The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) was adopted on 4 February 1985 and entered into force in 1989. Its aim is the protection of individuals against particular kinds of abuses perpetrated by public officials establishing a general prohibition of torture and inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment. For the purposes of the Convention, torture is defined as follows:
“any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions”.
The prohibition of torture is absolute: according to Art. 2 of the Convention, no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. Moreover, it obliges each State Party to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
By contrast, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment are not defined by the Convention and their prohibition is not absolute.
The Committee Against Torture
The Committee Against Torture was established to verify the respect of the obligations enshrined by the Convention. In addition to considering the reports submitted by States Parties, the Committee’s functions can be summarized as follows:
- elaborating General Comments on the interpretation of the Convention provisions for a better implementation by State parties. For example, the first General Comment was dedicated to the prohibition of non-refoulement in order to guide States parties in avoiding to expel or extradite a person that may risk to be tortured or ill-treated in the territory of his/her final destination.
- setting up inquiries if the Committee receives information on systematic practice of torture in a State party. This procedure is extremely confidential and can be exerted only if the State in question accepted the related competence and cooperate with the Committee’s inquire. It may consist also in a visit in the country by the experts selected by the Committee and ends with a report that is published in the annual report of the Committee only with the agreement of the State in question.
- receiving and considering communications by individuals (Art. 22) or by other States parties (Art. 21) who allege that the rights protected by the Convention have been violated (see, for more information, the individual complaint procedure).
In 2006 an Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture entered into force. It established a Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture that works in cooperation with the Committee Against Torture and represents the core body of a mechanism of protection whose aim is to set up “a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
Useful links
- the Committee, its activities and its rules of procedures
www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/index.htm
- the status of ratifications
www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm