On the margins of the 41st session of the Human Rights Council, the Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI) hosted a meeting for the delegates from Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) who are present in Geneva as beneficiaries of the UN Trust Fund to Support the Participation of LDCs and SIDS in the work of the HRC.

This meeting was hosted by the Permanent Representatives of two CTI Core States, H.E. Ramses Joseph Cleland of Ghana and H.E. Omar Zniber of Morocco. While exchanging on the particular constraints faced by small States, the CTI Ambassadors underlined that facing these constraints is one of the reasons why CTI was established, to facilitate cooperation between governments to overcome the obstacles that may stand in the way of ratifying and fully implementing the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT). They explained the different ways in which CTI operates to support States in a constructive manner, including technical seminars at country or regional level, study visits to Geneva, in-country visits by CTI delegations, as well as the CTI Secretariat’s remote “helpdesk” which offers technical assistance and answers to specific States’ queries, confidentially.

This discussion gathered delegates from 9 SIDS and LDCs from the Pacific, Caribbean and African regions, as well as additional CTI Core States, namely Chile, Denmark and Fiji, along with Mr. Marc Limon, Director of the Universal Rights Group (URG), Ms. Fatou Camara Houel, Coordinator of the SIDS/LDCs Trust Fund, and Dr. Alice Edwards, Head of the CTI Secretariat and other staff of the CTI Secretariat. The gathering was an opportunity for the participating delegates whose States have ratified the Convention to share their experiences on how to tackle possible challenges that the non-States-parties may face, as well as the positive developments that their countries have achieved after ratifying the Convention.

For States interested to learn more, please contact info@cti2024.org 

*States represented were The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Comoros, Dominica, The Gambia, Kiribati, Madagascar, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Nauru, plus Fiji (also CTI Core State).