The Prohibition of Torture and Ill-treatment in the African Human Rights System: A HANDBOOK FOR VICTIMS AND THEIR ADVOCATES Political Rights90 and the Convention against Torture.91 Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and these Conventions have been ratified by all 54 African UN Member States, while 51 and 50 States have ratified or acceded to Additional Protocols I and II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions respectively.92 Fifty African States have ratified the ICCPR, Article 7 of which contains the explicit provision that no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.93 Of these States only 32 have ratified the Optional Protocol to ICCPR94 allowing for individual complaints. The Convention Against Torture, which provides more detail on the nature of State obligations than Article 7 of the ICCPR, has been accepted as binding by 43 AU Member States.95 However, few States have made a declaration accepting the right of individuals or other States to bring complaints against the State,96 and even fewer have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture,97 allowing for regular visits by independent international and national bodies to places of detention within States Parties.98 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 34 Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), adopted by the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts in Geneva, signed on 12 December 1977, entered into force on 7 December 1978, 1125 U.N.T.S. 609. ICCPR, supra note 50. UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 39/46 of 10 December 1984, entered into force on 26 June 1987 [hereinafter ‘Convention Against Torture’]. See www.icrc.org. For status of ratification of UN human rights treaties, see: https://treaties.un.org/pages/ ParticipationStatus.aspx [Chapter IV] Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966, entered into force on 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 9, 21 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 59, UN Doc. A/6316 (1966); 999 U.N.T.S, 302. The only AU Member States not parties to the Convention Against Torture are Angola, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Eritrea, The Gambia, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, São Tomé e Príncipe, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (‘Western Sahara’) is not a UN member, but Morocco, which is a UN member and not an AU member, has also ratified the Convention Against Torture. Eleven African States accepted the Committee against Torture’s competence under Article 22 to consider individual communications: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Morocco, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo and Tunisia. Three of them (Burundi, Morocco and Seychelles) did not make a similar declaration under Article 21, accepting the inter-State communications procedure. In all, nine African States accepted that procedure: the eight mentioned above as well as Uganda. Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted 18 December 2002 at the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly by Resolution A/RES/57/199, entered into force on 22 June 2006, UN Doc. A/RES/57/199 (2003), 42 ILM 26 (2003). As of 1 November 2013, of the 70 States Parties to the Optional Protocol, 12 were African: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia.