PART B: Substantive Norms on Torture in the African Regional Human Rights System until they lapsed into unconsciousness, spraying their eyes with pepper and administering high voltage electric current to their genitalia, as well as rape of female prisoners and burying prisoners in the sand to die a slow death. The Commission found that these acts constituted a violation of Article 5:188 The Government did not produce any argument to counter these facts. Taken together or in isolation, these acts are proof of widespread utilization of torture and of cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of treatment and constitute a violation of Article 5. The fact that prisoners were left to die slow deaths (para.10) equally constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of treatment prohibited by Article 5 of the Charter. In both cases, the Commission also decided that deaths resulting from acts of torture or executions were in breach of the Article 7 due process guarantees and violated the prohibition against arbitrary deprivation of life in Article 4 of the Charter. Also, in the Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme case,189 the Commission affirmed that Article 5 prohibits summary, arbitrary and extra-judicial executions.190 Thus the Commission had no difficulty finding that ‘the deaths of citizens who were shot or tortured to death’ by law enforcement agents violated Article 5 of the Charter.191 In light of the Commission’s conception of the degrees of ill-treatment, as well as its relatively vague definitions, the discussion now proceeds to an analysis of the specific situations in which Article 5 and related provisions have been invoked. b. Incommunicado Detention Incommunicado detention refers to detention in which those held have no means or possibility of communicating with anyone other than their captor and perhaps their co-detainees.192 In September 2001, eleven former members of the Eritrean Government who had openly expressed their criticism of government policies in an open letter were arrested and detained incommunicado without charges. Their whereabouts were unknown, and they had no access to their lawyers or families. In a communication brought on their behalf, Zegveld and Ephrem, the Commission found a violation of, amongst other provisions, the Article 6 right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be arbitrarily detained. In it’s reasoning, the 188 Ibid., para. 118. 189 ACHPR, Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme et des Libertés v. Chad, Comm. No. 74/92, para. 22. 190 Ibid.; ACHPR, Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT) and Others v. Rwanda, Comm. Nos. 27/89, 49/91 & 99/93, 20th Ordinary Session (31 October 1996). 191 ACHPR, Mouvement Burkinabé des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples v. Burkina Faso, Comm. No. 204/97, 29 th Ordinary Session (7 May 2001). 192 Association for the Prevention of Torture, “Incommunicado, Unacknowledged and Secret Detention under International Law.” (2 March 2006). 53