General comment no. 3 UN Committee for the Prevention of Torture
The Committee against Torture, the United Nations treaty body entrusted with monitoring compliance with the Convention Against Torture as well as the interpretation of its provisions, adopted the General Comment No. 3, which defines the obligations of States towards torture victims. These include states obligation to ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible, guarantees of non-repetition, and right to truth. Although general comments are not legally binding, they exceed the advisory nature when dealing with the interpretation of international norms, and when determining the scope and content of certain articles of the Convention.
On the occasion of the acquittal by the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the partial re-trial in Haradinaj et al, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) holds that neither the initial trial nor the partial re-trial in this case have brought justice to the victims of the crimes listed in the indictments. In addition, this procedure has been particularly burdened by a number of deficiencies with regard to witness protection and lack of professionalism of investigators in gathering evidence.
After the Appeals Judgment for Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Croatia highlights that even 17 years later, the most serious crimes committed during the operation “Storm” are without punishment while the victims are without justice and recognition.
On the occasion of adopting a non-appealable verdict, brought by the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY, which releases Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač from custody, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past wants to, once more, emphasize the need to bear in mind families of victims and not let the crimes committed during the operation ‘Storm’ remain a tragedy without an epilogue.