Monitoring the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

The Committee Against Torture (CAT) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by its State parties.

All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially one year after acceding to the Convention and then every four years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”.

In addition to the reporting procedure, the Convention establishes three other mechanisms through which the Committee performs its monitoring functions: the Committee may also, under certain circumstances, consider individual complaints or communications from individuals claiming that their rights under the Convention have been violated, undertake inquiries, and consider inter-state complaints.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention creates the Subcommittee on Prevention and allows in-country inspections of places of detention to be undertaken in collaboration with national institutions. In order to elect the first ten members of the Subcommittee, a meeting of States party will take place on 18 December 2006.

The Committee meets in Geneva and normally holds two sessions per year consisting of a plenary (of three weeks in May and two weeks in November) and a one-week pre-sessional working group.

The Committee also publishes its interpretation of the content of human rights provisions, known as general comments on thematic issues.