Seeking Remedies for Torture Victims: A Handbook on the Individual Complaints Procedures of the UN Tready Bodies is not permitted in any circumstances. The prohibition of torture is not only a non-derogable right under ICCPR but widely recognized as a peremptory norm (jus cogens) of international law.352 44. The author was severely traumatized, both physically and mentally, as a result of his detention and treatment at City Police Station. This trauma was evident to his lawyer and his family on 28 September 2002, the day they first visited him after his arrest. The complaint submitted to the Chief Prosecutor by Mr L on 1 October 2002 (see Annex 22) is also evidence of that treatment. The reports upon his release from prison of his physician, as well as the psychiatrists, provide further evidence of the ill-treatment (see Annexes 6 and 16-21). Second breach of article 7: incommunicado detention 45. The author submits that his incommunicado detention for four consecutive days from 23 September 2002 to 27 September 2002 constituted a breach of article 7 of the ICCPR. The dates of this detention are supported by the statements of the three eye witnesses to the author’s arrest on 23 September (Annexes 3-5), and the date of the formal charge of 27 September (Annex 9). 46. The Human Rights Committee stated in General Comment 20 at paragraph 11 that “[p]rovisions should be made against incommunicado detention”. The Committee Against Torture has held that incommunicado detention of up to thirty-six hours, without being brought before a judge, is of concern.353 At the least, the combination of incommunicado detention with the ill-treatment suffered during that confinement should be found to breach article 7.354 47. Furthermore, incommunicado detention facilitates the practice of torture and ill-treatment. As noted by the Human Rights Committee in Mojica v. Dominican Republic (Comm. No. 449/1991) at paragraph 5.7, “the disappearance of persons is inseparably linked to treatment that amounts to a violation of article 7”. Indeed, the author’s effective disappearance for four days facilitated gross breaches of his rights under article 7. Third breach of article 7: beatings at City Prison 48. The repeated beatings suffered by the author in City Prison at the hands of the prison guards, Messrs P and Q, amount to a breach of article 7 in the same way as the beatings endured at the hands of police officers at City Police Station. The evidence of these beatings is the formal complaint made by Mr. L to the prison authorities (see Annex 15), the medical report of Dr. H which indicates the existence of recent and fresh bruising (see Annex 6), and the author’s consistent account of events at City Prison. Fourth breach of article 7: Prison Conditions 49. The author submits that the conditions of his incarceration at City Prison amounted to a breach of article 7. 50. In Vuolanne v. Finland (Comm. No. 265/87), the Human Rights Committee held that: 352 See, eg, ICTY Trial Chamber, Prosecutor v. Furundzija, IT-95-17/1-t (10 December 1998) 38 ILM 317, para. 144; Cantoral Benavides case (Peru), Series C No. 69, judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of 18 August 2000, para. 96; African Commission, Doebbler v. Sudan, Comm. No. 222/99, (15 Jul 2003). Relevant decisions of the ECtHR include Tomasai v. France, No. 12850/87, (17 August 1992), para. 115; Aksoy v. Turkey, No. 21897/96, (18 December 1996), para. 62; Chahal v. UK, No. 22414/93, (15 November 1996), para. 79. 353 CAT Committee, Concluding Observations on Colombia, (2003) A/59/44 32 at para. 67. 354 See, eg, ECtHR, Tekin v. Turkey, No. 22496/93, (9 June 1998). Detention for four days in total darkness with blindfold, combined with beatings, breached article 3, the European equivalent of article 7. 116