CAT/C/MOZ/CO/1
result from torture, ill-treatment or wilful negligence are convicted and adequately
punished.
Redress, including compensation and rehabilitation
20.
While noting the content of article 58 of the Constitution (Right to compensation
and State responsibility) and the existence of several institutional mechanisms to claim
redress for human rights violations, the Committee is concerned at reports that victims of
torture and ill-treatment hardly ever receive redress, including adequate compensation and
rehabilitation. In this regard, the Committee regrets that the State party provided
insufficient information on redress and compensation measures, including means of
rehabilitation, that have been ordered by the courts or other State bodies and actually
provided to victims of torture or their families since the entry into force of the Convention
in the State party (art. 14).
The State party should take the necessary steps to ensure that victims of torture and
ill-treatment receive redress, including fair and adequate compensation and the
means for as full a rehabilitation as possible. The Committee draws the State party’s
attention to its general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of article 14 by
States parties, in which it elaborates on the nature and scope of States parties’
obligations to provide full redress to victims of torture.
Coerced confessions
21.
The Committee is concerned at reports that a number of detainees have alleged that
they were forced to sign confession documents without understanding the documents or
being aware of their content. While taking note of the constitutional safeguards establishing
the inadmissibility of evidence obtained through torture, the Committee expresses concern
at the lack of information on decisions taken by the Mozambican courts to refuse as
evidence confessions that were obtained under torture (art. 15).
The State party must adopt effective measures to guarantee that coerced confessions
or statements are inadmissible in practice, except when invoked against a person
accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made. The State party should
also ensure that law enforcement officials, judges and lawyers receive training in how
to detect and investigate cases in which confessions are obtained under torture.
The Committee requests the State party to include in its next report information on
any specific jurisprudence excluding statements obtained as a result of torture and on
any cases in which officials have been prosecuted and punished for extracting a
confession under torture.
Lynching
22.
While taking note of the delegation’s statement that the number of cases of lynching
has begun to decrease recently, the Committee remains concern at the persistence of this
phenomenon. It also regrets that it has not received the information it requested on the
outcome of investigations, related criminal proceedings and punishment of perpetrators
(arts. 2, 12 and 16).
The State party should continue to pursue its efforts to prevent, investigate, prosecute
and punish lynchings, including by continuing to conduct awareness-raising
campaigns in communities.
Violence against women and children, including domestic violence
23.
While welcoming the information provided by the State party on measures taken to
combat domestic violence (see para. 5 (c) of the present concluding observations), the
Committee remains concerned about the high prevalence of domestic violence in the
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