A/55/290
Interim report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights on the question of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment
I. Introduction
1.
The present report is the second report submitted
to the General Assembly by the Special Rapporteur of
the Commission on Human Rights on the question of
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment, Sir Nigel Rodley, pursuant to General
Assembly resolution 54/156 and Commission on
Human Rights resolution 2000/43. This report contains
issues of special concern to the Special Rapporteur, in
particular overall trends and recent developments in the
United Nations human rights mechanisms of relevance
to his mandate.
2.
In accordance with General Assembly resolution
54/156, this report addresses questions of torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment directed against women, and conditions
conducive to such torture, and questions relating to the
torture of children. The Special Rapporteur would like
to draw the attention of the Assembly to his reports to
the
Commission
contained
in
documents
E/CN.4/1995/34 and E/CN.4/1996/35 in which these
issues have respectively been previously addressed.
3.
In view of the adoption by the Commission on
Human Rights at its fifty-sixth session of resolution
2000/61 on human rights defenders, in which the
Commission requested the Secretary-General to
appoint a special representative to report on the
situation of human rights defenders, the Special
Rapporteur would like to address the issue of torture
and human rights defenders. The theme of this year’s
commemoration of the United Nations International
Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26 June) was the
question of reparation to torture victims. The Special
Rapporteur considers it appropriate to address this
issue, as well as the related question of impunity for
perpetrators of torture, in the present report. In view of
the theme chosen for the special dialogue of the last
session of the Commission on Human Rights, a chapter
will be devoted to the question of poverty and the
enjoyment of human rights.
4.
Finally, the Special Rapporteur strongly supports
the call from the Secretary-General earlier this year for
States to ratify 25 core treaties, including seven human
2
rights instruments among which is the Convention
against Torture.
II. Issues of special concern to the
Special Rapporteur
A. Gender-specific forms of torture
5.
The Special Rapporteur has continued to receive
information according to which women are subjected
to gender-specific forms of torture, including rape,
sexual abuse and harassment, virginity testing, forced
abortion or forced miscarriage. A large number of
individual cases have been transmitted, mostly in
conjunction with the Special Rapporteur of the
Commission on Human Rights on violence against
women, its causes and consequences, to several
Governments during previous years. No specific issue
regarding gender-specific forms of torture, except
information on so-called virginity tests (see below),
have been drawn to the attention of the Special
Rapporteur since his 1994 study (E/CN.4/1995/34) in
which he examined questions concerning torture
directed disproportionately or primarily against women
and conditions conducive to such torture. As
recommended by the workshop on gender integration
into the human rights system, organized by the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, the Division for the Advancement of Women of
the United Nations Secretariat and the United Nations
Development Fund for Women and held at Geneva
from 26 to 28 May 1999, the Special Rapporteur would
welcome receiving information on patterns of
violations falling within his mandate analysed from a
gender perspective.
6.
The Special Rapporteur welcomes the adoption
on 6 October 1999 by the General Assembly, in its
resolution 54/4 of the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women. The Optional Protocol,
which was subsequently opened for signature and
ratification on 10 December, had been signed by 24
States at the time of writing. It will enter into force
three months after the tenth ratification or accession.