GUIDE ON ANTI-TORTURE LEGISLATION
El Salvador was congratulated by the Committee against Torture for making torture
a crime without a statute of limitations.149
In Germany, all the crimes contained in the Code of Crimes against International Law,
including torture, bears no statute of limitations.150
The Constitution of Paraguay clearly stipulates that the crime of torture can never be
subjected to statute of limitations.151
149
150
151
24. The Committee considers that States parties are not to allow
other impediments to prosecution and punishment for torture
The Committee considers in General Comment N°2 that “(…) impediments that
preclude or indicate unwillingness to provide prompt and fair prosecution and
punishment of perpetrators of torture or ill-treatment violate the principle of nonderogability”.152
In Brazil, the law on the crimes of torture stipulates that pardons are not possible for
the crime of torture.153
153
Summary of the elements - Chapter 6 – Amnesties, immunity,
statute of limitations and other impediments
Primary elements
ªª National legislation on amnesties and immunities are to preclude torture.
ªª National legislation is not to extend statute of limitations to the crime of
torture.
ªª Other impediments to prosecution and punishment are not to be available
for cases of torture.
CAT, Report of the Committee against Torture, 23rd and 24th session (November 1999 and May 2000),
UN Doc. A/55/44, § 158(a).
149
Germany, Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch) of 26 June 2002, article 5,
available at http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/vstgb/gesamt.pdf (last accessed in
February 2016).
150
151
Paraguay, Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay of 1992, article 5, available at
http://www.bacn.gov.py/CONSTITUCION_ORIGINAL_FIRMADA.pdf (last accessed in February 2016).
152
CAT, General Comment N°2, op. cit. 1, § 5.
Brazil, Law N°9.455 of 7 April 1997, op. cit. 43, article 1(6).
153
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