(s) The State party should develop official programmes for the rehabilitation of victims of torture. Thus far, only private institutions have developed such programmes; (t) The State party should urge the Republic of Montenegro to adopt those guarantees contained in the new Code of Criminal Procedure that are relevant for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. VI. ADOPTION OF THE REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE AND TRANSMISSION TO THE STATE PARTY 214. At its twenty-ninth session, the Committee adopted the report on its inquiry and decided to transmit it to the State party, in accordance with article 20, paragraph 4, of the Convention. The Committee invited the State party, under rule 83, paragraph 2, of its rules of procedure, to inform it of the action taken in response to its conclusions and recommendations. VII. SUMMARY OF THE REPLY FROM THE STATE PARTY 215. On 13 October 2003 the State party informed the Committee that its recommendations were very important in the context of the promotion of human rights to be conducted under the programmes of technical assistance to be provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and on the basis of the memorandum of understanding signed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro and the Office of the High Commissioner. Safeguards against torture and other forms of inadmissible punishment 216. The Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Liberties, published in the Official Gazette of the State Union No. 6/2003, provides in its article 12 not only for the prohibition of torture, but also for an explicit prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In this sense, it constitutes a step forward with respect to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Constitutions of the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro. 217. The Basic Criminal Code of Serbia and Montenegro and the criminal codes of the member States incriminate unlawful arrest, extraction of statements and maltreatment in the performance of duty. At the time of the adoption of the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now the Basic Criminal Code) in 2001 it was considered that the international obligations under the Convention were incorporated in articles 190 and 191, as well as in articles 65 and 66 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia and articles 47 and 48 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Montenegro. Furthermore, article 12 of the 2001 Code of Criminal Procedure states that any violence against an arrested person and a person whose freedom is limited, as well as any extraction of confession or any other statement from an accused or any other person participating in the proceedings are prohibited and punishable. Other provisions of the Code regarding interrogation, prohibition of the use of force, the obligation of the court not to take into account statements obtained under torture and to remove from the case records statements obtained in contravention of the prohibitions, etc. are also referred to. 84

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents