CAT/C/BEN/CO/2
page 2
Positive aspects
4.
The Committee welcomes the State party’s efforts to reform its legal and institutional
system. In particular, the Committee notes with satisfaction the following positive developments:
(a) The ratification by the State party, on 20 September 2006, of the Optional Protocol to
the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(“the Convention”);
(b) The ratification by the State party, on 22 January 2002, of the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court;
(c) The ratification by the State party, on 31 January 2005, of the two Optional Protocols
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
(d)
Recent efforts to strengthen the national legal framework, including:
(i)
The publication of the full text of the Convention in the Official Journal on
5 September 2007;
(ii)
The adoption on 30 January 2006 of Act No. 2006-04 on conditions for the
displacement of minors and the suppression of child trafficking in Benin;
(iii)
The adoption on 3 March 2003 of Act No. 2003-07 on the suppression of
female genital mutilation in Benin.
5.
The Committee commends the implementation of the 2005-2007 Plan for the
Strengthening of the Legal and Judicial Systems (2005-2007) and the State party’s efforts to
improve conditions of detention with the support of the United Nations Development
Programme.
B. Subjects of concern and recommendations
Definition of torture
6.
Notwithstanding the Constitutional provisions prohibiting torture, the Committee regrets
the absence of a definition of torture and of torture as a specific offence in the State party’s
criminal legislation, despite the Committee’s recommendation to that effect during the
consideration of the initial report of Benin in 2001. The Committee takes note, however, of the
undertaking given by the delegation to include the definition of torture and characterize it as an
offence in the draft Criminal Code (arts. 1 and 4).
The State party should take urgent measures to review its criminal legislation so as to
include a definition of torture that covers all the elements contained in article 1 of the
Convention, as well as provisions criminalizing acts of torture and appropriate
penalties which take into account the grave nature of such acts.