Issues and violations found
Removal - articles 3 (substantive and procedural
violations) on two counts and 22 on two counts.13
Interim measures granted and State party
response
None
Remedy recommended
In pursuance of rule 112, paragraph 5, of its rules
of procedure, the Committee requests the State
party to inform it, within 90 days from the date of
the transmittal of this decision, of the steps it has
taken in response to the views expressed above.
The State party is also under an obligation to
prevent similar violations in the future.
Due date for State party response
20 August 2005
13
(1) The Committee observes, moreover, that by making the declaration under article 22 of
the Convention, the State party undertook to confer upon persons within its jurisdiction the right
to invoke the complaints’ jurisdiction of the Committee. That jurisdiction included the power to
indicate interim measures, if necessary, to stay the removal and preserve the subject matter of the
case pending final decision. In order for this exercise of the right of complaint to be meaningful
rather than illusory, however, an individual must have a reasonable period of time before
execution of a final decision to consider whether, and if so to in fact, seize the Committee under
its article 22 jurisdiction. In the present case, however, the Committee observes that the
complainant was arrested and removed by the State party immediately upon the Government’s
decision of expulsion being taken; indeed, the formal notice of decision was only served upon
the complainant’s counsel the following day. As a result, it was impossible for the complainant
to consider the possibility of invoking article 22, let alone seize the Committee. As a result, the
Committee concludes that the State party was in breach of its obligations under article 22 of the
Convention to respect the effective right of individual communication conferred thereunder.
(2) Having addressed the merits of the complaint, the Committee must address the failure of
the State party to cooperate fully with the Committee in the resolution of the current complaint.
The Committee observes that, by making the declaration provided for in article 22 extending to
individual complainants the right to complain to the Committee alleging a breach of a State
party’s obligations under the Convention, a State party assumes an obligation to cooperate fully
with the Committee, through the procedures set forth in article 22 and in the Committee’s rules
of procedure. In particular, article 22, paragraph 4, requires a State party to make available to the
Committee all information relevant and necessary for the Committee appropriately to resolve the
complaint presented to it. The Committee observes that its procedures are sufficiently flexible
and its powers sufficiently broad to prevent an abuse of process in a particular case. It follows
that the State party committed a breach of its obligations under article 22 of the Convention by
neither disclosing to the Committee relevant information, nor presenting its concerns to the
Committee for an appropriate procedural decision.
128
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