of the law that had created the Commission, citing its
failure to produce any results. The Constitutional Court subsequently invalidated this
decision, noting that a presidential decree may not overturn a law. Nevertheless, the
President neither renewed the Commissioners’ mandates nor appointed replacement
3
For a list of the international treaties ratified by the Comoros, see
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?CountryID=1&Lang=EN.
3