IV.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
IN THE WORK OF
THE UN COMMITTEE
AGAINST TORTURE
IN ADDRESSING
THE USE OF FORCE
38. Over the years, the Committee has dealt with cases and patterns of extra-custodial use of force in
the framework of the individual communications procedure under article 22 of the Convention. Its first
landmark case in this regard was Dzemajl et al. v. Yugoslavia85, where the Committee found that, in the
framework of an arson attack and eviction, the burning and destruction of houses by civilians with the
acquiescence of the police constituted acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
under the terms of Article 16 of the Convention alone86, and that the nature of these acts is further
aggravated by the fact that the acts were committed with a significant level of racial motivation. In
Sonko v. Spain87 the Committee considered that the physical and mental suffering prior to the death of
a migrant, who drowned after having been thrown into the sea by the Spanish Civil Guard, exacerbated
by his particular vulnerability as a migrant, amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.88 In its concluding observations, the Committee regularly urges States under its review
85. UN Committee Against Torture, Comm. No. 161/2000.
86. See also: UN Committee against Torture, Osmani v. Serbia, Comm. No. 261/2005.
87. UN Committee against Torture, Comm. No. 368/2008.
88. W
orld Organisation Against Torture, Concept Note: Thematic briefing on extra-custodial use of force amounting to torture and other
ill-treatment, January 2020.
14
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