UN human rights treaty bodies
The Committee against Torture was surprisingly cautious about third party responsibility in its own rendition case, Agiza v. Sweden (Communication No. 233/2003, Decision of 20 May 2005). The case concerned the rendition by the CIA of an Egyptian individual from Sweden to Egypt. Before the CAT, the case was framed as one about non-refoulement (article 3 of the Convention against Torture), and the question of Agiza’s treatment by CIA agents on Swedish soil was not addressed. Keeping quiet about the USA and when assessing only the non-refoulement issue, the CAT also steered clear from assessing any action by Egypt, restricting itself only to what was foreseeable for Sweden at the time of removal:
9.4 The Committee noted that Egypt has not made the declaration provided for under article 22 recognizing the Committee’s competence to consider individual complaints against that State party. The Committee observed, however, that a finding, as requested by the complainant, that torture had in fact occurred following the complainant’s removal to Egypt (see paragraph 5.8), would amount to a conclusion that Egypt, a State party to the Convention, had breached its obligations under the Convention without it having had an opportunity to present its position. This separate claim against Egypt was thus inadmissible ratione personae.
The companion case of Alzery v. Sweden was subsequently decided by the Human Rights Committee (Communication No. 1416/2005, Views of 25 October 2006), on the basis of richer factual information and including a separate complaint about ill-treatment on Swedish soil prior to the complainant’s removal. The Committee made explicit references to the United States and the CIA in the narrative parts of its Views but not in its conclusion. Sweden was found complicit in such treatment by foreign agents on Swedish soil that triggered a violation of ICCPR article 7 by itself:
