CAT/C/71/D/789/2016
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
1 September 2021
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 789/2016*, **
Communication submitted by:
X (represented by counsel, John Sweeney and
Daniel Taylor)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Australia
Date of complaint:
21 October 2016 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rule 115 of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted to the
State party on 6 December 2016 (not issued in
document form)
Date of adoption of decision:
27 July 2021
Subject matter:
Deportation to Sri Lanka
Procedural issues:
Admissibility – ratione materiae; admissibility –
manifestly ill-founded
Substantive issue:
Risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, if deported to
country of origin (non-refoulement)
Article of the Convention:
Article 3
1.1
The complainant is X, a national of Sri Lanka born in 1989. His application for asylum
has been rejected and he risks deportation. He claims that his removal to Sri Lanka would
constitute a violation by the State party of his rights under article 3 of the Convention. The
State party has made the declaration under article 22 (1) of the Convention, effective from
28 January 1993. The complainant is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 28 October 2016, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints
and interim measures, informed the complainant that it had denied his request for the
provision of interim measures consisting of the issuance of a request to the State party to
refrain from removing him to Sri Lanka pending the examination of his complaint.
1.3
On 26 April 2017, pursuant to rule 115 (3) of its rules of procedure, the Committee,
again acting through its Special Rapporteur on new complaints and interim measures, denied
the State party’s request for the admissibility of the communication to be examined separately
from the merits.
* 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 İscan, Liu Huawen, Ilvija Pūce, Ana Racu, Diego RodríguezPinzón, Sébastien Touzé, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov and Peter Vedel Kessing.
GE.21-12115(E)