Report of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights on the Activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention ... erating new challenges. In Article 1, the Convention establishes the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter CPT), whose mission is to examine, by means of visits, the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty with a view to strengthening, if necessary, the protection of such persons from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Nearly simultaneously, similar measures were undertaken within the structures of the United Nations. In 1970s, during the 5th United Nations Congress277, in view of the numerous reports of the use of torture in various parts of the world, the Declaration on the protection of all persons from being subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment was adopted on 9 December 1975. It was the first international-level document to contain a definition of torture278 Less than 10 years later, a new definition was set out in the Convention against Torture. For the purposes of the Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a  person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a  third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions. The Convention against Torture contains a definition of torture and establishes a complaint body in the form of the UN Committee against Torture which is responsible, inter alia, for examining all communications regarding torture. However, the convention does not refer to the issue of prevention 277 Cf. A. Kremplewski, Policja a zakaz tortur oraz innego nieludzkiego postępowania, w: Prawa jednostki a prawo karne [Police and the prohibition of torture and other inhuman treatment, in: Rights of individuals in criminal law]. Collective work, edited by M. P. Wędrychowski, Warsaw, Criminal Law Department, Faculty of Law, the University of Warsaw, 1995, pp. 9-39. 278 UN General Assembly Resolution 3452 (XXX). For the purposes of the Declaration, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession, punishing him for an act he has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating him or other persons. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions to the extent consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Torture constitutes an aggravated and deliberate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 94