been prosecuted for the use of torture.193 After the definition was amended to redress this, prosecutions were initiated for torture. Nevertheless, the UN Committee against Torture has expressed concern over the low number of investigations and prosecutions as compared with the number of complaints.194 To date, it is reported that there have been no convictions of public officials for torture.195 88. In other OSCE participating States, in Eastern Europe for example, deficiencies in the definition of torture in the Criminal Code, mean that instances of alleged torture are generally prosecuted under the much lesser offence of “abuse of authority”.196 In others, there is UNCAT-compliant, legislation prohibiting torture, but officials are rarely charged with the offence of torture but, rather, with the lesser offences of “abuse of office”,197 “exceeding their powers”, “negligence”, “forced deposition”,198 or “harassment while performing duties”.199 Consequently, governments may rely on statistics that misrepresent the situation, indicating a low rate of torture cases. In one Central Asian OSCE participating State, in 2017, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that it had registered 418 cases of torture and brought charges of “torture” against 15 law enforcement officers.200 Others have responded negatively to international human rights bodies’ recommendations for establishing an independent domestic mechanism for investigating torture.201 89. Without an adequate definition of torture and the application of that definition to relevant cases, other important aspects, such as the inapplicability of amnesties to perpetrators of torture or the “no statute of limitations” rule for the crime of torture, are difficult to apply. That being said, some states do still employ amnesties for perpetrators of torture which has been criticized repeatedly by the UN Committee against Torture.202 193 Committee against Torture Forty-eighth session, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the Convention Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture- Armenia, (2012), CAT/C/ARM/CO/3, para 10. 194 Committee against Torture Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Armenia, (2017) CAT/C/ARM/CO/4, para 17. 195 Questionnaire response Armenia Helsinki Association (2019). 196 Questionnaire response Ukraine Without Torture (2019). 197 Questionnaire response Golos Svobody (Kyrgyzstan) (2019). 198 See also UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), report on visit to Kyrgyzstan, CAT/ OP/KGZ/1, 28 February 2014, para. 30. 199 Questionnaire response Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (2019). 200 Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2019”. 201 Questionnaire response Nota Bene (Tajikistan) (2019). 202 OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Torture and ill-treatment in Central Asia (Working Session 5, Rule of Law II, 12 September 2018). 56