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United Nations CAT /C/GTM/CO/5-6/Add.1 Convention against Torture Distr.: General 19 August 2014 and Other Cruel, Inhuman English or Degrading Treatment Original: Spanish English and Spanish only or Punishment Committee against Torture Concluding observations on the fifth and sixth periodic reports of Guatemala Addendum Information received from Guatemala on follow-up to the concluding observations * [Date received: 17 July 2014] I. Introduction 1. On 9 January 2012, Guatemala responded to the list of issues prepared by the Committee against Torture prior to the submission of a report. That response comprised the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Guatemala (CAT/C/GTM/5-6), pursuant to the reporting procedure. In preparing that document, the Presidential Commission for Coordinating Executive Policy in the Field of Human Rights (COPREDEH) applied participatory methods, involving a number of State bodies, consulting them directly and in thematic workshops. These were forums for collective analysis and the sharing of experience and they publicized and disseminated international agreements in order to promote thinking and encourage compliance with commitments entered into by the State in relation with the international community. 2. The report was considered by the Committee at its 1142th and 1145th meetings (CAT/C/SR.1142 and 1145), held on 13 and 14 May 2013 at the Palais Wilson, Geneva. 3. At the request of the Committee, Guatemala presents the following document describing the measures and actions implemented in this area. * The present document is being issued without formal editing. GE.14-14166 (EXT) *1414166* CAT/C/GTM/CO/5-6/Add.1 II. Significant progress on the recommended national mechanism 4. Pursuant to article 17 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Committee against Torture was established and began work on 1 January 1988 as a United Nations body responsible for monitoring a legal instrument for protection against torture and other acts of cruelty. Its purpose is to strengthen the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms and it is empowered to carry out monitoring and investigation to ensure their effective enjoyment. 5. Through the Secretary-General of the United Nations, States parties report to the Committee on measures they have adopted in compliance with their obligations under the Convention. States parties are required to submit periodic reports every four years on any new provisions they have adopted. 1 6. Guatemala is a party to the Convention (which it ratified on 12 October 1989 by means of Congressional Decree No. 52-89) and to the Optional Protocol (approved by Decree No. 53-2007), whose instrument of ratification was deposited with the United Nations on 9 June 2008. In September 2003 Guatemala made a declaration relating to article 22 of the Convention, recognizing the competence of the Committee to receive individual complaints in cases of torture. 2 7. Pursuant to Congressional Decree No. 40-2010, the Act on the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted in conformity with article 17 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which requires each State party to maintain, designate or establish a national mechanism for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. That mechanism is designed to function as an independent body for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment through a system of periodic visits to places where persons deprived of their liberty are held. 8. That mechanism is the National Office for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which will have an advisory council. 9. The National Office will be commissioned by Congress and will serve as a collegiate body composed of five regular and five alternate rapporteurs, each elected for a period of five years. Two regular members may be re-elected for a period of five years and the other three for a period of three years. By means of Congressional Decree No. 10-2014, the following rapporteurs were elected: 1 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, art. 19. 2 Ibid. , art. 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 GE.14-14166 (EXT) CAT/C/GTM/CO/5-6/Add.1 Table 1 Regular and alternate rapporteurs of the National Office for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Regular Otto Mario Enrique Lucrecia Carlos Alberto Hilario Roderico members Marroquín Guerra Carrera Villalta Martínez Solórzano Pineda Sánchez (3 years) (3 years) (5 years) (5 years) (3 years) Alternates Anthony Giovanni María Elizabeth Iracema José Antonio Sandra Pivaral de León Ramos Aguilar Palacios Franco Meléndez Sandoval Shaw Díaz (3 years) (3 years) (5 years) (5 years) (3 years) 10. The National Office has been established since 25 March 2014, has been housed in temporary accommodation pending the allocation of resources for its functioning and has already made some progress in setting up its institutional structure. In first 40 working days of its operation, it had defined the content of its own institutional policies, the organizational and functional structure of the national mechanism and the budget for its implementation and initial functioning in 2014, for which it had taken measures to secure Congressional approval. 11. As part of the above tasks, it has defined the basic classification of the positions and salaries required for the functioning of its institutional platform, including delegates as required by law and by the Optional Protocol. On 26 May, a public invitation was addressed to civil society organizations to participate in the advisory council of the National Office. Work is in hand to finalize general regulations to complement and implement the mandates contained in Decree No. 40-2010 and the Optional Protocol. III. Follow-up to the recommendations of the Committee 12. In its concluding observations on the State party’s combined fifth and sixth periodic reports, the Committee requested that the State party should provide information by 31 May 2014 on action taken in response to the Committee’s recommendations in paragraphs 13, 14 and 18 of its concluding observations, which concerned the subjects of violence against women, human rights defenders and conditions of detention. A. Violence against women (paragraph 13 of the concluding observations) 1. Redouble its efforts to prevent and combat violence against women, including gender- related murder; ensure the full and effective application of the relevant legislation; and ensure effective coordination between the various bodies that have a role to play in tackling violence against women 13. The State refers to the actions and measures it is promoting and conducting through the Presidential Secretariat for Women to redouble its efforts to prevent and combat violence against women, including gender-based murder, through the following strategies: (a) Redouble its efforts to prevent and combat violence against women, including gender-related murder 14. In 2012-2013 the Presidential Secretariat for Women launched a joint initiative to formulate an inter-agency strategic plan for the prevention of violence against women, working with the Presidential Commission on Feminicide, the Department against Violence, Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons, the Programme for the Prevention and GE.14-14166 (EXT) 3 CAT/C/GTM/CO/5-6/Add.1 Elimination of Domestic Violence, the Justice Administration (Gender Analysis Unit, Judicial Unit, Office of the Chief Justice for Cases involving Feminicide or Other Forms of Violence against Women), the Public Prosecution Service, the Public Criminal Defence Institute, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Civil Police (NCP), the Office of the Counsel-General of the Nation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Women’s Civic and Political Coalition. This initiative was suspended and replaced by a new project at the regional level, the Regional Project for the Prevention of Violence against Women, Trafficking and Feminicide. Regional Project for the Prevention of Violence against Women, Trafficking and Feminicide 15. In order to help to create an atmosphere of improved security for persons and their property and promote sustainable human development, the heads of State and Government of the Central American Integration System (SICA), at their thirty-first Ordinary Meeting held in Guatemala on 12 December 2007, established a Central American security plan. Following that summit meeting, an intersectoral meeting of ministers of foreign affairs, public security/the interior and defence, directors of public prosecutions and police chiefs, held on 3 September 2010 at Antigua Guatemala, agreed that the security plan should be reviewed and updated, a process which was completed in 2011. 16. The project, focusing on specific actions to prevent all manifestations of violence against women and assist its victims,