CAT/C/43/D/331/2007
on account of his PA-Amasekanya membership. Lastly, the Committee notes that the risk
of the complainant being arrested on his return to Burundi is substantiated only by a letter
from the President of the Ligue burundaise des droits de l’homme dated 10 January 2007,
which mentions only a risk of imprisonment and not a substantial, real and personal risk of
torture. The complainant refers to the disappearance of his brother but provides no evidence
thereof.14 In the light of the above, the Committee considers that the complainant has not
been able to provide objective evidence of a personal, real and present risk of torture upon
return to Burundi.
7.8
The Committee notes that the complainant submitted his arguments and supporting
evidence to the various State party authorities. It also notes the State party’s observation
that, in the absence of procedural irregularities, the Committee should not substitute its own
findings of fact for those of the Canadian authorities. The Committee nevertheless observes
that, while it gives considerable weight to findings of fact made by the organs of the State
party, it has the power of free assessment of the facts arising in the circumstances of each
case.15 In the present case, the Committee notes that the complainant believes that obvious
errors and serious irregularities did occur in the procedure concerning refugee status and
that, because of those irregularities, the risk of torture in the event of deportation was not
assessed. However, the Committee notes that the risk in question was in fact assessed in the
PRRA officer’s decision dated 28 October 2006, in the light of all the elements of the case
file made available to him. Moreover, the fact that the complainant was not called to a
hearing is not of itself a procedural irregularity insofar as his arguments were considered by
the Canadian authorities. Accordingly, the evidence received by the Committee does not
show that the State party’s examination of the complainant’s allegations was flawed.
7.9
Lastly, the Committee must reiterate that, for the purposes of article 3 of the
Convention, the individual concerned must face a foreseeable, real and personal risk of
being tortured. On the basis of the above, the Committee considers that the complainant has
not substantiated his claim that he faces a real and imminent risk of being subjected to
torture upon his return to Burundi.
7.10 The Committee against Torture, acting under article 22, paragraph 7, of the
Convention, considers that the complainant has not substantiated his claim that he would be
tortured upon return to Burundi and therefore concludes that the complainant’s removal to
that country would not constitute a breach of article 3 of the Convention.
[Adopted in English, French, Russian and Spanish, the French text being the original
version. Subsequently to be issued also in Arabic and Chinese as part of the Committee’s
annual report to the General Assembly.]
14
15
10
No copy of a missing person notice, for example.
Communication No. 258/2004, Dadar v. Canada, Views adopted on 23 November 2005, para. 8.8.
GE.09-46723