Why Facilities Holding Transferred People Fall Within OPCAT Monitoring
A facility holding people transferred from another state is a place of detention like any other. In an OPCAT State Party it falls within the National Preventive Mechanism's visiting mandate.
Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, arts. 1, 4, 19, 20; Convention against Torture, art. 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 9.
Special Rapporteur on Torture: Assessments Must Cover the Whole Chain of Transfer
On 28 July 2026 the UN Special Rapporteur on torture addressed states overhauling their removal systems, emphasising individualised assessment and analysis of the entire chain of transfer.
OHCHR, 'No shortcuts around torture ban as governments overhaul removal systems, UN expert warns', Special Rapporteur on torture, 28 July 2026.
UN Experts Urge Torture-Risk Assessment Before Any Transfer to a Third Country
Seven United Nations special procedures mandates issued a joint statement on 8 July 2025 urging that torture risks be assessed before any person is transferred to a country other than their own.
OHCHR, 'UN experts alarmed by resumption of US deportations to third countries, warn authorities to assess risks of torture', joint statement of seven special procedures mandates, 8 July 2025.
Constructive Refoulement: When a Return Recorded as Voluntary Is Not a Free Choice
International law prohibits achieving by pressure what a state may not order directly. Where detention, destitution or indefinite limbo leave a protected person no real alternative to returning, the departure is not voluntary in law.
International Law Commission, Draft Articles on the Expulsion of Aliens (2014), art. 10(1); UNHCR, Voluntary Repatriation: International Protection; Committee against Torture, general comment on the implementation of article 3; EJIL:Talk!, 'Does international law prohibit constructive refoulement?'; International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 419.Court and administrative decisions
Decided by international bodies, such as the UN treaty bodies, latest first.
- H.D. v. GermanyUN Committee against Torture · November 14, 2025
- Z.A. and others v. GermanyUN Committee against Torture · November 1, 2024
- Abichou v. GermanyUN Committee against Torture · May 21, 2013