CCPR/C/131/D/3069/2017 Annex II Individual opinion by Committee member Furuya Shuichi (partially dissenting) 1. I am in agreement with the conclusion in the Views that as the State party failed to adequately assess the author’s risk of returning to Afghanistan because of his father’s alleged threats of revenge and his trauma due to parental abuse, his removal to Afghanistan by the State party would constitute a violation of articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant. However, I am unable to concur with its conclusion that the author has failed to demonstrate that the State party’s examination of the author’s conversion to Christianity was arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable, or that the proceedings in question amounted to a procedural error or denial of justice (para. 9.6). 2. According to the jurisprudence of the Committee, it is generally for the organs of a State party to examine the facts and evidence of the case in question in order to determine whether a real risk of irreparable harm exists when a person leaves for the country of his or her origin, unless it can be established that the assessment was clearly arbitrary or amounted to a manifest error or denial of justice. 1 This means that, in deportation cases, the Committee generally respects the assessment by the State party of the substantive aspects of risks, while it may deal with apparent procedural defects or errors in that assessment as the basis for finding violations of the Covenant. In addition, the Committee has taken the position in assessing the risk of conversion that the test is whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the conversion of a person may have serious adverse consequences in the country to which he or she is deported such as to create a real risk of irreparable harm, irrespective of the sincerity of the conversion. Accordingly, as is pointed out in paragraph 9.5, even when the reported conversion is found not to be sincere, the authorities of the State party should proceed to assess whether, in the circumstances of the case, the behaviour and activities of the asylum seeker in connection with his or her conversion could have sufficiently serious adverse consequences in the country of origin as to put him or her at risk of irreparable harm.2 3. In the present case, the State party concedes in general that, according to the Swedish Migration Board’s report in December 2017, in Afghanistan an apostate risks being disowned by his or her family and killed by others in society without judicial process; that mere accusations of apostasy can provoke violence; and that people who lack a social network are particularly vulnerable without support. Further, it notes that the assessment must focus on the foreseeable consequences to the author of his expulsion to Afghanistan in the light of his personal circumstances and emphasizes that the author has the burden of proof to plausibly demonstrate that he is at risk of persecution (para. 4.6). Nevertheless, the State party contests the claim that the author’s conversion was based on genuine faith, as it was submitted at a very late stage of the asylum proceedings and, on the ground of the insincerity of his conversion, it denies the risk that he will be persecuted upon his return to Afghanistan. 4. However, the State party has not made any individualized assessment of the risk that the author would be subject to persecution or other ill-treatments in Afghanistan if he is regarded as an apostate (even if he has not genuinely converted to Christianity). It has also denied him an oral interview, despite the author’s request to be heard in an oral procedure. In my view, this denial substantially deprived the author of the opportunity to demonstrate that he would be subject to the risk of persecution because of his conversion. In that regard, the author has repeatedly and sufficiently alleged this procedural defect (paras. 3.2, 5.4 and 5.9). 1 2 K v. Denmark, para. 7.4; Q.A. v. Sweden, para. 9.5; A.E. v. Sweden, para. 9.3. S.A.H. v. Denmark, para. 11.8; J.I. v. Sweden, para. 7.5; Q.A. v. Sweden, para. 9.5. 15