CEDAW/C/49/D/23/2009
Interior Department of Lenin District after the registration of her communication by
the Committee. In December 2010 and January/February 2011, information that
female police officers are working in the IVS facility came to the author’s attention.
In order to confirm this information, the author and her counsel addressed letters to
the head of the IVS facility with a request to officially confirm or refute the
information, as well as to provide information on the number of female staff and the
dates that they became part of the personnel. In a letter of 14 March 2011, the head
of the IVS facility confirmed that women are at present working in the IVS facility,
but did not indicate their number or the date of their employment. Despite these
positive changes, the author maintains that her communication should be examined
by the Committee.
Issues and proceedings before the Committee
Consideration of admissibility
6.1 In accordance with rule 64 of its rules of procedure, the Committee shall
decide whether the communication is admissible under the Optional Protocol to the
Convention. Pursuant to rule 72, paragraph 4, of its rules of procedure, it shall do so
before considering the merits of the communication.
6.2 The Committee notes the State party’s argument that the communication shall
be declared inadmissible under article 4, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol for
non-exhaustion of domestic remedies, because the author did not submit complaints
on conditions of her detention to the administration of the IVS facility or the
Ministry of the Interior. In accordance with article 4, paragraph 1, of the Optional
Protocol, the Committee shall not consider a communication unless it has
ascertained that all available domestic remedies have been exhausted, unless the
application of such remedies is unreasonably prolonged or unlikely to bring
effective relief. The Committee recalls its jurisprudence, according to which the
author must have raised in substance at the domestic level the claim that he/she
wishes to bring before the Committee 1 so as to enable domestic authorities and/or
courts to have an opportunity to deal with such a claim. 2 In this respect, it notes that
the author submitted complaints regarding the conditions of detention and the
disrespectful attitude of male prison personnel towards her to the internal affairs
organs, inter alia, the head of the Interior Department of Lenin District and the head
of the Interior Division of the Regional Executive Committee of Brest. The author
also filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office and brought suits under both
civil and administrative procedures in the competent courts. Furthermore, after a
deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly submitted a
motion to the Ministry of the Interior in December 2007, the author was questioned
about detention conditions and violation of her rights, and the results were presented
to the Ministry of the Interior. The State party has not contested this information.
Therefore, the Committee considers that the author diligently pursued domestic
remedies, by addressing her complaints to the competent authorities of the internal
affairs organs, to the Prosecutor’s Office, as well as to the national courts. In the
light of the uncontested information provided by the author as regards the
__________________
1
2
11-51730
See communication No. 8/2005, Kayhan v. Turkey, decision of 27 January 2007
(CEDAW/C/34/D/8/2005), para. 7.7.
See communication No. 10/2005, N.S.F. v. The United Kingdom, decision of 30 May 2007
(CEDAW/C/38/D/10/2005), para. 7.3.
9