ANNEX III List of countries which have made reservations concerning the competence of the CAT under Article 20: Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Cuba, Israel, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine. ANNEX IV Survey of the Human Rights Committee’s Pronouncements on the Definition of Torture (A background paper to the APT Expert Seminar on the Definition of Torture), November 2001 Introduction The purpose of this study is to summarise the views of the Human Rights Committee (hereafter: the “HRC”) concerning the definition of torture as related to Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter: the “ICCPR”)258. The HRC has never provided a theoretical definition of torture, but has, instead referred to the definition given by the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT)259 and has urged all States to ratify the Convention. Nevertheless, the HRC has had numerous occasions to consider the definition of torture in its General Comments, Concluding Observations and jurisprudence or case law provided by the individual communications procedure. In its General Comment 20, the HRC has specified that it considers the prohibition in Article 7 as a whole and does not distinguish between the different acts mentioned in the provision. This approach has subsequently been adopted in the jurisprudence of the Committee260. It represents a departure from the approach adopted previously by the HRC in General Comment 7 (16th session), where a distinction was made between the type, purpose and severity of each particular act 261. Out of 122 Concluding Observations between 25 September 1992 and 04 May 2000, the HRC referred to 34 cases involving torture. These General Comments and Concluding Observations do not provide any definition of torture nor do they refer to elements constituting torture. ANNEX ANNEX III ANNEX IV It is the case law of the HRC which provide the most detailed references to elements that the Committee considers as constituting torture. Out of 285 individual communications received between 1977 and July 2000, 24 involved allegations of torture. Among them, the HRC found that torture had been inflicted in 15 cases. 76 At this point, it must be noted that the jurisprudence of the HRC concerning torture has evolved over time. In the beginning, the HRC in many cases concluded