A/HRC/19/61
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
18 January 2012
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Nineteenth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, Juan E. Méndez
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Summary
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur gives an overview of his activities
during the reporting cycle in relation to country visits, pending visit requests, presentations,
consultations, communications and press statements.
The thematic focus of the report, commissions of inquiry, was selected by the
Special Rapporteur to help deepen the international community’s understanding on when
such commissions should be created by States in response to patterns or practices of torture
and other forms of ill-treatment. Furthermore, the purpose of the report is to generate
further discussion of the standards that apply to the establishment and conduct of
commissions of inquiry, and the relationship between such commissions and the fulfilment
by States of their international legal obligations with regard to torture and other forms of
ill-treatment.
The Special Rapporteur examines the scope and role of commissions of inquiry in
the international human rights context and pays tribute to the earlier work on this subject,
including the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol) and
the updated set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through
action to combat impunity. The Special Rapporteur evaluates the objectives of
commissions of inquiry and the added value of such mechanisms.
In the report, the Special Rapporteur also provides an overview of the current
practice of commissions of inquiry at the international, regional and national levels. He
notes that, where possible, the possibility of national commissions of inquiry ought to be
pursued before the establishment of an international commission. The Special Rapporteur
analyses the complementary role that commissions may play, but stresses that the
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GE.12-10167
Late submission.