in the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Convention, while not providing any definition of torture, links the prohibition of torture with the notions of “inhuman” and “degrading” treatment. Nevertheless, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights tends to distinguish between the different concepts. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that in order to fall within the scope of Article 3 of the ECHR, an act of ill-treatment must attain a “minimum level of severity”.34 The assessment of this “entry level” threshold of severity is relative and the Court has noted the following aspects: • • • • The duration of the treatment; The physical effects of the treatment; The mental effects of the treatment; The sex, age, and state of health of the victim. II. INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS OF ARTICLES 1–16 OF THE CONVENTION 2. ANALYSIS OF SUBSTANTIVE PROVISIONS While this “entry level threshold” applies to all acts coming within the scope of Article 3, the Court went on to draw a distinction between inhuman and degrading treatment and torture. It was held that such a distinction was necessary because a “special stigma” attaches to torture.35 Accordingly, the Court held that in order to be classified as torture, the treatment must cause “serious and cruel suffering”. The Court decided that the “measuring stick” for assessing whether an act amounts to torture is similar to the minimum entry level threshold required for Article 3 of the ECHR, i.e. a subjective decision based upon the severity of pain and suffering occasioned by the act. 26 The Convention, like other conventions referring to torture, includes the prohibition of “mental torture” within the scope of the prohibition of torture36. Mental torture has been defined by the European Commission on Human Rights as: “The infliction of mental suffering through the creation of a state of anguish and stress by means other than bodily assault.”37 A non-exhaustive list of examples of mental pain or suffering amounting to torture includes prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mindaltering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality of the victim; the threat of imminent death; or the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly his or her senses or personality.38 The former UN Special Rapporteur on the Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley, has also emphasised that the prohibition of torture relates not only to acts that cause