Policy recommendations States should review their legal frameworks, as well as policies and practices, to ensure that they are compliant with international standards. It is recommended that States: 1. Include torture as a separate and specific offence in the national criminal code; 2. Ensure that penalties for the crime of torture are commensurate with the gravity of the crime, in law and in practice. This includes ensuring that, where public officials have been convicted of torture, they are legally prohibited from returning to public service; 3. Ensure that the definition of torture in national legislation is compliant with the UNCAT; 4. Ensure, in law and in practice, that suspected or convicted offenders of the crime of torture can never benefit from amnesties, pardons and similar mechanisms that lead directly or indirectly to impunity for the crime of torture or other ill-treatment;238 5. Stipulate in national legislation that the crime of torture is not subject to any statute of limitations; 6. Take measures to establish jurisdiction over the crime of torture and other ill-treatment whenever alleged perpetrators are present in their territory; 7. Ensure that officials suspected of torture are prosecuted under the specific offence of torture, and not lesser offences, such as “abuse of authority”; 8. Ensure that all criminal justice actors have the legal powers to initiate ex officio investigations into allegations of torture; 9. Ensure that investigations into allegations of torture or other ill-treatment are carried out in a prompt, impartial and effective manner by an independent body, in accordance with the principles and standards of the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Ill-Treatment (Istanbul Protocol); 10. Ensure effective oversight and internal investigation mechanisms within law enforcement agencies; 238 See also Recommendations to OSCE participating States, international conference on “Effective Multilateralism in the Fight against Torture: Trends in the OSCE region and the way forward” (June 2019), Recommendation 16. 63