PRO ASYL Presseerklärung | Press Release
June 12th, 2003
Individual appeal to United Nations Committee Against Torture by asylum seeker in Germany declared admissible for first time.
UN committee stops threatened deportation
- Erstmals Individualbeschwerde eines in Deutschland Asyl Suchenden vom Komitee gegen Folter der Vereinten Nationen für zulässig erklärt
UN-Komitee stoppt drohende Abschiebung - Individual appeal to United Nations Committee Against Torture by asylum seeker in Germany declared admissible for first time.
UN committee stops threatened deportation
INFO
(partially translated)
This is a machine translation by the IBM-supported PERSONAL TRANSLATOR plus. It is slightly edited by combining its results with the translation of SYSTRAN. But you should not rely on it. If you want to use a translated text append or reference the original text.
For the first time, on the 30th of August 2003, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) declared an individual appeal filed in Germany on the 10th of September 2002 by a Kurdish asylum seeker to be admissible. Only after October 2001 did the German government officially recognise the authority of the CAT to accept individual appeals in accordance with Article 22 of the Anti-Torture Covention – that is to say, after 17 long years of hesitation. The UN committee deemed that a forcible repatriation to Turkey would put the applicant in danger of being tortured as seen in accordance with Article 3 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This decision has averted danger for the time being.
Background information: Applying for asylum in Germany on the 21st of January, 1991, Mehmet K. , a turkish Kurd, made the statement that during a one-week long detention, he was tortured by Turkish police. Even after being released from custody, as a non-militant sympathizer of the PKK, he continued to remain in constant danger of persecution as well as facing a very real threat to life. His request for asylum, however, was not granted by the Hessian Adminstrative Court.
In January 2001, Mehmet K. filed a follow-up asylum application refering to his time in the Netherlands, where he was ideologically trained by the PKK for operations which were planned to take place in Turkey. Due to his entreaties, he was released from involvment in these operations. Nervertheless, his renewed application for asylum was rejected by the Federal Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees and the relevant Adminstrative Court. Having an opportunity to present these facts in a hearing before the Federal Office, he maintained that he did not dare reveal his support for the PKK, it being a banned political party in Germany. Immigration authorities raised the fact that K. took part in a motorway blockage in January 1995. Since the 7th of December 2002, he has had to live in a constant state of fear, threatened by deportation while simmultaneously awaiting his pending deportation. His subsequent constitutional appeal was turned down on the 30th of August, 2002. In the face of this continuing threat of torture, PRO ASYL has supported a recourse to the CAT.
The UN Committee Against Torture fully reviewed the facts. Finding in favour of this individual appeal has once again reaffirmed the high standing of human rights regarding an absolute ban on torture as seen in accordance with Article 3 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. We hope this decision will have a positive affect on inner-state practices concerning the examination of comparable cases, where the concrete threat of torture is real.
