IV. Scope of State obligations and responsibility
15. The Convention imposes obligations on States parties and not on individuals. States bear international responsibility for the acts and omissions of
their officials and others, including agents, private contractors, and others
acting in official capacity or acting on behalf of the State, in conjunction with
the State, under its direction or control, or otherwise under colour of law.
Accordingly, each State party should prohibit, prevent and redress torture
and ill-treatment in all contexts of custody or control, for example, in prisons,
hospitals, schools, institutions that engage in the care of children, the aged,
the mentally ill or disabled, in military service, and other institutions as well as
contexts where the failure of the State to intervene encourages and enhances
the danger of privately inflicted harm. The Convention does not, however,
limit the international responsibility that States or individuals can incur for
perpetrating torture and ill-treatment under international customary law and
other treaties.
16. Article 2, paragraph 1, requires that each State party shall take effective
measures to prevent acts of torture not only in its sovereign territory but also
“in any territory under its jurisdiction.” The Committee has recognized that “any
territory” includes all areas where the State party exercises, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, de jure or de facto effective control, in accordance
with international law. The reference to “any territory” in article 2, like that in
articles 5, 11, 12, 13 and 16, refers to prohibited acts committed not only on
board a ship or aircraft registered by a State party, but also during military occupation or peacekeeping operations and in such places as embassies, military
bases, detention facilities, or other areas over which a State exercises factual
or effective control. The Committee notes that this interpretation reinforces
article 5, paragraph 1 (b), which requires that a State party must take measures
to exercise jurisdiction “when the alleged offender is a national of the State.”
The Committee considers that the scope of “territory” under article 2 must
also include situations where a State party exercises, directly or indirectly, de
facto or de jure control over persons in detention.
17. The Committee observes that States parties are obligated to adopt
effective measures to prevent public authorities and other persons acting
in an official capacity from directly committing, instigating, inciting, encouraging, acquiescing in or otherwise participating or being complicit in acts
of torture as defined in the Convention. Thus, States parties should adopt
effective measures to prevent such authorities or others acting in an official
capacity or under colour of law, from consenting to or acquiescing in any acts
Appendices ► Page 113
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