Symposium : State Immunity in Civil Proceedings for Serious Violations of Human Rights

• Hall, Christopher Keith

Abstract

The universal criminal jurisdiction provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (‘the Convention’) which require each state party to extradite or submit any case involving a foreigner in territory subject to its jurisdiction suspected of torture committed abroad against another foreigner to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution. What is not generally known is that Article 14 of the Convention, which contains no geographic restriction, requires each state party to ensure in its legal system that any victim of an act of torture, regardless of where it occurred, obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. Despite two recent decisions, one by a Canadian court and the other by the House of Lords, which erroneously asserted the contrary, an authoritative interpretation by the Committee against Torture, the ordinary meaning of the wording of Article 14, the structure of the Convention, and the drafting history all confirm that Article 14 applies to torture committed abroad regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim.