CAT/OP/CHE/CSPRO/1 I. Preliminary remarks 1. From 27 January to 7 February 2019, a delegation of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment carried out a visit to Switzerland for the first time. 2. On 26 May 2020, the Subcommittee sent Switzerland a confidential report on its visit (CAT/OP/CHE/ROSP/1/R.1). The Subcommittee invited the State party to respond directly to the recommendations and requests for further information made in the report and to give an account of action already taken or planned in order to implement the recommendations. 3. The Federal Council thus has the honour to submit its comments to the Subcommittee. These comments follow the structure of the Subcommittee’s report. They are grouped by subject matter and are preceded by the relevant recommendation or request for additional information. 4. The Subcommittee’s report and these comments will be forwarded to the cantons and the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture so that they may take note of the Subcommittee’s recommendations. 5. The Federal Council thanks the Subcommittee for its report and recommendations. It appreciated the excellent cooperation between the Swiss representatives and the Subcommittee delegation during the Subcommittee’s visit in winter 2019 and it welcomes the continuation of the constructive dialogue through these comments. II. Cooperation 6. Paragraph 14: The Subcommittee recommends that official statistics be collected systematically by canton, then centralized and published by the Federal Statistical Office. These statistics should be analysed and made available to all stakeholders. 7. The Federal Statistical Office already collects essential data and publishes them on its website. However, the cantons have recognized the need for a better database and are therefore studying the possibility of setting up a system for the management of information on the enforcement of criminal penalties, in cooperation with the Office. A preliminary project was completed last year and a feasibility study is planned for this year. 8. More specifically, the Federal Statistical Office collects statistics on therapeutic measures under article 59 of the Criminal Code and indefinite detention under article 64 of the Code,1 while various studies2 provide information on trends in the application of these measures. 9. The cantons are responsible for dealing with complaints; statistics on complaints are therefore recorded at the cantonal level. In this regard, it is hard to see the need for a centralized system or the added value that such a system might provide. 1 2 GE.21-03864 See the various tables on the enforcement of penalties on the Office’s website: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/crime-criminal-justice/execution-penal-sentencesjustice/detained-adults.html. Jonas Weber, Jann Schaub, Corinna Bumann and Kevin Sacher, “Anordnung und Vollzug stationärer therapeutischer Massnahmen gemäss Art. 59 StGB mit Fokus auf geschlossene Strafanstalten bzw. geschlossene Massnahmeneinrichtungen – Studie zuhanden der Nationalen Kommission zur Verhütung von Folter (NKVF)” (2015): https://www.krim.unibe.ch/unibe/portal/fak_rechtwis/d_dep_krim/inst_krim/content/e62772/e62774/e 62778/e558121/Weber-Schaub-Bumann-Sacher_Studie_Art.-59_2016.05.31_ger.pdf and Thomas Freytag and Aimée H. Zermatten, “Bedingte Entlassung aus dem Straf- versus Massnahmenvollzug: Sind die Praktiken gleich?”, in Kriminalität, Strafrecht und Föderalismus/Criminalité, justice pénale et fédéralisme, D. Fink, J. Arnold, F. Genillod-Villard and N. Oberholzer, eds. (Bern, Stämpfli, 2019), p. 219 ff. 3