The UN's Committee Against Torture, set up under the UN Convention Against Torture to monitor implementation of the Convention, has released a revised General Comment on the implementation of Article 3 of the Convention. Article 3 is the obligation of non-refoulement, i.e. that states must not extradite, deport or otherwise return individuals to a state where they will face torture. General Comment No. 4, as it is now called, contains some revised and updated views of the Committee regarding the contours of the non-refoulement obligation.
States parties to the Convention were invited to submit views on a draft of the new General Comment, and 23 states (including Canada) did so. The views, the Committee's reactions, and how all of this is reflected in the Comment are helpfully canvassed in the first of what is promised to be a two-part blog post on the always-lively and informative EJIL Talk! blog. This will be of interest to those who follow the development of non-refoulement as a human rights norm, those interested in the evolution of standards in transnational criminal cooperation, as well as methodology geeks like me who monitor the development of state practice around interpretation and enforcement of treaty obligations.
Book reference: Chapter 10, International Criminal Cooperation, Human Rights, and the Application of the Charter