UN Human Rights Treaties

UNITED   NATIONS
ECONOMIC
AND
SOCIAL COUNCIL
 
Distr. GENERAL
E/CN.4/l314/Add.2 31 January 1979
Original; ENGLISH
 
COMMISSION ON HUMAN EIGHTS
Thirty-fifth session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION" OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL PERSONS SUBJECTED TO ANY FORM OF DETENTION OR IMPRISONMENT, IN PARTICULAR;  (a) DRAFT CONVENTION ON TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT
Summary Prepared by  the Secretary-General in accordance with_ resolution. 18 of the Commission on Human Rights
Addendum
CONTENTS
 

Introduction       .....     
I.    General remarks (continued)      ......
II.    Comments on the draft articles (continued) ......
 
Page
 
E/CN.4/l314/Add.2 page 2
INTRODUCTION
1.    This report, which is the second addendum to the summary  prepared by the
Secretary-General in implementation of Commission on Human Rights
resolution 18 (XXXIV), sammarlz s further information recolved up to 31 January 1979.
2.    As of this date, the only additional comments received are those of the
Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on the Swedish draft international
convention on the protection of all persons from torture and other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment.
J.  GENERAL REMARKS (continued)
1.    The Federal Republic of Germany has welcomed the    Swedish initiative, considers
the draft convention submitted by Sweden to be a good    basis for debate and will
therefore support it daring subsequent discussions at    the Commission on Human Rights
and the General Assembly.
II.  COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT ARTICLES (continued)
Article 1
2.    Since the draft convention establishes legal obligations for States, the term
torture should be defined and distinguished as precisely as possible from the
marginally different term of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment,
The Federal Government felt that, in particular, it should be made clear that the
term "public official" contained m paragraph 1 refers not only to persons who,
regardless of their legal status, have been assigned public authority by State
organs on a permanent basis or in an individual case, but also to persons who, in
certain regions or' under particular conditions, actually hold and exercise authority
over others and whose authority is comparable to government authority or - be it
only temporarily - has replaced government authority or whose authority has beer-
derived from the aforementioned persons,
3,       The Federal Government believes it is re commendable not to refer to the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners in the definition contained in paragraph ] sentence 2.  They are  lower-ranking regulations which can be altered by non-legislative means and can therefore directly modify the contents of the convention.  Consequently, it proposed that the words "to the extent  to "Treatment of Prisoners'' be deleted.