CAT/C/KOR/CO/3-5
(b)
Provide prompt access to adequate and specialized medical care,
including in outside medical facilities, to all inmates who need it;
(c)
Ensure that all cases of suicides or sudden deaths in custody, including
suicides of persons under investigation by police and prosecutors, are investigated
promptly, thoroughly, effectively and impartially, prosecute those responsible for
violations of the Convention, including persons suspected of having committed acts of
torture, physical or psychological ill-treatment and wilful negligence and, if found
guilty, punish them in accordance with the gravity of their acts;
(d)
Ensure independent forensic examinations in all cases of death in
custody, provide autopsy reports to the family members of the deceased and, if
requested, permit them to commission independent autopsies;
(e)
Ensure that the courts in the State party accept the results of
independent forensic examinations and autopsies as evidence in criminal and civil
cases;
(f)
Provide the Committee with data on all deaths in custody, disaggregated
by the facility in which the deceased was detained, the age and sex of the victim and
the outcome of the inquiry into the deaths in custody, as well as data on any redress
provided to relatives, and inform the Committee of any investigation undertaken
during the period under review into deaths alleged to be the result of torture, illtreatment or wilful negligence.
Death penalty
29.
While noting the effective moratorium on the application of the death penalty since
1997, the Committee is concerned that death sentences continue to be imposed by courts
and that there were some 61 persons on death row at the end of 2016 (arts. 2, 4 and 16).
30.
The Committee invites the State party to:
(a)
Consider abolishing the death penalty and ratifying the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty;
(b)
Commute all death sentences to prison terms, ensure that prisoners who
were formerly on death row benefit from the same regime as all other prisoners and
guarantee their basic rights and needs in accordance with international standards.
Involuntary hospitalization in psychiatric institutions
31.
The Committee is concerned:
(a)
At reports that large numbers of persons with mental and psychosocial
disabilities who do not present a threat to themselves or others are placed involuntarily in
psychiatric institutions;
(b)
That the grounds for involuntary hospitalization are excessively broad and
that the Constitutional Court has ruled that article 24 (1) and (2) of the Mental Health Act is
unconstitutional since the provisions contained therein do not serve as a proper legal basis
for minimizing the infringement of a mentally ill patient’s personal freedom;
(c)
That procedural safeguards regarding involuntary placement in psychiatric
institutions are insufficient and inadequate (arts. 2, 10-14 and 16).
32.
The State party should:
(a)
Ensure that involuntary psychiatric hospitalization is strictly necessary,
proportionate, applied as a measure of last resort and under the effective supervision
and independent monitoring of judicial organs;
(b)
Consider amending the Mental Health Act with a view to bringing it
fully into line with the Constitution;
8