(b) The establishment by the Act of 26 November 2003 of the National Commission for the Monitoring of Holding Centres and Facilities and Waiting Areas to ensure “respect for the rights of foreigners placed or held there” and “respect for the rules governing hygiene, sanitation, amenities and installations in such facilities”, a Commission which, as indicated by the State party during the consideration of the report, is due to start work soon; (c) The involvement of the Ministry of Health, together with the Association for the Victims of Repression in Exile (AVRE), in the publication of a manual to help medical staff identify the sequelae of torture; (d) The reform introduced by the Act of 10 December 2003, which grants subsidiary protection to “any person” who does not meet the conditions for recognition as a refugee set out in the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951 and who “establishes that he or she would be exposed in his or her country to one of the following serious risks: the death penalty, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment …”; (e) The State party’s consistent support since 1982 for the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and the substantial increase in its contribution to the Fund; (f) The mechanism that enables victims of terrorism to obtain compensation even in respect of acts that took place outside French territory; (g) The State party’s signing of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 16 September 2005, and the steps being taken to ratify it; (h) The ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on 9 June 2000, and the measures taken by the State party to incorporate the Statute into domestic law. C. Subjects of concern and recommendations Definition (5) While taking note of the State party’s efforts at the legislative level to provide for the prosecution and punishment of those responsible for acts of torture, the Committee remains concerned that the French Criminal Code does not contain a definition of torture that is in conformity with article 1 of the Convention, an omission that can lead to confusion and adversely affect the collection of relevant data, as is apparent from the statistics that accompanied the State party’s written replies (art. 1). The Committee reiterates its recommendation (A/53/44, para. 144) that the State party should consider incorporating into its criminal law a definition of torture that is in strict conformity with article 1 of the Convention, so as to draw a distinction between acts of torture committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or any other person acting in an official capacity, and acts of violence in the broad sense committed by non-State actors; it also recommends that the State party should make torture an imprescriptible offence. Non-refoulement (6) The Committee is concerned about the asylum procedures in place in the State party, as they do not at present distinguish between asylum applications based on article 3 of the Convention and other applications, thereby increasing the risk that some persons will be returned to a State where they might be tortured. The Committee is also concerned about the summary nature of the so-called priority procedure for consideration of applications filed in administrative holding centres or at borders, which does not enable the risks covered by article 3 of the Convention to be assessed (art. 3). 25