CAT/OP/TGO/1
impartially, within a reasonable time frame. Any decisions regarding a complaint
should be communicated immediately to its author. The Subcommittee also
encourages the competent authorities to establish a register of complaints received,
indicating the nature of the complaint, the facility where it originated, the date of
receipt, the date and nature of the resulting decision and any measures taken to
implement it. Such registers should be regularly reviewed by an independent body.
2.
In military camps
89.
During the Subcommittee’s visits to the military camps, the conditions of detention
were found to be acceptable. Record-keeping was nevertheless inadequate.
90.
The Subcommittee noted that there were several types of disciplinary sanctions
involving deprivation of liberty within the military system. The Subcommittee also noted
that when those sanctions were imposed, the individuals concerned did not necessarily
know the duration of the detention, and there was no possibility of an independent inquiry
or remedy for consideration of their situation. Moreover, the length of the punishment
initially imposed could be extended arbitrarily without any notification to the person
concerned.
91.
The Subcommittee recommends that the State party set up a system to record
sanctions involving deprivation of liberty taken against members of the military and
establish an independent, impartial appeals system, allowing for a review of the
punishments imposed where necessary.
E.
Minors in conflict with the law
92.
The Subcommittee commends the State party for the recent appointment of six new
children’s judges, expanding the national staff of judges for minors to seven. The
Subcommittee also welcomes the validation process for the national juvenile justice
guidelines, which began in January 2015 and which attests to the will of the State party to
carry out practical reforms for the promotion and consolidation of juvenile justice in Togo.
1.
Juveniles in conflict with the law in Lomé
Structure of the Juvenile Division
93.
The Lomé Juvenile Division is a hybrid structure for the custody and the pretrial
detention of minors. This body, established under Decree No. 70-55 of 23 February 1970,
has been under the control of the Ministry of Justice since the Ministry of Civil Protection
was dismantled. It is the only Togolese institution responsible for caring for juveniles in
conflict with the law. It has a capacity of 28 places, most of which are filled by children
between the ages of 14 and 18 from Lomé, Kpalimé and Tsévié.
94.
The Subcommittee questions the appropriateness of the hybrid structure of the
Juvenile Division, whose functions — which fall between those of a police station and a
prison — do not allow for separate arrangements for minor children being held in custody
and children who have been charged with an offence.
95.
The Subcommittee invites the State party to:
(a)
Reconsider the current structure of the Juvenile Division so as to
separate the functions of the criminal police from those of pretrial detention;
(b)
Establish, bearing in mind such restructuring, additional juvenile
divisions, as recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its
concluding observations of 2012 (see CRC/C/TGO/CO/3-4, para. 76).
Length of custody and pretrial detention
96.
During its visit to the Juvenile Division, the Subcommittee met 18 children. On
consulting the registers, it found that four of the children in pretrial detention had been
detained for 1 to 4 months. The 14 other children had been sent there by judges under
GE.17-06858
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