4. Article 7 of the ICCPR does not provide such a definition, neither does the Arab Charter, and the Human Rights Committee has been clear about not limiting the acts that could fall within this provision.273 5. The provisions on prohibition of torture cover both physical and mental ill treatment.274 6. Not all types of treatment or punishment will fall within that which is torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading. Whether something amounts to torture, as opposed to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, is not always defined by the relevant treaty body. There are no definitions of what is ‘cruel’, ‘inhuman’ or ‘degrading’ and as the Committee Against Torture has noted ‘in practice, the definitional threshold between cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and torture is often not clear’.275 The Human Rights Committee has held that it does not wish to make such distinctions but that it will consider ‘the nature, purpose and severity of the treatment applied’.276 The Inter-American and African systems have taken a similar approach. 277 In contrast the European Court has set out criteria for what amounts to the different acts.278 Here torture carries a particular stigma which is determined by the severity of the treatment as well as the purpose for which it was imposed.279 Yet even the European Court is unwilling to draw up a list of acts which will amount to torture and maintains discretion in this regard. Similarly, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has concluded that ‘the decisive criteria for distinguishing torture from [cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment] may best be understood to be purpose of the conduct and the powerless of the victim, rather than the intensity of the pain or suffering inflicted’.280 7. The following acts have been held to amount to either torture, cruel or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment:      Rape;281 Wall-standing; Hooding; Subjection to noise; Deprivation of sleep 273 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No.20, 44th Session (1992), para 4. Human Rights Committee General Comment No.20, 44th Session (1992), para 5. 275 Committee Against Torture, General Comment No.2, CAT/C/GC/2/CRP.1/Rev.4 (2007), para 3. 276 Ibid, para 4. 277 Inter-American Court, see e.g. Gómez-Paquiyauri Brothers v Peru, 8 July 2004; Luis Lizardo Cabrera v Dominican Republic, 17 Feb 1998. African Commission, Communications 137/94 et al, International Pen and others (on behalf of Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr.) v Nigeria, 31 October 1998. 278 The Greek Case, European Court, 1969; Ireland v UK, 18 January 1978. 279 Selmouni v France, 28 July 1999. 280 Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/06, 23 December 2005, para 39. 281 Aydin v Turkey, European Court of Human Rights, (Grand Chamber) 25 September 1997. InterAmerican Commission, Report No. 5/96, Case 10.970 v. Peru, March 1, 1996, , Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 1995, pp. 158-159. 274 64