Reelection of half members of the Committee Against Torture (CAT) took place in Geneva on 1 October 2013. In the election, as a Chinese candidate, Prof. Zhang Kening from the XMU South China Sea Institute won a membership of the CAT, together with other four candidates from Italy, Morocco, Denmark and Nepal respectively.

Prof. Zhang is a legal counselor of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, professor of the XMU South China Sea Institute and director of the XMU Center for Ocean Law and South and East China Sea. Meanwhile, he works as a part-time professor of the Law Schools of Peking University and Renmin University of China, cooperative faculty of the Research Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of Peking University Law School and guest professor of Zhejiang University Guanghua Law School. Previously, He served in the UN International Seabed Autority as the Chief Legal Officer. 

The Committee against Torture was founded in 1987 based on the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. At the aim of monitoring implementation of the Convention by State parties, the committee is composed of 10 independent experts who are elected for a term of four years by secret ballot among States parties.