s­ ex-based discrimination in their own dealings and to take measures towards achieving factual as well as legal equality in all spheres of life, including by breaking down discriminatory attitudes, customs and practices in society. Article 6 explicitly requires them to suppress all forms of trafficking in women and exploitation of prostitution, even though these phenomena may implicitly fall within the prohibition of slavery and forced labour covered by other instruments. Articles 7 and 8 detail obligations to ensure equal participation of women and men in public and political life. Articles 9 and 10 expand on equality in relation to nationality and education, while articles 11, 12 and 13 elaborate on women’s rights to employment, health and other areas of economic and social life. Applying general principles to a particular situation, article 14 is the only provision in human rights treaties to address the particular problems faced by women in rural areas. Articles 15 and 16 expand on the right to equality before the law and in marriage and family relations. The Convention, in part V, requires all State parties to report periodically to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the measures they have taken to give effect to the Convention. Its Optional Protocol enables State parties to accept individual petitions and inquiry procedures. E. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984) In 1984, another treaty was adopted to deal with torture and other ill-treatment. Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights already banned torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, but the Convention goes much further and develops a legal scheme aimed at both preventing and punishing these practices. After defining torture, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment makes clear that no circumstances of any kind, including orders from a superior, can justify an act of torture—the ban is absolute. Closely related to What is torture? “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 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” (art. 1). 10