CEDAW/C/55/D/33/2011 person to a jurisdiction in which he or she may face serious violations of human rights, notably arbitrary deprivation of life or torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The principle of non-refoulement also constitutes an essential component of asylum and international refugee protection. 25 The essence of the principle is that a State may not oblige a person to return to a territory in which he or she may be exposed to persecution, including gender-related forms and grounds of persecution. Gender-related forms of persecution are forms of persecution that are directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affect women disproportionately. An explicit non-refoulement provision is contained in article 3 of the Convention against Torture, which prohibits the removal of a person to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture. Obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as interpreted by the Human Rights Committee in its jurisprudence, 26 also encompass the obligation on States not to extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm, such as that contemplated by article 6, on the right to life, and article 7, on the right to be free from torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, of the Covenant, in the country to which the person will, or may subsequently, be removed. 27 8.9 The absolute prohibition of torture, which is part of customary international law, includes, as an essential corollary component, the prohibition of refoulement to a risk of torture, which entails the prohibition of any return of an individual where he or she would be exposed to a risk of torture. The same holds true for the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of life. Gender-based violence is outlawed under human rights law primarily through the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Committee against Torture, in its general comment No. 2, has explicitly situated gender violence and abuse within the scope of the Convention against Torture. 28 8.10 As to the State party’s argument that nothing in the Committee’s jurisprudence indicates that any provisions of the Convention have extraterritorial effect, the Committee recalls that, under article 2 (d) of the Convention, States parties __________________ 25 26 27 28 13-42827 See article 33 (prohibition of expulsion or return (“refoulement”)) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. See, for example, communication No. 470/1991, Kindler v. Canada, views adopted on 30 July 1993, para. 6.2. See general comment No. 20 of the Human Rights Committee, on article 7 (prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), para. 9 (“States parties must not expose individuals to the danger of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment upon return to another country by way of their extradition, expulsion or refoulement”); and general comment No. 31 of the Human Rights Committee, on the nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States parties to the Covenant, para. 12. CAT/C/GC/2, para. 18. See also Human Rights Committee, communication No. 1465/2006, Kaba v. Canada, views adopted on 25 March 2010. It is also worth noting that the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have found instances of rape of detainees to be tantamount to acts of torture. In addition, “rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity” constitutes a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and “rape” constitutes a crime against humanity under the statutes of the international criminal tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. 17/19