Last week, the Committee against Torture closed its 81st session, in which it held constructive dialogues with and adopted Concluding Observations on Cameroon, Jordan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Namibia and Thailand. The Committee included recommendations related to persons with disabilities in four out of the six Concluding Observations, reaching a total of 15 explicit references. You can find our compilation of disability related extracts of this session here. No public alternative reports were submitted by national organizations of persons with disabilities to prioritize this specific area of human rights law.
The Committee against Torture usually considers persons with disabilities explicitly when addressing the conditions of detention in the penitentiary system and the situation of psychiatric institutions and alike, more relevant for persons with psychosocial disabilities and intellectual disabilities. It must be said that sometimes recommendations to States by the CAT Committee, which focus on safeguards and remedies with the aim to prevent torture of persons with disabilities deprived of liberty, are in tension with CRPD standards as they leave unaddressed the discriminatory rationale of deprivation of liberty on the basis of impairments.
Some recommendations of this 81st session per country can be highlighted:
- Cameroon: The CAT Committee recommended Cameroon to "[g]uarantee that the basic needs of persons deprived of their liberty are met, including those of persons living with disabilities, in particular as regards access to sufficient quantities of drinking water and adequate quality food".
- Jordan: Having expressed concern "at reports that the forced sterilization of women and girls with disabilities remains widespread in practice, despite its prohibition under Jordanian law", the Committee recommended that "all acts of gender-based violence and domestic violence [...] are thoroughly investigated, [...], that the perpetrators are prosecuted and, if convicted, punished appropriately and that the victims of torture or of their families receive redress, including adequate compensation and rehabilitation."
- Mongolia: The Committee required Mongolia to provide reasonable accommodation and accessibility to persons with disabilities in prisons. When addressing psychiatric institutions, the CAT Committee issued two recommendations in line with the CRPD requiring Mongolia to "intensify its efforts to avoid involuntary admissions to closed institutions on the basis of impairment" and to "develop a policy of deinstitutionalization in the form of alternative and community-based support services and other forms of outpatient care programmes throughout the territory of the State party."
- Namibia: The Committee requested Namibia to provide individualized reasonable accommodation and accessible facilities to persons with disabilities in prisons. Addressing institutionalization, the Committee required to "further promote deinstitutionalization in favour of alternative and community-based care services and other forms of outpatient treatment programmes."