2. Human Rights-Based Non-Refoulement Obligations Under Customary International Law 21. The prohibition of torture is also part of customary international law, which has attained the rank of a peremptory norm of international law, or jus cogens. 48 It includes, as a fundamental and inherent component, the prohibition of refoulement to a risk of torture, and thus imposes an absolute ban on any form of forcible return to a danger of torture which is binding on all States, including those which have not become party to the relevant instruments. The prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of life, which also includes an inherent obligation not to send any person to a country where there is a real risk that he or she may be exposed to such treatment, also forms part of customary international law. 49 The prohibition of refoulement to a risk of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as codified in universal as well as regional human rights treaties is in the process of becoming customary international law, at the very least at regional level. 50 22. Under the above-mentioned obligations, States have a duty to establish, prior to implementing any removal measure, that the person whom it intends to remove from their territory or jurisdiction would not be exposed to a danger of serious human rights violations such as those mentioned above. If such a risk exists, the State is precluded from forcibly removing the individual concerned. II. EXTRATERRITORIAL APPLICABILITY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-REFOULEMENT UNDER THE 1951 CONVENTION AND/OR ITS 1967 PROTOCOL 23. The Sections of this Advisory Opinion which follow examine the territorial scope of Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention in light of the criteria provided for under international law for the interpretation of treaties. In accordance with the relevant rules, 48 49 50 also Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture concerning the second report of the United States of America, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/USA/CO/2, 25 July 2006 para. 14. See, for example, Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 29: Article 4: Derogations during a State of Emergency, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.11, 31 August 2001, para. 11 (“The proclamation of certain provisions of the Covenant as being of a non-derogable nature, in article 4, para. 2, is to be seen partly as recognition of the peremptory nature of some fundamental rights ensured in treaty form in the Covenant (e.g., articles 6 and 7). “); see also the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in Prosecutor v Delalic and Others, Trial Chamber, Judgement of 16 November 1998, para. 454; Prosecutor v. Furundzija, Trial Chamber, Judgement of 10 December 1998, paras. 134–164; Prosecutor v. Kunarac and Others, Trial Chamber, Judgement of 22 February 2001, para. 466. See also the judgement of the House of Lords in Pinochet Ugarte, re. [1999] 2 All ER 97, paras. 108–109. See also, for example, Filartiga v. Pena Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d. Cir. 1980). See Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 24: Issues relating to reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under Article 41 of the Covenant, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.6, 4 November 1994, para. 8 (“… [P]rovisions in the Covenant that represent customary international law (and a fortiori when they have the character of peremptory norms) may not be the subject of reservations. Accordingly, a State may not reserve the right to engage in … torture, to subject persons to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to arbitrarily deprive persons of their lives …”). See, for example, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights referred to supra footnote 42; see also Article 19(2) of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, [2000] OJ C364; and preambular para. 13 of the Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States, 2002/584/JHA, adopted by the Council of the European Union. 11