TNAG-2321-FCO40-3365-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 291

11/21791

15:53

NO.579

P003/015

CAT/

page

.91

The meeting was called to order at 10.05 a.m.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION (agenda item 4) (continued)

Initial report of the United Kingdom (CAT/C/9/Add.6)

At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr. Morris, Mr. Caffrey.

and Mrs. Evans (United Kingdom) took places at the Committee table.

1.

Mr. MORRIS (United Kingdom) said that, since the submission of the initial report of the United Kingdom (CAT/C/9/Add.6) in March 1991, there had been some significant developments that he wished to mention.

2.

3. His delegation recognized that the Committee might wish to discuss a number of issues in the course of the meeting and it would try to be as informative and helpful as possible. Its comments would, of course, be without prejudice to any formal legal view his Government might have about the scope and interpretation of the Convention.

4.

G

In preparing the initial report, his Government had tried to explain as fully as possible the range of legal provisions and other measures through which the United Kingdom sought to meet its obligations under the Convention. That was not an entirely straightforward task given that the United Kingdom comprised what were in effect three separate jursidictions England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Whatever the differences in the various legal systems, however, the same principles applied in all parts of the country and it was considered essential that the report should set out clearly the arrangements in each one. That had contributed to the delay in the submission of the initial report, for which he apologized to the Committee.

5.

The United Kingdom took its obligations under the Convention seriously and continued to pride itself on being a country where the freedoms of the individual were protected. However, United Kingdom Governments had not been complacent about those arrangements and, where it had been found that further measures were needed to improve the protection of rights, legislation and procedures had been revised and amended accordingly. By way of example, he said that a number of specific measures had been adopted which had a close bearing on the concerns of the Committee; some of those measures had been covered in the initial report, while others were more recent.

6. United Kingdom law had always taken a serious view of crimes against the person and those who had committed acts amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment were capable of being charged with a range of offences, many carrying heavy sentences. However, the Criminal Justice Act 1988 had added to United Kingdom law by creating a specific offence of torture based on the definition of torture contained in the Convention. The United Kingdom had also ratified the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which had entered into force at the beginning of February 1989.