16
GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT
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. It does not include pain or
suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
...”
Article 15
“Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been
made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except
against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made.”
Article 16
“1. Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction
other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not
amount to torture as defined in Article 1, when such acts are committed by or at the
instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person
acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in Articles 10,
11, 12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture of references to
other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
...”
C. Practice of the courts of other States and of other human rights
monitoring bodies
1. The legal qualification of threats of torture
65. Several institutions which monitor observance of the prohibition of
torture and of other inhuman or degrading treatment have addressed the
question of the scope of that prohibition in the context of threats of
subjecting a person to physical harm.
66. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in its judgment of
27 November 2003 (Merits, Reparations and Costs) in the case of Maritza
Urrutia v. Guatemala (Series C No. 103), found:
“85. With regard to the treatment that the State officials afforded to Maritza Urrutia
while she was unlawfully and arbitrarily detained, the court has considered proven
that the alleged victim’s head was covered by a hood, she was kept handcuffed to a
bed, in a room with the light on and the radio at full volume, which prevented her
from sleeping. In addition, she was subjected to very prolonged interrogations, during
which she was shown photographs of individuals who showed signs of torture or had
been killed in combat and she was threatened that she would be found by her family in
the same way. The State agents also threatened to torture her physically or to kill her
or members of her family if she did not collaborate. To this end, they showed her
photographs of herself and her family and correspondence from her to her former
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