Many of the above-mentioned universal standards are also laid down in regional
instruments.
The Guidelines and Measures for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture,
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa (The Robben
Island Guidelines) include the criminalization of torture and ill-treatment:
11. Superior orders shall never provide a justification or
lawful excuse for acts of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
…
13. No one shall be punished for disobeying an order
that they commit acts amounting to torture, cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment.
14. States should prohibit and prevent the use, production and trade of equipment or substances designed to inflict
torture or ill-treatment and the abuse of any other equipment
or substance to these ends.
The following provisions of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish
Torture also add to the universal standards outlined above:
… Torture shall also be understood to be the use of methods
upon a person intended to obliterate the personality of the
victim or to diminish his physical or mental capacities, even if
they do not cause physical pain or mental anguish. [art. 2, first
paragraph]
The concept of torture shall not include physical or mental
pain or suffering that is inherent in or solely the consequence
of lawful measures, provided that they do not include the
performance of the acts or use of the methods referred to in
this article. [art. 2, second paragraph]
The following shall be held guilty of the crime of torture:
a. A public servant or employee who acting in that
capacity orders, instigates or induces the use of torture, or
who directly commits it or who, being able to prevent it, fails
to do so.
b. A person who at the instigation of a public servant or
employee mentioned in subparagraph (a) orders, instigates
or induces the use of torture, directly commits it or is an
accomplice thereto. [art. 3]
Neither the dangerous character of the detainee or
prisoner, nor the lack of security of the prison establishment
or penitentiary shall justify torture. [art. 5, second paragraph]
"Forced disappearance" is defined in article II of the Inter-American Convention on
the Forced Disappearance of Persons as:
the act of depriving a person or persons of his or their freedom,
in whatever way, perpetrated by agents of the state or by
persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization,
support or acquiescence of the state, followed by an absence
of information or a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation
of freedom or to give information on the whereabouts of that
person, thereby impeding his or her recourse to the applicable
legal remedies and procedural guarantees.
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