Teresa Fernández Paredes 57 The Importance of Investigating Torture Against Women and Girls by Non-State Actors: Applicable Legal Standards from International Human Rights Law tereSa FernánDez-pareDeS* Table of Contents 57 58 Abstract 69 69 72 73 II. The Obligation to Investigate Different forms of Torture with a Gender Perspective 75 78 81 84 I. Regulation of Sexual Violence and Gender-Based Violence as Torture Under International Law A. Overview B. International Standards for Investigating Gender-Based Torture 1. The obligation to investigate cases of sexualized torture and gender-based torture by non- State actors under the universal human rights system 2. The obligation of investigation in the Inter-American Human Rights System 3. The obligation of investigation in the European Human Rights System 4. The obligation of investigation in the African Human Rights System Conclusion Abstract Feminist scholarship fought to get forms of violence against women, including rape and domestic violence, which were considered “private matters” at the time, recognized under international law as serious violations of human rights. The language of the Convention against Torture: “with the consent or acquiescence of”1 was initially construed very narrowly to mean that the person com­ mitting the torture must be a State official. The definition of torture and degrading and inhuman * Teresa Fernández-Paredes received her degree in Law and Political Science from the Carlos University III in Madrid and a Master of Public International Law from the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C. She is currently a Managing Legal Attorney in Women’s Link Worldwide. 1 Article 1: For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture” means 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...” Convention against Torture. http://www.ohchr. org/SP/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CAT.aspx.