GJC & OMCT Shadow Report to the Committee Against Torture
This submission sets out concerns over a United States policy that results in the systematic denial of safe abortion services to girls and women raped in war in contradiction with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The policy in question is a set of abortion restrictions that the US places on all of its foreign aid, without exception, including on humanitarian assistance to war victims. As a result of the overly narrow interpretation and implementation of these restrictions, US funds cannot be used for the provision of safe abortion services to girls and women raped in war. The restrictions also act to limit and censor abortion-related speech abroad. Accordingly, this submission calls on the Committee against Torture to reaffirm that the denial of access to safe abortion services violates CAT and to recognize that US abortion restrictions on foreign assistance stand in conflict with the Convention