South Africa condemned for torture and ill-treatment

Geneva, 26 November 2012. The Human Rights Committee has established in the case McCallum v. South Africa that the State party had violated several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by subjecting Mr. McCallum to acts of torture and ill-treatment at the St. Alban’s Maximum Correctional Facility. The OMCT calls upon the State of South Africa to effectively implement this decision.

OMCT is concerned about the obstacles for a full implementation of the Human Rights Committee’s Views on the individual communication submitted on behalf of Mr. McCallum against South Africa (Communication No. 1818/2008). While detained in St. Alban’s Maximum Correctional Facility of the Eastern Cape, Mr. McCallum was a victim of acts of torture and ill-treatment inflicted upon him and other inmates by the prison warders during July 2005. After the assault, the St. Alban’s Maximum Correctional facility was placed in a lock-down and Mr. McCallum was denied medical treatment for several months.

On 25 October 2010, the Human Rights Committee concluded that South Africa has violated the ICCPR article 7 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment) alone and read in conjunction with articles 10.1 (humane treatment of detainees) and 2.3.a (the right to an effective remedy) in the case McCallum v. South Africa. The Committee ordered the State party to conduct a thorough and complete investigation and prosecution of those who are responsible, and to provide the victim with adequate compensation.

According to Mr. Egon Oswald, the victim’s counsel, “South Africa has not undertaken serious efforts to proceed to its implementation and has had an inactive and reluctant attitude during both the procedure before the Committee and the implementation of the decision.” A criminal investigation has been reinstituted and is currently conducted by a single investigator of the local police station, who is the same person who was unable to fully investigate the allegations of the detainees when they submitted their complaints in 2005. Requests to the police for an investigation of the case on a national level by better resourced, experienced and skilled investigators, as the complexities of the case require, have been denied.

Equally, Mr. Oswald has started a civil case for damages on behalf of Mr. McCallum and 230 other alleged victims of torture and ill-treatment at St. Alban’s Correctional Facility, but the South African authorities have been reluctant during this procedure by insisting on the inadmissibility of the case.

OMCT calls upon the South African authorities to fully engage in the effective implementation of the Human Rights Committee’s Views by undertaking a prompt, thorough and complete investigation and prosecution those who are responsible, and by providing Mr. McCallum and the other victims with full and adequate compensation. OMCT would like to stress the importance of ensuring the full respect of the fundamental rights enshrined in the ICCPR and other human rights instruments to which South Africa is a State party as part of its obligations under international human rights law.

For further information, please contact:
OMCT, + 41 (0) 22 809 4939