CAT/C/ETH/CO/1
The State party should strengthen its efforts to provide victims of torture and
ill-treatment with redress, including fair and adequate compensation, and as
full rehabilitation as possible. Furthermore, the State party should provide
information on redress and compensation measures ordered by the courts and
provided to victims of torture, or their families. This information should
include the number of requests made and of those granted and the amounts
ordered and actually provided in each case. In addition, the State party should
provide information on any ongoing rehabilitation programmes for victims of
torture and ill-treatment and allocate adequate resources to ensure the effective
implementation of such programmes.
Coerced confessions
31.
While noting that constitutional guarantees and provisions of the Criminal Procedure
Code prohibit the admissibility of evidence obtained through torture, the Committee is
concerned at reports of cases of confessions obtained through torture and the lack of
information on any officials who may have been prosecuted and punished for extracting
such confessions (arts. 2 and 15).
The State party should take the steps necessary to ensure that, in practice,
confessions obtained under torture are not admitted in court proceedings,
including in cases falling under the Anti-terrorism Proclamation, in line with
relevant domestic legislation and the provisions of article 15 of the Convention.
The Committee requests the State party to submit information on the
application of the provisions prohibiting admissibility of evidence obtained
through torture, and to indicate whether any officials have been prosecuted and
punished for extracting such confessions.
Violence against women and harmful traditional practices
32.
The Committee takes note of the criminalization of harmful traditional practices,
such as female genital mutilation, early marriage and abduction of girls for marriage in the
revised Criminal Code, and the information given by the State party during the dialogue
concerning the establishment of special prosecution teams within the Ministry of Justice
and in regional justice departments to investigate cases of rape and other forms of violence
against women and children. However, the Committee is concerned about the lack of
implementation of criminal law provisions criminalizing violence against women and
harmful traditional practices. It is particularly concerned that the revised Criminal Code
fails to criminalize spousal rape. It also regrets the lack of information on complaints,
prosecutions and the sentences imposed on perpetrators, as well as on victim assistance and
compensation (arts. 1, 2, 12, 13 and 16).
The State party should strengthen its efforts to prevent, combat and punish
violence against women and children and harmful traditional practices, in
particular in rural areas. The State party should consider amending its revised
Criminal Code, with a view to criminalizing spousal rape. It should also
provide victims with legal, medical, psychological and rehabilitative services, as
well as with compensation, and create adequate conditions for them to report
incidents of harmful traditional practices and domestic and sexual violence
without fear of reprisal or stigmatization. The State party should provide
training to judges, prosecutors, police, and community leaders on the strict
application of the revised Criminal Code and on the criminal nature of harmful
traditional practices and of other forms of violence against women. The
Committee also requests the State party to provide in its next periodic report
updated statistical data on the number of complaints, investigations,
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