Recommended textual changes and additions:
1) in the title: “General Comment No. 1 (2017) on the implementation of article 3 of the Convention,
including in the context of article 22”;
2) in para. 1: “On the basis of its experience in considering individual communications under Article 22 of
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(hereinafter referred to as the Convention), addressing allegations of violation by States parties of article
3 of the Convention, along with its Concluding Observations upon consideration of States parties’
reports under Article 19 of the Convention, as well as its previous General Comments, ….”
3) in para. 3, or in a separate paragraph, add: “Except for explicit references to communications under
Article 22, especially in section X., the General Comment applies to all States parties.”
b) Terminology
6. Footnote 6 of the draft explains that, for the purpose of the revised General Comment, the term
“deportation” covers “the expulsion, return or extradition of a person or group of individuals from a
State party to another State.” We understand and support the use of an appropriate term as shorthand
to denote every and any means of transferring individuals in circumstances giving rise to refoulement
concerns under the Convention. Deportation, however, is a term strongly associated with transfers
across international borders, thus effectively excluding consideration of those occurring within the
same country, which could, nonetheless, constitute prohibited refoulement in violation of the
Convention. Therefore, we recommend that the term “involuntary transfer” be used instead; that its
choice be explained prominently and expansively in the introduction, as suggested below, so as to
ensure that anyone reading the General Comment be in no doubt as to the fact that it is capable of
encompassing every and any means of transferring individuals against the refoulement prohibition;
and that it be applied consistently and exclusively throughout the text – except where specific, discrete
means of transferring individuals, such as extradition, are discussed.
Recommended textual changes and additions:
1) Throughout the General Comment the term “involuntary transfer” should be used instead of
“deportation” as the catchall term for any transfer;
2) add the following text, as paragraph 3.bis: “For the purpose of this General Comment, the term
“involuntary transfer” includes, but it is not limited to, extradition, deportation, expulsion, forcible
return, forcible transfer, rendition, rejection at the frontier, pushback operations (including at sea)”;
3) delete footnote 6.
c) Section II: General principles, paragraphs 4-17
i)
Paragraph 7
4
AI Index: IOR 40/6040/2017