III. The principle of non-refoulement

39. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to draw attention to factors and circumstances that stem from conditions that may prevail in a country and touch at the same time upon the vulnerability of persons whose removal to such a country is at stake. Reference is made here to persons belonging to any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other grounds, such as sexual orientation, and who for that reason are targeted by the authorities or, with the connivance of the authorities, risk being subjected to persecution or systematic discrimination amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. These factors and circumstances also have to be taken into account in determining the non-refoulement issue.

link to the full text of the Report: Report-SR Torture-2004-eng