E/CN.4/1991/17 page 88 IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 276. After five years as Special Rapporteur on questions relevant to torture one feels inclined to make an assessment of what has been achieved and what still has to be done. 277. One thing is clear from the outset: the intensified campaign of the organized world community against torture, starting with the adoption by the General Assembly in 1975 of the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has not led to the eradication of that evil. Torture continues apace, as is clear from the present report. 278. This campaign, however, has led to a universal awareness that torture is one of the most heinous violations of human rights because it annihilates man's most essential characteristic: his personality. Although torture was already explicitly prohibited in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, there is now a world-wide legal conviction that the prohibition of torture belongs to the rules of jus cogens, binding for each and every member of the international community, and that this prohibition is unconditional. Torture cannot be justified under any circumstances. 279. This general outlawry of torture is evidently not sufficient to do away with this ignominious practice. The international community has, therefore, taken further steps. A convention was concluded obliging States parties to take measures of a corrective and of a preventive character to make the fight against torture more effective. The early entry into force of the Convention and the rate of ratifications are themselves evidence of the world-wide condemnation of torture. The Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Questions Relevant to Torture, whose mandate is to monitor the occurrence of torture throughout the world, to take action with regard to alleged cases of torture which have been brought to his attention and to submit recommendations to the Commission on measures to be taken to strengthen the regime against torture. 280. The international community also adopted a set of instruments, containing guidelines for the treatment of all persons deprived of their liberty and elaborating the provisions of legally binding conventions. The most comprehensive of these instruments is the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment of 1988, on which the Special Rapporteur commented in his fifth report to the Commission. 281. In a more general way the Commission on Human Rights established a programme of advisory services and requested its special rapporteurs to inform Governments of the possibility of availing themselves of the services provided for under the programme. Services which may be provided under the programme include training courses and technical assistance. Governments which feel that they cannot effectively fight the phenomenon of torture on their own can turn to the international community for help and support.