Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).14 1.1 Definitions 1 UN TREATY BODIES The chapter is split into three sections. The first section contains an analysis of the elements required for an act to be classified as torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The second section focuses on States Parties’ obligations under the main treaties. The third section considers the scope of application of these obligations. This structure will also be followed in Chapters 2–4 on the regional human rights systems, to aid comparison. In contrast to the regional bodies, whose jurisprudence is the subject of later chapters, neither the Human Rights Committee nor the Committee against Torture have found it necessary to make stark distinctions between torture and other prohibited ill-treatment. 1.1.1 The ICCPR and the Human Rights Committee The 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was the first universal human rights treaty explicitly to include a prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,15 which aims to protect both the dignity and the physical and mental integrity of the individual.16 The two provisions of the ICCPR particularly relevant to this prohibition are Articles 7 and 10. 1.1.1.1 Article 7 ICCPR Article 7 ICCPR reads: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.” While it forbids them in absolute terms, Article 7 does not contain a definition of the prohibited acts. In its General Comment on Article 7, the HRC stated that it did not consider it necessary to draw up a list of prohibited acts or to establish sharp distinctions between torture and the other forms of ill The CAT was established under Article 17 of the UNCAT. For the purposes of this chapter, please read “treatment” so as to include “punishment.” 16 HRC, General Comment No. 20, “Prohibition of torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (1992) §2, in UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7. 14 15 7