Preface to the Second Revised Edition vii of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Jens Modvig, Chair of the UN Committee against Torture and Malcom Evans, Chair of the SPT, as well as all the members of the Committee against Torture who participated in a side meeting during the 62nd session in Geneva in November 2017 to discuss key issue of interpretation with the editors. We also extend our gratitude to Carin Benninger-​Budel (OMCT), Barbara Bernath and Veronica Filippeschi (APT), Elina Steinerte (Bristol University) and Lutz Oette (SOAS University of London) for providing valuable comments on the drafts. We are also deeply indebted to numerous research fellows and interns who conducted research on specific questions of interpretation and contributed in a most professional manner to the preparation of the Commentary. In this context, special thanks go to Elena Dietenberger and Miranda Merkviladze. We are also grateful to Laura Alberti, Samory Badona Monteiro, Aram Bajalan, Shimels S.  Belete, Elisa Klein-​Diaz, Nabila Ehrhardt, Katharina Heymann, Saskia Kaltenbrunner, Julia Kostal, Nicole Metz, Felix Steigmann. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Oxford University Press and, especially Natasha Flemming and Merel Alstein, who have always encouraged and patiently cooperated with us throughout the whole period, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna, home to fruitful exchanges and discussions that have ultimately flew into the pages of this Commentary and the FWF Austrian Science Fund whose generous support only made this publication possible. The practice of the CAT Committee and the SPT was taken into account until 31 March 2017. Other key developments, such as the General Comment No. 4 adopted by the CAT Committee at the 62nd session from November/​December 2017, have been taken into account by the authors up until the end of December 2017. The first edition of this Commentary was written in the middle of the so-​called “war on terror”, which had seriously undermined the universal consensus on the absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-​treatment. The “war on terror” seems to be over, but the practice of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment has certainly not improved since then. When he finished his activities as UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, which had included 18 official fact-​finding missions to countries in all world regions, three joint investigations with other special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and comprehensive research, Manfred Nowak concluded that torture is occurring in more than 90% of all States, is practiced routinely in more than 50% of all States and systematically in roughly 10%. In addition, he identified a global prison crisis and inhuman conditions of detention in the majority of States in all world regions.1 The reports of his two successors in this mandate, Juan Mendez and Nils Melzer, show that the situation is unfortunately not improving. On the contrary, the erosion of the universal consensus on the absolute prohibition of torture has reached such an alarming level that persons have recently been elected as Presidents of powerful States in both the Global North and the Global South, who openly advocate torture. This illustrates that we would need a radical change in world politics if we wish to achieve the ultimate goal of eradicating the practice of torture, preventing the risk of torture and improving conditions of detention. We hope that this second edition of our Commentary 1   See the final study of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and his report to the UN Human Rights Council in UN Doc. A/​HRC/​13/​39 and Add. 5 of 9 February 2010. See also Manfred Nowak, Torture –​An Expert’s Confrontation with an Everyday Evil, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2018.