8 Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, Article 137. 1. Whoever ill/treats another or treats such person in humiliating and degrading manner, shall be punished with fine or imprisonment up to one year. 2. Whoever inflicts severe pain or suffering on a person by forcing, coercing or committing any other unpermitted action, for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person a confession, declaration or any other information, or intimidating or illegally punishing him or a third person, or if done from motives based on any form of discrimination, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years. 3. If the offense specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article is committed by an official in discharge of duty, such person shall be punished for the offense specified in paragraph 1 by imprisonment from three months to three years, and for the offense specified in paragraph 2 of this Article by imprisonment of one to eight years. 1.2 International instruments Serbia is a State party to all the most important treaties concerning prohibition i.e. prevention of torture. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights9, which in its Article 7 adopts а provision regarding prohibition of torture from the Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights10, was ratified in 197111. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment12 (Convention against Torture) was ratified in 199113. It became one of the most important international instruments dedicated to the struggle against torture. 9 10 11 12 13 Signed on 19th December 1966 in New York. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10th December 1948 in Paris „Official Gazette of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia „, No. 7/71 Adopted on 10th December 1984 in New York „Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – International treaties, No. 9/91