CAT/C/JOR/CO/3
the Committee is concerned that non-governmental organizations are not granted access to
correctional and rehabilitation centres (arts. 2, 11 and 16).
32.
The State party should ensure that the National Centre for Human Rights is
granted access to all detention facilities and is able to carry out unannounced and
regular visits to all such facilities. Alternatively, the State party should establish an
independent monitoring mechanism with the mandate to carry out regular and
unannounced visits to all places of detention. The Committee calls on the State party
to closely study the recommendations put forward by the Centre following its visits to
detention facilities and to take appropriate steps to implement the recommendations,
including and in particular where allegations of torture or ill-treatment are raised in
the reports. To that end, the State party should increase the resources allocated to the
Centre so as to enable it to discharge its role effectively. The Committee encourages
the State party to grant NGOs access to places of detention. It also invites the State
party to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention.
Complaint and investigation mechanisms
33.
The Committee is concerned about the State party’s continuous failure to establish
an independent mechanism to investigate ill-treatment and allegations of torture. In that
regard, it is concerned that existing complaints mechanisms, such as submitting a complaint
to the Director of the prison or to the Legal Affairs Department or the Grievances and
Human Rights Office of the Public Security Directorate, lack confidentiality and fail to
protect complainants and witnesses, while existing investigation bodies, principally the
public prosecutor, lack the necessary independence as they are in the same structure that
employs the alleged perpetrators. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned about reports
that inmates and prisoners are pressured not to not lodge complaints or to withdraw their
complaints, otherwise complainants risk being subjected to reprisals. The Committee is also
concerned that only a few complaints of ill-treatment or torture have led to prosecution and
none has resulted in a conviction (arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16).
34.
The Committee urges the State party to:
(a)
Establish an independent complaint and investigation mechanism that
complies with the requirement of institutional independence in order to avoid conflict
of interest in the investigation of complaints by peers;
(b)
Ensure that all complaints of torture or ill-treatment are promptly
investigated in an impartial manner and that suspected perpetrators are duly tried
and, if found guilty, punished in a manner that is commensurate with the gravity of
their acts;
(c)
Ensure that the authorities conduct investigations on their own initiative,
whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that an act of torture or illtreatment has been committed;
(d)
Ensure that alleged perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment are
immediately suspended from duty for the duration of the investigation;
(e)
Ensure that complainants are protected against any ill-treatment,
intimidation or reprisals as a consequence of their complaint and that appropriate
disciplinary or, where relevant, criminal measures are taken against law enforcement
officials for such actions.
Anti-terrorism measures
35.
The Committee is concerned that the amendments introduced to the Anti-Terrorism
Law No. 55 in 2014 broadened the already vague definition of terrorist acts and expanded
7