The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984) In acknowledgement of the importance of the protection from torture, the UN has adopted a special treaty, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).305 All OSCE countries have ratified the CAT and are thus bound by its provisions. The CAT requires states parties: • to incorporate the crime of torture in their domestic legislation; • to punish acts of torture by appropriate penalties; • to undertake a prompt and impartial investigation of any alleged act of torture; • to ensure that statements made as a result of torture are not invoked as evidence in proceedings (except as evidence against a person accused of torture); and • to establish an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation and rehabilitation for victims of torture or their dependants. 305 See note 81. No exceptional circumstances such as a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency may be invoked as a justification for torture. The same applies, in the case of an individual offender, to an order from a superior officer or a public authority. States parties are prohibited from returning a person to another state where he or she would be at risk of torture (the principle of non-refoulement). They must ensure, on the other hand, that an alleged perpetrator of torture present in any territory under their jurisdiction is prosecuted or extradited to another state for the purpose of prosecution. The Optional Protocol to the Convention (2002) creates the Subcommittee on Prevention and allows in-country inspections of places of detention to be undertaken in collaboration with national institutions. The Optional Protocol has been signed and ratified by a number of OSCE participating States.306 306 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted in New York on 18 December 2002 at the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations by resolution 57/199. It entered into force on 22 June 2006. The treaty and the status of ratifications is available at www.ohchr.org/english/countries/ratification/9_b.htm. International framework The OSCE has consistently re-affirmed its commitment to the prohibition of torture. 307 These OSCE commitments reflect international human rights law. The UN CAT and Article 7 ICCPR308 provide the main international human rights law framework to protect against torture or inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment. Specific additional protection is found in other human rights treaties including CEDAW, ICERD and the CRC. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (law of war) prohibits torture and humiliating and degrading treatment. Torture is also prohibited by Article 3 ECHR.309 The Council of Europe also has its own regional mechanism to combat torture under its own Convention against Torture. That Convention is implemented by its own Committee for the 307 Op. cit., note 29, 1989 Vienna Document; op. cit., note 6, 1990 Copenhagen Document; OSCE Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990 Paris Charter); op. cit., note 5, 1991 Moscow Document; 1994 Budapest Document: Towards a Genuine Partnership in a New Era (Summit of Heads of State or Governement); Document of the OSCE Summit of Heads of State or Government (1999 Istanbul Document). 308 Article 7 ICCPR provides: “No one shall be subject 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.” 309 Article 3 ECHR provides: ��No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. ” Countering Terrorism, Protecting Human Rights 115