CAT/C/49/D/406/2009
Annex
Decision of the Committee against Torture under article 22 of
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (forty-ninth session)
concerning
Communication No. 406/2009
Submitted by:
S.M. (represented by counsel, T.H.)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Switzerland
Date of complaint:
10 November 2009 (initial submission)
The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Meeting on 23 November 2012,
Having concluded its consideration of complaint No. 406/2009, submitted to the
Committee against Torture by S.M. under article 22 of the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Having taken into account all information made available to it by the complainant,
her counsel and the State party,
Adopts the following:
Decision under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention against
Torture
1.1
The complainant is S.M., a national of Ethiopia born on 2 June 1979 in a refugee
camp in Kassala, Sudan.1 The complainant is an asylum seeker whose application for
asylum was rejected; at the time of submission of the complaint, she was awaiting
deportation to Ethiopia. She claims that her deportation to Ethiopia would constitute a
violation by Switzerland of article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The complainant is represented by
counsel, T.H.
1.2
On 10 and 25 November 2009, the complainant asked the Committee to request the
State party not to deport her to Ethiopia while her complaint is under consideration by the
Committee. On 25 November 2009, the Committee, through its Rapporteur on new
complaints and interim measures, transmitted the complaint to the State party, without
1
2
The complainant appears under four different spellings of her first and last names, two different dates
of birth and two different countries of nationality, Ethiopia and Somalia, in the transcript of the
interview held by the Federal Office for Migration on 29 March 2007, the decision of the Federal
Office for Migration of 22 June 2007 and the judgement of the Federal Administrative Court of 23
October 2009.