In practical terms, a distinction between “legal” and “operational” use of torture information is difficult to sustain. If information obtained in a third country through torture is used to launch a criminal investigation leading to arrests and indictments, it has in essence been introduced into the judicial process. Complicity in torture In certain circumstances, the use of foreign torture information may give rise to state responsibility for complicity in the breach of the prohibition on torture. Under the principles of state responsibility in international law, a state commits an internationally wrongful act when it knowingly provides aid or assistance to another state in the commission of an internationally wrongful act.28 Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights while countering terrorism, takes the view that: reliance on information from torture in another country, even if the information is obtained only for operational purposes, inevitably implies the “recognition of lawfulness” of such practices and therefore triggers the application of principles of State responsibility. Hence, States that receive information obtained through torture or inhuman and degrading treatment are complicit in the commission of internationally wrongful acts. Such involvement is also irreconcilable with the obligation erga omnes of States to cooperate in the eradication of torture [emphasis added].29 In its examination of the concept of complicity in torture abroad, the UK Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee (JCHR) took the view that “[s]ystematic, regular receipt of information obtained under torture is…capable of amounting to ‘aid or assistance’ in maintaining the situation created by other States’ serious breaches of the peremptory norm prohibiting torture…[T]he practice creates a market for the information produced by torture. As such, it encourages States which systematically torture to continue to do so.”30 The parliamentary committee concluded that a proven “general practice of passively receiving 28 Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, United Nations General Assembly resolution 56/83, adopted December 12, 2001. 29 Martin Scheinin , Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, A/HRC/10/3, February 4, 2009, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/terrorism/rapporteur/docs/A.HRC.10.3.pdf (accessed February 23, 2010), para. 55. 30 Joint Committee on Human Rights, “Allegations of UK Complicity in Torture,” Twenty-third report of Session 2008-09, August 4, 2009, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200809/jtselect/jtrights/152/15202.htm (accessed November 11, 2009), para. 42. 13 Human Rights Watch | June 2010