INTRODUCTION The purpose of this Handbook is to give guidance on how to seek redress in respect of violations of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment from the United Nations human rights treaty bodies. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is absolutely prohibited in international law, and is not tolerated in any circumstances whatsoever.i The UN treaties offer a significant avenue of global recognition and protection regarding this fundamental human right. Parts I to V of this Handbook focus on the procedures and jurisprudence of the three bodies established under three core UN human rights treaties, namely the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is prohibited under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (ICCPR). Article 7 is supplemented by Article 10, which recognizes a right of humane treatment for persons in all forms of detention, a particularly vulnerable group of people. The rights in the ICCPR are supervised and monitored at the international level by the Human Rights Committee (HRC). Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is also addressed, and prohibited, by an issue-specific treaty, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 1984 (CAT), which is monitored and supervised at the international level by the Committee against Torture (CAT Committee). The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women is primarily concerned with achieving equality between men and women through the elimination of discriminatory policies and practices. As such it does not contain a substantive prohibition against torture or ill-treatment. Nevertheless, the CEDAW Convention may offer an alternative avenue for redress in specific contexts where discrimination constitutes a central aspect of the underlying violation. In Part I, the ICCPR and the CAT, as well as the HRC and the CAT Committee, are introduced. In Part II, the procedures of these two respective treaty bodies are described. Part 2.1 will focus on the individual complaints procedures under the ICCPR and CAT. Under these procedures, an individual may submit complaints to the respective treaty bodies, who may ultimately find that the rights of that individual have been violated by a State and that he/she is entitled to a remedy in respect of that violation from that State. Part 2.1 goes through issues such as the admissibility criteria for complaints, which must be satisfied before the substance i See Section 1.1 19