UN TREATY BODIES 1 State party’s obligation to grant an effective remedy.”68 Thus, as under UNCAT, the State has a duty to investigate allegations of torture, regardless of any other action taken by, or on behalf of, the complainant to seek redress. 1.2.3 Duty to enact and enforce legislation criminalising torture The UNCAT explicitly obliges States to enact and enforce legislation criminalising torture, while a similar duty may also be inferred in the ICCPR. – UNCAT69 Article 4 of the UNCAT provides: “1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. 2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.” This Article is limited in its application to torture, and is not among those listed in Article 16 as applying also to other forms of ill-treatment. The CAT now systematically asks States Parties about domestic criminal law, and has repeatedly emphasised that Article 4 requires States to “incorporate into domestic law the crime of torture and adopt a definition of torture that covers all the elements contained in article 1 of the Convention.”70 Where such a law has been adopted, the Committee will consider both its compatibility with the definition in Article 1 of the UNCAT and its enforcement in practice.71 Even States with legal systems where provisions of international law have direct effect and can be relied upon in domestic courts (i.e. “monist” legal systems), must take measures under this Article. Furthermore, in practice, those exer Zelaya Blanco v Nicaragua, HRC Communication No. 328/1988, 20 July 1994, §10.6. For more details on the jurisprudence of the CAT in this area, see Rodley and Pollard, “Criminalisation of Torture”, op. cit. 70 CAT, Concluding Observations on Italy, UN. Doc. CAT/C/ITA/CO/4, 18 May 2007, §5. At its 38th Session, held in April–May 2007, the issue was addressed in six of the seven Concluding Observations adopted (Denmark, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine: Report of the Committee against Torture, UN Doc. A/62/44, 2007), and was raised in dialogue with the seventh State Party (Luxembourg: CAT, Summary record of the 762nd meeting, UN Doc. CAT/C/SR.762, 2007, §8). 71 See, for example, CAT, Concluding Observations on Uzbekistan, UN Doc. A/55/44, 1999, §80. See also HRC, Concluding Observations on Uzbekistan, U.N. Doc. CCPR/CO/71/UZB/ Add.2, 2004, §2(I), indicating that the recommendations of the CAT had been at least partially applied. 68 69 18