A/73/207
of his personal judgment and conviction, and informed by broad stakeholder
consultations, has identified five areas of primary concern:
(a) Incomplete adoption of the international framework: The
international normative and institutional framework for the eradication of
torture and ill-treatment still has not been universally ratified. Treaty adherence
and acceptance of the individual complaints procedures of the various treaty
bodies remain incomplete;
(b) National implementation gap: In many States, a significant gap
remains in terms of implementing the international framework at the level of
national law and institutions. Shortcomings range from inadequate
interpretation of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment to the absence of
preventive safeguards, including effective and independent complaints
mechanisms, and from insufficient political will to guarantee the prohibition in
practice to inaccessibility and inadequacy of redress and rehabilitation for
victims of violations;
(c) Challenges to the prohibition itself: Recently, the prohibition of
torture and ill-treatment itself has increasingly come under pressure by States
seeking to evade their responsibility for violations and through direct challenges
to the substantive scope and the absolute and non-derogable character of the
prohibition;
(d) Violent and discriminatory political narratives: Increasingly violent
and discriminatory sociopolitical narratives and environments expose “suspect”
individuals and communities, irregular migrants, LGBTI persons and other
politically, socially, medically or economically marginalized groups to a
heightened risk of torture and ill-treatment;
(e) Insufficient protection against non-State actors: In many States,
inhabitants enjoy only insufficient protection against violence and abuse inflicted
by non-State actors, including organized armed groups, militias, criminal
networks, corporate actors and private citizens.
V. Recommendations
77. Recognizing the impossibility of providing detailed guidance on every
relevant aspect of the issues raised in this report, the Special Rapporteur
herewith reiterates the general recommendations of his mandate 20 and, in the
light of the challenges outlined above, particularly emphasizes the following
specific recommendations:
(a) Ratification of international instruments: States should ratify, without
reservations, all international legal instruments aiming to give effect to the
prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, in particular the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and
its Optional Protocol, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and its Optional Protocols, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
and other universal and regional instruments, including those intended to
protect persons experiencing specific types of vulnerability, such as the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol and the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
__________________
20
18-12051
E/CN.4/2003/68, para. 26.
21/23
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