FOREWORD “Nothing can justify torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under any circumstances.” The law could not be clearer on this point. Yet implementation remains the primary challenge around the world. This revision of the practitioners’ Handbook aims to contribute to closing the implementation gap by enabling, encouraging and supporting lawyers and human rights defenders from the Americas to integrate recourse to the Inter-American Human Rights System into its litigation and anti-torture strategies. It is fair to say that the Inter-American Court and Commission have been at the forefront of developing robust protection for victims and the establishment of progressive international case law on the prohibition of torture, cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment. Its jurisprudence is increasingly seen as a benchmark for the interpretation of universal standards. The progressive development of case law and protection measures also allows human rights organizations and lawyers to use the Inter-American system effectively for the purposes of strategic litigation seeking to redress systemic and institutional problems in their home countries. But integrating remedies to regional human rights systems should concern all of us as lawyers as part of our normal professional work. This is because such remedies are particularly important when we are concerned with torture. Practiced outside the public eye, torture allegations raise serious and multiple evidentiary challenges. Practiced by state officials in an isolated case or, worse, as part of a systemic policy, litigators find themselves confronted with a strong and misguided esprit de corps seeking to prevent justice. Involving the public opinion and sympathy, too, can be difficult if the victim is accused of serious crimes. Moreover, seeking remedies and reparation often results in threats to victims, witnesses and human rights defenders. In light of these challenges, pursuing regional remedies to the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights is often the last and only realistic way of redressing torture. The first publication of this Handbook in 2006 was drafted by Claudia Martin and Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, two authoritative experts on the Inter-American Human Rights System. This second edition, updated by Helena Solà Martín, human rights legal adviser at the OMCT, details changes brought about by the new regulations of the two pillars of the Inter-American Human Rights System. It also outlines established and emergent jurisprudential trends surrounding the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment based on judgments and reports issued throughout the eight years elapsed since the publication of the first edition. 7