CAT/C/61/D/725/2016
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
26 September 2017
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 725/2016*, **
Communication submitted by:
G.E. (represented by D.N., counsellor/social
worker at Companion House Assisting Survivors
of Torture and Trauma)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Australia
Date of complaint:
15 January 2016 (initial submission)
Date of adoption of decision:
11 August 2017
Subject matter:
Deportation to Sri Lanka; risk of torture
Substantive issue:
Non-refoulement
Procedural issue:
Admissibility — manifestly ill-founded
Articles of the Convention:
3 and 22
1.1
The complainant is G.E., a Sri Lankan national born in 1983. He claims that if
Australia proceeds with his deportation to Sri Lanka, it would violate article 3 of the
Convention. The State party has made the declaration under article 22 (1) of the Convention,
on 28 January 1993. The complainant is represented by counsel, D.N.
1.2
On 18 January 2016, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new
complaints and interim measures, decided to issue a request for interim measures under rule
114 (1) of the Committee’s rules of procedure and requested the State party not to return
the author to Sri Lanka while the complaint was being considered by the Committee. On 5
December 2016, the State party requested the Committee to lift its request for interim
measures. On 22 February 2017, the Committee, acting through the same Rapporteur,
denied the State party’s request to lift the interim measures.
The facts as presented by the complainant
2.1
The complainant is Tamil of Hindu ethnicity, from a village in the Batticaloa district
of Sri Lanka. He claims that he and his family were badly affected during the war in Sri
Lanka as they were caught in the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(Tamil Tigers) and the Sri Lankan army. Around 1996, two of his father’s brothers, who
had been living with his family at the time, were forcibly recruited by the Tamil Tigers.
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-first session (24 July-11 August 2017).
** The following members of the Committee took part in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Alessio Bruni, Felice Gaer, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens
Modvig, Ana Racu, Sébastien Touzé and Kening Zhang.
GE.17-16808(E)