CAT/C/TCD/CO/1
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The State party should, as a matter of extreme urgency, take the necessary
organizational and budgetary measures to make the National Human Rights
Commission operational and ensure that it complies with the Paris Principles
(General Assembly resolution 48/134, annex).
Reparation and compensation
28. The Committee regrets the National Assembly’s failure as yet to follow up on the bill
proposed in 2005 by the Association of Victims of Crimes and Political Repression (AVCRP),
which recommended the establishment of a compensation fund for victims of the abuses
committed by the regime of President Hissène Habré. Moreover, the Committee notes the
absence of a reparation programme or other national reconciliation measures such as that
proposed in 1992 by the commission of inquiry into the crimes and abuses of power committed
by former President Habré and his accomplices (art. 14).
The State party should, as a matter of great urgency, adopt the bill on material
compensation for the victims of torture under the Hissène Habré regime and establish
appropriate mechanisms to meet the victims’ legitimate needs for justice and to
promote national reconciliation.
Confessions obtained under duress
29. The Committee is concerned at the lack of legal provisions explicitly prohibiting the use as
evidence in judicial proceedings of confessions and statements obtained by torture. It is alarmed
by reports from the State party indicating that confessions obtained by torture are invoked as a
form of evidence in proceedings and that such practices persist owing to the impunity of guilty
parties and pressures on judges (art. 15).
The State party should amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to explicitly prohibit
the use of any statement obtained by torture as a form of evidence in judicial
proceedings.
The State party should take the necessary measures to ensure that criminal
convictions are based not only on the confession of the accused but also on other,
legally obtained evidence, thus allowing the judge to exercise full discretion. It should
also take the necessary measures to ensure that statements made under torture are
not invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of
torture, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention.
The State party is requested to review criminal convictions based solely on
confessions in order to identify instances of wrongful conviction based on evidence
obtained through torture or ill-treatment and to take appropriate remedial measures.
Violence against women
30. While welcoming the promulgation of Act No. 06/PR/2002 to eradicate female genital
mutilation, early marriage, domestic violence and sexual violence (the most severe form of
female genital mutilation, infibulation, is practised in eastern Chad), the Committee remains
concerned about the widespread occurrence of traditional practices which violate the physical