Australia congratulates the Special Rapporteur on her recent appointment, the first woman in this position.  We welcome an Australian to this position, and look forward to your engagement on this important issue, and bringing forward the voices and perspective of our region.

We welcome the Special Rapporteur’s statement with the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions on World Day Against the Death Penalty earlier this week [10 October], recognising the interplay between the death penalty, torture and extrajudicial killings, in line with this year’s theme: a road paved with torture.

Australia strongly condemns widespread and unconstrained torture, ill-treatment and other war crimes perpetrated as deliberate military strategies in today’s conflicts.  We also strongly condemn torture and other inhumane practices in the name of counter-terrorism and fighting extremism.  There is never an excuse for breaching the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment, which applies at all times, for all people.

Australia looks forward to the Special Rapporteur bringing her expertise and experience in working for the human rights of women and girls and for a world without discrimination to this mandate.  We recognise the particular abuses of women and girls, as well as LGBTI persons, including sexual and gender-based violence.  We thank the Special Rapporteur for her work on establishing the legal doctrine that rape and sexual violence are forms of torture and persecution.

Australia welcomes the Special Rapporteur’s plans to integrate gender and apply feminist techniques and methods to her mandate, the basic premise of which is inclusion, diversity, equity and equality of rights, and can be transferable to minority, marginalised, disadvantaged or under-represented groups.

We strongly support the Special Rapporteur’s focus on investigations.  Australia endorsed the Mendez Principles in December 2021, which provide a key instrument to prevent torture during investigations.  Research shows that traditional interrogation methods are not only unreliable and counterproductive but often violate human rights.  The Mendez Principles offer an alternative to the use of coercion and torture to protect the dignity and human rights of persons suspected of crimes, as well as victims and witnesses.

Special Rapporteur, what can States, as well as civil society, do to assist with these plans for your mandate?