International Service for Human Rights

The 42nd session of the Committee against Torture (CAT) will take place in Geneva from 27 April – 15 May to examine Chad, Chile, Honduras, Israel, New Zealand, Nicaragua and the Philippines. Chad, Honduras and Nicaragua will be reporting to the Committee for the first time, a high number of initial State reports for a treaty body session.

Israel will be presenting its fourth State report alongside considerable civil society participation, with eight reports submitted to CAT and a high level of activity expected around its review. A likely focus will be the contrast between the State report, which does not deal with the 22-day Israeli military campaign at the end of 2008, and those of the NGOs which address this in detail in the context of both human rights and humanitarian law. Chile, Chad and New Zealand will also be examined by the Committee days before they are reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism of the Human Rights Council, which will provide an opportunity to assess how the respective bodies address many of the same issues.

Chad was also expected to be reviewed at the last session of the Human Rights Committee in March 2009, but requested to be considered in July 2009. Its ability to report effectively to CAT will therefore be followed closely. During the 42nd session the Committee will also meet with the Sub-Committee on Prevention of Torture and the Special Rapporteur on torture and consider State reporting guidelines under Article 19 of the Convention.

The schedule of the session is available on OHCHR's website .