CAT/C/GC/4
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
4 September 2018
Original: English
Committee against Torture
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, addressing allegations of violation by States parties of article 3
of the Convention, the Committee against Torture, at its fifty-fifth to fifty-eighth sessions,
in 2015 and 2016, discussed and agreed to revise its general comment No. 1 (1997), entitled
“General comment on the implementation of article 3 of the Convention in the context of
article 22”, adopted at its nineteenth session (see A/53/44 and A/53/44/Corr.1, annex IX).
2.
At its fifty-ninth session, held from 7 November to 7 December 2016, the
Committee began the drafting process for the revised general comment, taking into account
the recommendations for the consultation process in the elaboration of general comments
made by the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies at their twenty-seventh meeting, held
in San José from 22 to 26 June 2015 (see A/70/302, para. 91).
3.
At the 1614th meeting of the Committee, held on 6 December 2017 during its sixtysecond session, the Committee decided that its general comment No. 1 would be
superseded by the below text, which it adopted on the same date.
4.
For the purposes of the present general comment, the term “deportation” includes,
but is not limited to, expulsion, extradition, forcible return, forcible transfer, rendition and
rejection at the frontier of, and pushback operations (including at sea) involving, a person
or group of individuals from a State party to another State.
II. General principles
5.
Article 3 (1) of the Convention provides that no State party shall expel, return
(refouler) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for
believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture.1
6.
Pursuant to article 22 of the Convention, the Committee receives and considers
communications from or on behalf of individuals subject to a State party’s jurisdiction who
claim to be victims of a violation by a State party of the provisions of the Convention, in
respect of any State party that has declared that it recognizes the Committee’s competence
in that regard.
* The present general comment replaces general comment No. 1 (1997) on the implementation of
1
article 3.
Article 3 must be interpreted with reference to the definition of torture set out in article 1 of the
Convention; see G.R.B. v. Sweden (CAT/C/20/D/83/1997), para. 6.5.
GE.18-13033(E)