TNAG-2321-FCO40-3365-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 11

offence of torture under the relevant United Kingdom legislation or from paragraph 6 what constituted assault and whether the definitions corresponded to those of international law.

Concerning article 3 of the Convention, paragraph 25 of the report referred to the provisions of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and stated that "no one is deported or removed to a country in which he would have a 'well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion"". However, a person could well not be persecuted for those reasons and still risk being tortured. The Convention against Torture and the 1951 Convention did not overlap. Perhaps the delegation could specify, how the United Kingdom implemented article 3 of the Convention and whether the statement in paragraph 20 of the report that "This discretion is exercised in accordance with the requirements of article 3", relating to extradition, also covered expulsion and refoulement.

55. The text of section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 was also necessary as far as articles 5 and 7 of the Convention were concerned, since it contained provisions on the jurisdiction of the courts.

connection, she wished to know whether an alien who had committed an act of torture abroad against another alien and had been arrested in the

United Kingdom could be tried in the United Kingdom if he was not extradited and, if so, whether the game was true in Northern Ireland.

56.

Turning to article 11 of the Convention and the specific powers of detention for up to seven days held by the police in Northern Ireland, she said that she believed that, following a case brought before the European Court of Human Rights, the United Kingdom had exercised its powers of derogation. However, there were risks in the fact that detainees in Northern Ireland did not have immediate access to a lawyer and that there was no provision for a visit by an independent doctor. That those risks existed was borne out by the number of complaints concerning ill-treatment in conditions of solitary confinement designed to extract confessions in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom where exceptional legislation restricted the safeguards provided for in article 11 and where the usual traditions of the United Kingdom did not obtain. She asked for a frank statement by the United Kingdom delegation on that point.

57. Referring to article 12 of the Convention relating to investigations, she asked for clarification of the statement in paragraph 77 of the report that the provision and practice in Scotland and Northern Ireland were "broadly comparable" with those elsewhere in the United Kingdom and whether complaints against the police were dealt with by the police or by another authority.

58. She asked whether statements by witnesses that had been extorted by force were withdrawn from the record as required by article 15 of the Convention. From section 8 of the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1978, it seemed that article 15 of the Convention did apply in Northern Ireland, but she wondered whether cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment was also covered by that section.