CAT/C/54/D/456/2011 the acquiescence of the prison authorities and the Bolivarian National Guard. Despite this information and the fact that his disappearance was reported to the authorities promptly, no thorough investigation has so far been conducted into the acts of torture allegedly suffered by Mr. Guerrero Larez and no sufficient and effective steps have been taken to establish his whereabouts and fate. The Committee further notes that the statements made by the prison authorities before Court No. 2 indicated that Mr. Guerrero Larez had “escaped” from the Penitentiary, without giving any explanation of the basis for this claim. 6.4 The Committee observes that it has been established that, when the facts of this complaint occurred, Mr. Guerrero Larez was serving a custodial sentence in the Penitentiary. In this regard, the Committee recalls that States parties are under a special obligation to take effective measures to prevent torture 7 and ensure that persons deprived of their liberty can exercise the rights enshrined in the Convention, since they bear a special responsibility owing to the extent of the control that prison authorities exercise over such persons. States parties must therefore take the necessary steps to prevent individuals from inflicting acts of torture on persons under their control. 8 The Committee further recalls that enforced disappearance entails multiple human rights violations and a failure by the State party concerned to comply with the obligations contained in the Convention, and that this constitutes in itself, in relation to the disappeared person, or may constitute, in relation to the person’s relatives, a form of torture or inhuman treatment contrary to the Convention. 9 6.5 The Committee observes that, on 8 and 9 September 2009, the complainants reported the disappearance of Mr. Guerrero Larez to the pr ison director and the Bolivarian National Guard. On 1 and 13 October 2009, they requested the Attorney General and the Fundamental Rights Department of the Public Prosecution Service, respectively, to investigate his disappearance in the Penitentiary, his possible murder at the hands of prison inmates and the possible participation and responsibility of the prison authorities or Bolivarian National Guard officers. In that regard, they indicate that, according to the testimony of other inmates, Mr. Guerrero Larez was a victim of reprisals by a group of inmates because he knew about illegal activities that the group was undertaking in complicity with certain authorities. As announced by the Public Prosecution Service before Court No. 2, Prosecutor ’s Office No. 3 was in charge of the investigation into the possible crime of enforced disappearance with respect to Mr. Guerrero Larez. 6.6 Nevertheless, the Committee notes that, according to the information contained in the file, as Mr. Guerrero Larez could not be found in the Penitentiary, the authorities merely stated that he had escaped, without offering any relevant information or evidence that might attest to his possible escape from prison and without carrying out a thorough investigation into his alleged escap e or the specific circumstances in which it had allegedly taken place. Despite the reports filed by the complainants and the ruling issued by Court No. 2 on 4 December 2009, the fate of Mr. Guerrero Larez still remains unknown. The authorities have not pro vided any information regarding possible steps that may have been undertaken to establish his __________________ 7 8 9 GE.15-10585 See general comment No. 2 (2008) of the Committee on the implementation of article 2 by States parties, para. 13. Ibid., paras. 17 and 18. The Committee has addressed the issue of enforced disappearance in various concluding observations. See, for example, its concluding observations on the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Mexico (CAT/C/MEX/CO/5-6, para. 12); the initial report of Rwanda (CAT/C/RWA/CO/1, para. 14); the initial report of Turkmenistan (CAT/C/TKM/CO/1, para. 15); the combined third and fourth periodic reports of Sri Lanka (CAT/C/LKA/CO/3-4, paras. 8 and 9); the fourth periodic report of Colombia (CAT/C/COL/CO/4, paras. 11 and 17); and the initial report of Chad (CAT/C/TCD/CO/1, paras. 14 and 17). 9/11