Version as at
1 July 2023
2.
Crimes of Torture Act 1989
Schedule 1
The provisions of this article shall come into force when five States Parties to
this Convention have made declarations under paragraph 1 of this article. Such
declarations shall be deposited by the States Parties with the Secretary-General
of the United Nations, who shall transmit copies thereof to the other States
Parties. A declaration may be withdrawn at any time by notification to the
Secretary-General. Such a withdrawal shall not prejudice the consideration of
any matter which is the subject of a communication already transmitted under
this article; no further communication by any State Party shall be received
under this article after the notification of withdrawal of the declaration has
been received by the Secretary-General, unless the State Party concerned has
made a new declaration.
Article 22
1.
A State Party to this Convention may at any time declare under this article
that it recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider
communications from or on behalf of individuals subject to its jurisdiction
who claim to be victims of a violation by a State Party of the provisions of
the Convention. No communication shall be received by the Committee if it
concerns a State Party which has not made such a declaration.
2.
The Committee shall consider inadmissible any communication under this
article which is anonymous or which it considers to be an abuse of the right of
submission of such communications or to be incompatible with the provisions
of this Convention.
3.
Subject to the provisions of paragraph 2, the Committee shall bring any com‐
munications submitted to it under this article to the attention of the State
Party to this Convention which has made a declaration under paragraph 1
and is alleged to be violating any provisions of the Convention. Within six
months, the receiving State shall submit to the Committee written explanations
or statements clarifying the matter and the remedy, if any, that may have been
taken by that State.
4.
The Committee shall consider communications received under this article in
the light of all information made available to it by or on behalf of the indi‐
vidual and by the State Party concerned.
5.
The Committee shall not consider any communications from an individual
under this article unless it has ascertained that:
(a)
The same matter has not been, and is not being, examined under another
procedure of international investigation or settlement;
(b)
The individual has exhausted all available domestic remedies; this shall
not be the rule where the application of the remedies is unreasonably
prolonged or is unlikely to bring effective relief to the person who is the
victim of the violation of this Convention.
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