terms of wider application than article 1. The offence contrary to section 134(1) can be committed only by a “public official or person acting in an official capacity”. He further draws attention to the fact that both subsections 134(1) and (2) provide that the public official or person acting in an official capacity must be acting in the performance or purported performance of their official duties. He points to the fact that the definition applies to torture both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere and submits that it is hard to envisage that anyone could, in the United Kingdom, commit an act of torture in the performance of their “official duties” unless they were acting for or on behalf of the State. Anyone not acting either for or on behalf of the State is, he submits, by definition, acting in a private and individual capacity and such conduct, in the United Kingdom, would fall within the jurisdiction of ordinary domestic criminal law and be prosecuted accordingly. 25. The difficulty with the appellant’s approach is that it seeks to impose a gloss on the ordinary meaning of the words of the two provisions. Those words are apt to describe a person performing official administrative or governmental functions but provide no suggestion that those functions must be performed on behalf of the government of the State concerned. The dichotomy drawn by the provisions is between official conduct and purely private conduct, not between State and nonState activity. While in most normal circumstances, such as those prevailing in the United Kingdom to which the appellant refers, official conduct will usually be performed on behalf of a State, it is necessary to consider the applicability of the Convention in less stable situations, including those where more than one body may be performing administrative or governmental functions within the territory of the State. Unhappily, examples of such situations arise not infrequently. In my view the words used do not support a limitation of the kind proposed. On the contrary, the words “person acting in an official capacity” are apt to include someone who holds an official position or acts in an official capacity in an entity exercising governmental control over a civilian population in a territory over which it holds de facto control. Object and purpose 26. It is well established that a treaty should be interpreted in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to its terms in their context and in the light of its object and purpose (Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, article 31(1)). It is necessary, however, to sound a cautionary note at this point. While the object of UNCAT was undoubtedly, in one sense, to end impunity for perpetrators of what might be termed “official torture” it does not follow that the reading of the Convention which would best avoid impunity must be adopted in all circumstances. It is, rather, necessary to give effect to the words used in the light of the object and purpose of the scheme created by the State parties to the Convention. Similarly, the mere fact that a particular reading may be seen as a desirable development of the law is not of itself a valid reason for adopting it. It is not for national courts engaged Page 11