CCPR/C/130/D/3042/2017
United Nations
International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights
Distr.: General
28 April 2021
Original: English
Human Rights Committee
Views adopted by the Committee under article 5 (4)
of the Optional Protocol, concerning communication
No. 3042/2017*, **, ***
Communication submitted by:
A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. (represented by counsel,
Andrea Saccucci)
Alleged victims:
The authors and S.A. et al.
State party:
Italy
Date of communication:
19 May 2017 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rule 92 of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted to the
State party on 14 November 2017 (not issued in
document form)
Date of adoption of Views:
4 November 2020
Subject matter:
Rescue operations at sea
Procedural issues:
Jurisdiction; exhaustion of domestic remedies
Substantive issues:
Right to life; inhuman and degrading treatment;
right to an effective remedy
Articles of the Covenant:
2 (3), 6 and 7
Articles of the Optional Protocol:
1 and 5 (2) (b)
1.1
The authors of the communication are A.S., a national of the State of Palestine, born
in 1958, and D.I., O.I. and G.D., nationals of the Syrian Arab Republic, born in 1983, 1988
and 1977, respectively. They are submitting the communication on their own behalf and on
behalf of 13 of their relatives who, on 11 October 2013, were on board a vessel that
shipwrecked in the Mediterranean Sea, 113 km south of the island of Lampedusa, Italy, and
218 km from Malta, which is estimated to have caused the death of more than 200 people.
A.S. submits the communication on behalf of 11 members of his family: his brother, born in
1952; his son-in-law, born in 1977; his niece, born in 1983; his son, born in 1987; his daughter,
born in 1987; his daughter-in-law, born in 1992; his son, born in 1997; his granddaughter,
* Adopted by the Committee at its 130th session (12 October–6 November 2020).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Yadh Ben Achour, Arif Bulkan, Ahmed Amin Fathalla, Furuya Shuichi, Christof Heyns, David H.
Moore, Duncan Laki Muhumuza, Photini Pazartzis, Hernán Quezada Cabrera, Vasilka Sancin, José
Manuel Santos Pais, Yuval Shany, Hélène Tigroudja, Andreas Zimmermann and Gentian Zyberi.
*** A joint opinion by Committee members Yuval Shany, Christof Heyns and Photini Pazartzis
(dissenting), and individual opinions by Committee members Andreas Zimmermann (dissenting),
David H. Moore (dissenting), Gentian Zyberi (concurring), José Manuel Santos Pais (concurring),
Vasilka Sancin (concurring) and Hélène Tigroudja (concurring) are annexed to the present Views.
GE.21-05610(E)