Enforced disappearances are grave violations of human rights and constitute an appropriate issue for OSCE involvement. If OSCE field operations receive an individual complaint of a disappearance, they should first consider whether it might best be handled by existing mechanisms, if there are any. In some post-conflict countries, there are commissions on missing persons mandated to resolve specific cases. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) may also be involved in seeking to resolve cases of missing persons; OSCE field missions should be in touch with the ICRC to ascertain whether it is already taking action. In the event that a mission receives a credible complaint of an enforced disappearance in a non-conflict situation, a first appropriate step would be to request that the government conduct a search for the missing person in official or unofficial detention centres. If a disappearance has occurred and a government denies having been involved, the government can be asked to conduct a thorough and convincing investigation into the disappearance and to release the findings publicly. Other possible steps are set out in Part III. 5.2 TORTURE The prohibition against torture is found in all major international and regional human rights treaties. The OSCE has repeatedly committed itself to the abolition of torture. The Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990), for example, states that “no one will be ... subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, echoing virtually identical language in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ICCPR, and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Concluding Document of the Vienna Third Follow-up Meeting (1989) commits OSCE participating States not only to prohibit torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment but to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial, and other measures to prevent and punish such practices. Freedom from torture is a non-derogable right, meaning it cannot be suspended under any circumstances. The OSCE Copenhagen Document specifies that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture”.21 Other key international standards against torture include the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), 21 Copenhagen Document, Paragraph 16.3. 45 5