Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 26. While the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not prohibit capital punishment, it does impose strict limitations on its use. In the face of steadily growing world public opinion in favour of full abolition of capital punishment, the General Assembly, in 1989, adopted the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, which does, for States parties, prohibit use of the death penalty. It currently has 49 States parties. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 27. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide entered into force in January 1951. It was, like the United Nations itself, a product of the universal horror and outrage felt by the international community at the gross violations of human rights which characterized the Second World War. The Convention confirms that genocide is a crime under international law, and aims to advance international cooperation towards the abolition of this atrocity. In particular, it addresses acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group through killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 28. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment entered into force in June 1987 and currently has 136 States parties. The Convention goes considerably further than the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in protecting against the international crime of torture. Article 1, paragraph 1, of the Convention defines "torture" as: any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions. Article 16, paragraph 1, defines "other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as: other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. … 10