that torture had been committed; however, in recent cases (since the 62nd session), there has been no reference to torture. One hypotheses could explain this development. The HRC has remarked that “acts of torture usually go unpunished and that in many cases a lack of confidence in the authorities keeps the victims from lodging complaints”262. Given the admissibility requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies in individual communications to the HRC, complainants may have found it difficult, in time, to lodge such complaints of torture to the HRC. Elements in the Definition of Torture It is the aim of this study, based on these available cases and using the Concluding Observations, General Comments and case law of the HRC, to underline the three elements mostly referred to when considering the definition of torture. I. Severity of the Treatment Apart from specifying that the acts covered by Article 7 concern acts that cause physical pain as well as mental suffering, the HRC has never theoretically distinguished between the acts referred to in Article 7263. The HRC has therefore been free to qualify or not to qualify the act committed as torture. In its concluding observations and case law, the HRC has analysed several situations where torture was considered to have been committed. With this jurisprudence it is possible to determine in which cases ill-treatment amounts to torture and in which one act is not severe enough to be qualified as such. The severity of the treatment plays an important role in the definition of torture. In its case law, the HRC explains the elements and the means leading to the definition of torture. According to the HRC, certain practices are in themselves severe enough to amount to torture. It is generally the case for electric shocks264, “submarino” (immersing the head of the victim in water usually fouled with substances such as blood or vomit) 265 and “planton” (being forced to stand upright with eyes blindfolded through the day)266. The latter, nevertheless, cannot be considered as torture per se but, added to other practices such as beatings, would amount to torture. In other cases, the treatments inflicted are so severe that as a whole they amount to torture. For instance, when the victim is threatened, beaten, and drowned, the HRC has considered that torture was inflicted267. In one of the cases, the HRC did not consider some acts as amounting to psychological torture but rather as “cruel and inhuman treatment within the ANNEX ANNEX IV Moreover, in several cases, the HRC qualified the treatment inflicted on the victim as torture because the victim was physically and also mentally ill-treated. The combination of these ill-treatments was severe enough to constitute torture. The HRC has even stated in another case that keeping detainees “incommunicado” was “conducive to torture”. 77