E/CN.4/1995/34 page 8 implementation of United Nations norms and standards relevant to the protection of prisoners, within the framework of preparations for the Ninth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders to be held in April 1995. 14. The Special Rapporteur also attended a number of non-governmental events relevant to the promotion or discharge of his mandate. These included the nineteenth Round Table of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, held in San Remo, Italy in August, the twentieth anniversary conference of the International Federation of ACAT (Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture), held in Strasbourg, France in September and a conference of Penal Reform International aimed at developing a practical manual of standards for the treatment of prisoners, held in The Hague, the Netherlands, in November. Follow-up to paragraph 5 of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/37 15. In paragraph 5 of its resolution 1994/37 the Commission on Human Rights "invite[d] the Special Rapporteur to examine questions concerning torture directed disproportionately or primarily against women and conditions conducive to such torture, and to make appropriate recommendations concerning prevention of gender-specific forms of torture". 16. Methods of torture involving sexual abuse may be characterized as essentially gender-based. Professor Kooijmans, in his oral introduction to his 1992 report to the Commission on Human Rights, noted that "[s]ince it was clear that rape or other forms of sexual assault against women in detention were a particularly ignominious violation of the inherent dignity and the right to physical integrity of the human being, they accordingly constituted an act of torture." (E/CN.4/1992/SR.21, para. 35). 17. Although the human rights instruments concerning torture do not refer specifically to gender-based violence, several instruments in the humanitarian law context contain provisions related to proscription of torture against women. For example, the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict (General Assembly resolution 3318 (XXIX)) provides that "[a]ll forms of repression and cruel and inhuman treatment of women and children, including ... torture ... committed by belligerents in the course of military operations or in occupied territories shall be considered criminal." Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides that "[w]omen shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault" and applies to women who are "protected persons" within the meaning of article 4 of the Convention. Article 76 (1) of Protocol I and article 4 (2) (e) of Protocol II also prohibit rape, enforced prostitution and indecent assault. Article 4 (2) (e) adds the prohibition of "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment ...". 18. In certain countries, rape and other forms of sexual assault were reported to be common means of torture. It was alleged in the case of one country that 85 per cent of women held in police custody were subjected to some form of sexual abuse, including rape. Although allegations of sexual abuse were occasionally received wherein men were the target, the vast majority of such allegations concerned women. When sexual abuse occurred in