CPT: 14TH GENERAL REPORT 7 PREFACE The current climate of anxiety in the global arena generated by the very real threat of terrorism makes it difficult to maintain momentum for the protection of human rights. At such times, there is a tendency to allow security considerations to predominate over all else. Voices have been raised, memoranda written, and in some exalted and unexpected places, which appear to manifest a willingness to undermine – if not directly challenge – the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. There is also a growing body of evidence that the methods of detention and interrogation employed in various locations, in the context of the fight against terrorism and of military operations it has spawned, have on occasion violated that prohibition. The treatment meted out to some persons detained by Coalition forces in Iraq, revealed in a graphic manner by material placed in the public domain earlier this year, is but one illustration. States are not merely entitled, they are under the obligation to take the measures needed to protect the fundamental rights of everyone within their jurisdiction against terrorist acts; this was emphatically reaffirmed in the guidelines on human rights and the fight against terrorism adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 11 July 2002. However, as those same guidelines also make clear, the fight against terrorism must never be allowed to degenerate into acts of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. Such an abandonment of universally recognised basic values could only undermine the foundations of democratic societies committed to the rule of law. To refrain from resorting to such acts – and to take active steps to stamp them out when they emerge – is one of the hallmarks of a democratic State. Any State that authorises or condones acts, by its officials, which amount to either “torture” or “inhuman or degrading treatment” diminishes its standing in the eyes of the international community. The same can be said of a State that makes use of statements which officials of another country have obtained through resort to such acts. Constant vigilance will be required if the absolute prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment is to be upheld; this is true for every country in every region, without exception. Those who wish to ensure the effectiveness of that prohibition throughout the world must lead this fight by example.