Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1984 in resolution 39/46 and entered into force on 26 June 1987. Its preamble grounds it in the UN Charter's recognition of equal and inalienable rights, in Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which already prohibited torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and in the 1975 Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture. States Parties describe themselves as desiring to make more effective the struggle against torture, which is the honest description of what the Convention adds: not a new prohibition, but machinery behind an existing one.

Article 1 defines torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining information or a confession, punishing, intimidating or coercing, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when inflicted by or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. Pain or suffering arising only from lawful sanctions is excluded, and the article is without prejudice to any instrument of wider application.

Article 2 is where the Convention states its absolute character. Each State Party must take effective measures to prevent torture in any territory under its jurisdiction, and no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, including a state of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked to justify it. An order from a superior officer or a public authority is likewise no justification. Article 3 adds the non-refoulement rule: no State Party may expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing they would be in danger of torture, and in assessing that danger the authorities must take account of any consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass human rights violations in the receiving State.

Articles 4 to 9 turn the prohibition into criminal law with international reach. States must make torture, attempted torture and complicity or participation in torture offences under their criminal law, punishable by penalties reflecting their grave nature. Jurisdiction must be established over offences committed in a State's territory, aboard its registered ships and aircraft, by its nationals, at its discretion against its nationals, and over any alleged offender present in its territory whom it does not extradite. A State where an alleged torturer is present must take that person into custody or other legal measures, make a preliminary inquiry and notify interested States, and a State that does not extradite must submit the case for prosecution under the same evidentiary standards as any serious ordinary offence, with the accused guaranteed fair treatment throughout. Torture is deemed an extraditable offence in any extradition treaty between States Parties, and the Convention itself can serve as the legal basis for extradition where no treaty exists. States must give one another the greatest measure of assistance in related criminal proceedings.

Articles 10 to 16 address prevention, remedy and evidence. Education on the prohibition of torture must be built into the training of law enforcement, military, medical and other personnel involved in custody, interrogation or treatment of detainees, and into the rules governing their duties. Interrogation rules, methods, practices and custody arrangements must be kept under systematic review. Any reasonable ground to believe torture has occurred triggers a duty of prompt and impartial investigation, and any individual alleging torture has a right to complain and to have the case promptly and impartially examined, with protection from ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of complaining. Victims must obtain redress and an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation including the means for full rehabilitation, with dependants entitled to compensation if the victim dies. Article 15 bars any statement established to have been made as a result of torture from being invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made. Article 16 extends the duty of prevention, and Articles 10 to 13 with it, to other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment falling short of torture.

The institutional machinery in Parts II and III is procedural. It establishes the Committee against Torture, ten independent experts serving four-year terms and elected by States Parties, to which States report within one year of entry into force and every four years thereafter. The Committee may conduct confidential inquiries into reliable information of systematic torture under Article 20, and for States that separately accept the competence it may hear inter-State complaints under Article 21 and individual complaints under Article 22. Those acceptances are optional, and a State may declare that it does not recognise the Article 20 inquiry competence at all, which is the one place where the Convention's oversight can be opted out of. Disputes may go to arbitration or the International Court of Justice, subject to reservation. The authentic texts are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.