CAT/C/AZE/CO/4
35.
The State party should take all measures necessary to ensure that individuals
who may face a risk of torture in their countries of origin are not returned, extradited
or deported to those countries. The State party should ensure that persons whose
applications for asylum have been rejected can lodge an effective appeal with
suspensive effect. The State party should compile and provide the Committee with
detailed statistical data, disaggregated by country of origin, on the number of persons
who have requested asylum or refugee status, and the outcomes of those applications,
as well as the number of expulsions, deportations or extraditions that have taken place
and the countries to which individuals were returned.
Training
36.
The Committee welcomes the information from the State party on the training on
human rights and prohibition of ill-treatment introduced for prison staff and police officers
at temporary detention facilities and the seminars organized by the Central Medical
Authority of the Ministry of Justice for medical staff of correctional institutes on the topic
of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Committee,
however, regrets the limited information available on monitoring and evaluation of these
training programmes and the lack of information available on the impact of the training
conducted for all relevant officials, including law enforcement officials, prison staff and
border guards (art. 10).
37.
The State party should further develop educational programmes to ensure that
all officials, including law enforcement officials, prison staff and border guards, are
fully aware of the provisions of the Convention, that breaches will not be tolerated
and will be investigated and that offenders will be prosecuted. All relevant medical
personnel should receive specific training on how to identify signs of torture and illtreatment. The Committee recommends that the Manual on the Effective
Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol) become an integral part of the
training provided to all personnel involved in the detention or imprisonment of
persons, as well as to all personnel involved in the investigation and documentation of
torture. Furthermore, the State party should develop and implement a methodology
to assess the effectiveness and impact of such training and educational programmes on
the reduction of cases of torture, violence and ill-treatment.
Redress for victims of torture
38.
The Committee is concerned that, according to the information from the State party,
it has not awarded or provided any redress or rehabilitation to victims of torture during the
reporting period, despite legal provisions providing for victims’ rights to material and moral
rehabilitation (art. 14).
39.
The State party should ensure that victims of torture obtain redress and
rehabilitation and have an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation,
including the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible. The Committee draws the
attention of the State party to general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of
article 14 of the Convention, in which the Committee explains the content and scope of
the obligations of States parties to provide full redress to victims of torture and
recommends amending the domestic legislation accordingly.
Follow-up procedure
40.
The Committee requests the State party to provide, by 9 December 2016,
information on follow-up to the Committee’s recommendations related to the
eradication of widespread torture and ill-treatment, the eradication of arbitrary
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