Teresa Fernández Paredes 67 treatment or punishment. However, when such acts are conducted by private actors, the ECtHR has not ruled out the possibility that they fall under Article 3 but has not said that it could either, leaving the door open for further interpretation. As noted above, the United Nations system has clearly recognized that rape is a form of torture that merits the most serious treatment, and that the ways in which States have dealt with it have reflected patriarchal patterns of domination.62 The Committee against Torture (CAT), too, has already recognized in its jurisprudence that rape may constitute torture, and that when it is committed by State agents, it need not occur in a detention center or prison to be considered torture.63 These findings took some time and zealous advocacy from feminist jurists. See, as an example, the case of Kisoki v. Sweden (1996), regarding a Zairian citizen residing in Sweden seeking refugee status who, while in Zaire [DRC], was arrested by security forces, imprisoned in inhuman and degrading conditions, and raped more than ten times64. She went before the Committee and claimed that her forced return to Zaire would con­ stitute a violation by Sweden of Article 3 of the CAT. The Committee found that Sweden had an obligation to refrain from forcibly returning the complainant to Zaire, whom would be in danger of being subjected to torture but did not—surprisingly—examine nor mentioned the issue of sexual violence in its reasoning. This reluctance of the CAT to address the violence against women, spread strong deconstructionist feminist´s critiques against the male bias in the Convention and their fear that this will result in a narrow interpretation of Article 1.65 However, some significant advances have been made. For instance, in Communication No. 262/2005, the case of V. L. v. Switzerland, a Belarusian woman was raped by State agents who went to her home to interrogate her regarding the whereabouts of her husband, the Committee found that “the complainant was clearly under the physical control of the police even though the acts concerned were perpetrated outside formal detention facilities.” The acts concerned, consti­ tuting among others multiple rapes, surely constitute infliction of severe pain and suffering perpe­ trated for a number of impermissible purposes, including interrogation, intimidation, punishment, retaliation, humiliation and discrimination based on gender. The Committee determined that the sexual violence committed against the complainant by the police constituted torture. It can be noticed that, in this case, the CAT Committee did not analyze the elements of torture of “severe pain and suffering” and “purpose” when confirming that rape constitutes torture66. In other words, the decision is also important since the wording of the Committee suggests that the element of severe pain or suffering is satisfied per se by rapes carried out by police officers or agents, even when this is outside of detention facilities. This can also be found in General Comment No. 2 of the Convention. Furthermore, the Committee recognizes that asylum seekers may be unwilling to speak of sexual violence from the outset but that this is not fatal to claiming the right to not be returned (non-refoulement).67 Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis. 38-61 (2000). CAT, V.L. v. Switzerland, Communication No. 262/2005, 20 November 2006, UN Doc. CAT/C/37/D/262/2005 (2007). 64 CAT, Pauline Muzonzo Paku Kisoki v. Sweden, Communication No. 41/1996, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/16/D/41/1996 (1996). 65 Edwards, Alice (2006): The ‘Feminizing’ of Torture under International Human Rights Law. Leiden Journal of International Law, 19, pp 351. 66 Fortin, Katharine (2008): Rape as Torture: an Evaluation of the Committee against Torture’s Attitude to Sexual Violence. Utrecht Law Review, 4. 67 Women´s Link Worldwide, Gender-Justice Observatory. Analysis of V.L. v. Switzerland, Communication No. 262/2005. Available at: http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/gender-justice-observatory/ 62 63