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jus cogens
.
336
Issues concerning torture have come before a number of human rights
organs, such as the Human Rights Committee,
337
the European Court of
Human Rights
338
and the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former
Yugoslavia.
339
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment was signed on 10 December
1984 and entered into force in 1987. It built particularly upon the
333
See e.g. M. Nowak and E. McArther,
The UN Convention Against Torture: A Commentary
,
Oxford, 2008; A. Byrnes, ‘The Committee Against Torture’ in Alston,
United Nations
and Human Rights
, p. 509; R. Bank, ‘Country-Oriented Procedures under the Conven-
tion against Torture: Towards a New Dynamism’ in Alston and Crawford,
Future
, p. 145;
Rehman,
International Human Rights Law
, chapter 15; N. Rodley,
The Treatment of Pris-
oners under International Law
, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1999; A. Boulesbaa,
The UN Convention
on Torture and Prospects for Enforcement
, The Hague, 1999; M. Evans, ‘Getting to Grips
with Torture’, 51 ICLQ, 2002, p. 365; J. Burgers and H. Danelius,
The United Nations
Convention against Torture
, Boston, 1988; Meron,
Human Rights in International Law
, pp.
126–30, 165–6, 511–15; S. Ackerman, ‘Torture and Other Forms of Cruel and Unusual
Punishment in International Law’, 11
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
, 1978, p.
653; Amnesty International,
Torture in the Eighties
, London, 1984; A. Dormenval, ‘UN
Committee Against Torture: Practice and Perspectives’, 8 NQHR, 1990, p. 26; Z. Haquani,
‘La Convention des Nations Unies Contre la Torture’, 90 RGDIP, 1986, p. 127; N. Lerner,
‘The UN Convention on Torture’, 16
Israel Yearbook on Human Rights
, 1986, p. 126, and R.
St J. Macdonald, ‘International Prohibitions against Torture and other Forms of Similar
Treatment or Punishment’ in
International Law at a Time of Perplexity
(ed. Y. Dinstein),
Dordrecht, 1987, p. 385.
334
See e.g. article 5 of the Universal Declaration; article 7 of the Civil and Political Rights
Covenant; article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights; article 5 of the Inter-
American Convention on Human Rights; article 5 of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights; the UN Convention against Torture, 1984; the European Convention
on the Prevention of Torture, 1987 and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and
Punish Torture, 1985.
335
See e.g. the four Geneva Red Cross Conventions, 1949 and the two Additional Protocols
of 1977.
336
See e.g.
Ex parte Pinochet (No. 3)
[2000] 1 AC 147, 198; 119 ILR, p. 135 and the
Furundˇzija
case, 121 ILR, pp. 213, 260–2. See also
Al-Adsani
v.
UK
, European Court of Human Rights,
Judgment of 21 November 2001, para. 61; 123 ILR, pp. 24, 41–2.
337
See e.g.
Vuolanne
v.
Finland
, 265/87, 96 ILR, p. 649, and generally Joseph
et al.
,
Interna-
tional Covenant
, chapter 9.
338
See e.g.
Selmouni
v.
France
, Judgment of 28 July 1999.
339
See e.g. the
Delali´c
case, IT-96-21, Judgment of 16 November 1998.
t h e p r o t e c t i o n o f h u m a n r i g h t s
327
Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from being subjected to
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punish-
ment adopted by the General Assembly in 1975.
340
Other relevant instru-
ments preceding the Convention were the Standard Minimum Rules for
the Treatment of Prisoners, 1955, the Code of Conduct for Law Enforce-
ment Officers, 1979 (article 5) and the Principles of Medical Ethics, 1982
(Principles 1 and 2).
341
Torture is defined in article 1 of the Convention against Torture to
mean:
[a]ny 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 the 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 states parties to the Convention are under duties
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