CEDAW/C/75/D/108/2016
there is no real risk of torture in the event of removal, it will not normally initiate
such an examination. That approach also applies to cases in which an asylum seeker
has appeared to be non-credible throughout the proceedings and the Board therefore
finds a basis for rejecting that person’s claim of torture in its entirety.
4.18 The State party notes that, in the present case, the Refugee Appeals Board found
that, based on an overall, specific and individual assessment, the author’s account of
her grounds for asylum lacked credibility, and the Board therefore found no reason to
initiate an examination of her for signs of torture.
4.19 The State party notes that the Refugee Appeals Board made its decision of
17 November 2015 on the basis of a procedure during which the author had had the
opportunity to present her views, both in writing and orally, with the assistance of
counsel. The Board had conducted a comprehensive and thorough examination of the
evidence in the case. With reference to the Board’s decision, the State party considers
that the author will not be at risk of persecution or abuse justifying asylum upon return
to Somalia and that her return will not violate articles 1 and 2 (d), (e) and (f) of the
Convention.
Author’s comments on the State party’s observations on admissibility and
the merits
5.1 The author presented her comments on the State party’s observations on
admissibility on 15 August 2017. She notes that the State party has failed to
substantiate that her communication was inadmissible on the basis of being
manifestly ill-founded.
5.2 Regarding the State party’s observations on the merits, the author claims that it
has failed to give sufficient weight to her individual circumstances, which may have
compromised her appearance of credibility. The author refers to the decision of the
Human Rights Committee in A.A.S. v. Denmark, in which it was noted that, in the
light of the information provided by the author, the information available at the time
to the Committee and the record of human rights violations in Somalia, the Committee
considered that the State party’s immigration authorities had not given sufficient
weight to the cumulative effect of the author’s individual circumstances, which made
him particularly vulnerable, in assessing the risk of him being subjected to treatment
contrary to article 7 of the Covenant, in the event of his forcible return to Somalia. In
the Committee’s view, the author’s situation was distinguishable from that of other
Somali nationals who had sought asylum abroad on the grounds of the general
situation in Somalia, given that he had left the country of origin at the age of 5 and
did not have any remaining family or social network in Somalia, had limited literacy
skills in the Somali language, belonged to a minority clan and had suffered from
tuberculosis in the recent past. In those circumstances, the Committee was of the view
that the author’s removal to Somalia, in the absence of further consideration of his
case in the light of the cumulative effect of the aforementioned individual
circumstances, would put him at a real risk of irreparable harm such as that envisaged
in article 7 of the Covenant, in particular given the fa ct that his brother had already
been granted protection status by the State party’s immigration authorities. 11
5.3 The author claims that the State party has violated her right to due process. Her
reasons for seeking asylum have been consistent with her ini tial claim and have now
been substantiated by hard evidence from her spouse. It is not unlikely or improbable
that the author has been in contact with her spouse through her online social network.
Challenging that fact would only reveal a lack of knowledge on the part of the
__________________
11
20-05121
A.A.S. v. Denmark (CCPR/C/117/D/2464/2014), para. 7.7.
7/9