[JURIST] The UN Committee against Torture [official website] has given Senegal 90 days to fulfill its obligations under the Convention Against Torture [text] to put former Chad President Hissene Habre [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on trial for torture crimes and rights offenses stemming from his 1982-90 rule in Chad or extradite him to Belgium where he has been charged with crimes against humanity [JURIST report] under Belgium's universal jurisdiction laws [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Habre has been living in exile in Senegal since 1990 and in 2005 Belgium issued an international arrest warrant on torture and murder charges. In November, a Senegal appeals court ruled that it was "not competent" to extradite Habre [JURIST report] to Belgium to face the charges.

In a ruling [PDF text, in French; press release] made public Friday, the UN committee said that by failing to bring Habre to justice or extraditing him to Belgium, Senegal had failed to live up to its obligations under Articles 5 and 7 of the convention. VOA has more.