expressed in article 69(7) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which has its counterpart in the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda: “Evidence obtained by means of a violation of this Statute or internationally recognized human rights shall not be admissible if: (a) the violation casts substantial doubt on the reliability of the evidence; or (b) the admission of the evidence would be antithetical to and would seriously damage the integrity of the proceedings.” The appellants contend that admission as evidence against a party to legal proceedings of a confession or an accusatory statement obtained by inflicting treatment of the severity necessary to fall within article 1 of the Torture Convention will “shock the community”, infringe that party’s rights and the fairness of the proceedings (R v Oickle: see para 17 above), shock the judicial conscience (United States v Hensel 509 F Supp 1364 (1981), p 1372), abuse or degrade the proceedings (United States v Toscanino 500 F 2d 267 (1974), p 276), and involve the state in moral defilement (The People (Attorney General) v O’Brien: see para 17 above). (7) The impact of terrorism 40. The European Court has emphasised that article 3 of the European Convention is an absolute prohibition, not derogable in any circumstances. In Chahal v United Kingdom (1996) 23 EHRR 413, para 79, it ruled: “79. Article 3 enshrines one of the most fundamental values of democratic society. The Court is well aware of the immense difficulties faced by States in modern times in protecting their communities from terrorist violence. However, even in these circumstances, the Convention prohibits in absolute terms torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, irrespective of the victim’s conduct. Unlike most of the substantive clauses -33-