International law does not exist in a vacuum. The judges of the Courts, and the members of the Committees and Commissions, who interpret the treaties are also members of societies, and attitudes within societies change over time. As a culture of human rights has developed, the term ‘torture’ has come to cover acts which may not have been envisaged by the drafters of the earliest declarations and laws in which it was mentioned. This development is to be welcomed; as pointed out in the ICRC Commentary on the Geneva Conventions, a strict definition listing every prohibited act would simply test the apparently endless ingenuity of torturers rather than providing effective protection to their victims.2 Introduction also exist; in Europe, in the Americas and in Africa. All three systems adopted a two-body mechanism for the protection of human rights, consisting of a Commission, which is a quasi-judicial body with the power to issue decisions and recommendations, and a Court with the power to issue legally enforceable judgements. In 1999, reforms to the European system eliminated the European Commission of Human Rights. The international and regional bodies increasingly borrow from one another’s jurisprudence, and draw inspiration from independent experts and expert bodies, gradually creating a more consistent and coherent body of international law. In particular, they refer to the reports and findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.3 To take but one example, recognition at the international level that rape is an act of torture began with statements by the Special Rapporteur on Torture.4 These statements were taken into account by the Inter-American Commission in the 1996 case Martí de Mejía v Peru, where it became the first of the regional bodies explicitly to recognise that rape could constitute torture.5 The following year, the European Court followed suit in Aydin v Turkey.6 Submissions to the Court by Amnesty International included ICRC Commentary on the Geneva Conventions, IV Convention, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 1958 (Reprinted 1994), pp. 38–39. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture is an independent expert created by the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1985, whose mandate has been continued by the UN Human Rights Council, which replaced the Commission on Human Rights in 2006. The Special Rapporteur can consider individual cases, but his opinions and recommendations are not binding, and are all too frequently ignored by States. 4 See, for example, the 1986 report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, UN Doc. E/ CN.4/1986/15, §119; or his 1992 statement to the Commission on Human Rights explicitly stating that rape constitutes torture, Summary Record of the 21st meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1992/SR.21, §35. 5 Martí de Mejía v Peru, IACommHR, Case 10970, Report No. 5/96, 28 February 1996. 6 Aydin v Turkey, no. 23178/94, Rep. 1997-VI, ECHR, judgement of 25 September 1997. 2 3 3