ADVANCE UNEDITED VERSION
Distr.: General
9 February 2018
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Sixty-second session
6 November – 6 December 2017
General Comment No. 4 (2017) on the implementation of
article 3 of the Convention in the context of article 22
I. Introduction
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, the Committee against Torture (hereinafter
referred to as the Committee) at its fifty-fifth to fifty-eight sessions in 2015 and 2016
discussed and agreed to revise its General Comment No. 1 entitled “General comment on the
implementation of Article 3 of the Convention in the context of Article 22” which had been
adopted on 21 November 1997 (A/53/44, Annex IX).
2.
At its 59th session, in November - December 2016, the Committee began the drafting
process of the revised General Comment, taking into account the recommendations for the
consultation process in the elaboration of general comments made by the Chairpersons at
their twenty-seventh meeting in San José in Costa Rica, from 22 to 26 June 2015 (A/70/302,
paragraph 91).
3.
The Committee, during its 62nd session, at the 1614th meeting held on 6 December
2017, decided to replace the text of its initial General Comment No. 1 by the following text
which it adopted on the same date.
4.
For the purpose of this General Comment, the term "deportation" includes, but is not
limited to, expulsion, extradition, forcible return, forcible transfer, rendition, rejection at the
frontier, pushback operations (including at sea) of a person or group of individuals from a
State party to another State.
The present General Comment replaces General Comment No. 1 (1997): Implementation of Article 3
of the Convention in the context of Article 22 (A/53/44, Annex IX).