CAT/C/48/3 A. The importance of human rights education in the prevention of torture 65. All States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Optional Protocol) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Convention) have an obligation to prevent torture and ill-treatment whether committed by public officials or by individuals. 66. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture is of the view that the obligation to prevent torture should embrace ―as many as possible of those things which in a given situation can contribute towards the lessening of the likelihood or risk of torture or illtreatment occurring‖.8 67. It is important to emphasize that a preventive approach focuses on the root causes of human rights violations. Below we give a non-exhaustive listing of the root causes of torture and ill-treatment at different levels: (a) At a macro level the causes include, for example, social tolerance and acceptance of violence as a means of conflict ―resolution‖; the social legitimization of policies that impose severe sanctions for any form of offence; the lack of political will to eliminate the practice of torture; the construction of hierarchical power relationships in which certain groups of people — for example, those accused of common law or political offences or terrorism, immigrants, women, persons with disabilities, members of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, the economically disadvantaged, adolescents, children and the elderly — are belittled, devalued, ignored, demonized and dehumanized; and a lack of awareness and ownership of human rights among the population in general; (b) At an intermediate level the causes include denial by the State of the practice of torture combined with impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment, who are in many cases actually rewarded by the political and/or economic powers; the failure to report acts of torture and ill-treatment, lack of protection for victims of torture and the absence of redress; a failure to align domestic legal frameworks with the international norms that prohibit torture and provide safeguards for persons deprived of their liberty, coupled, very often, with a failure to apply regulations in those cases where they exist; the inadequate human rights training provided to members of the judiciary, prison personnel, law enforcement officials, health-care professionals, social workers and teachers, etc.; and the links between torture and corruption; (c) At a micro level, i.e. in individual places of deprivation of liberty in the broadest sense, the causes include the condition of infrastructures and services, which range from run-down to totally inhumane; overcrowding; the precarious employment and living conditions of the staff working in these places; the tendency to use authority arbitrarily; widespread corruption; and a lack of external oversight. 68. The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training establishes that human rights education ―comprises all educational, training, information, awareness-raising and learning activities aimed at promoting universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms‖.9 It also states that ―by providing persons with knowledge, skills and understanding and developing their attitudes 8 9 16 CAT/OP/12/6, para. 3. Article 2.1 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training adopted by the Human Rights Council at its sixteenth session (A/HCR/16/L.1).