torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 12 Praxis According to the ECHR, torture has some distinct features: it involves severe mental or physical pain or suffering inflicted intentionally for a specific purpose, for example to obtain information, as a punishment or as a form of intimidation. According to the ECHR, torture differs from inhuman or degrading treatment in terms of the intensity or severity of the pain and suffering.6 Inhuman treatment, according to the court, at least encompasses treatment that intentionally inflicts severe mental or physical suffering and which can be regarded in the specific situation as unjust. Degrading treatment is treatment that evokes a sense of fear, anxiety or inferiority in the victim. Subjective circumstances such as the victim’s gender and age are of great significance to determining whether treatment or punishment is degrading. Treatment can be degrading even if no one other than the victim themselves has witnessed or gained knowledge of it. Review bodies etc. The CAT The committee monitors how states implement the provisions of the Convention against Torture. This work primarily involves the committee reviewing reports submitted by the states themselves. States are reviewed every five years. Conclusions, comments and decisions from the committee’s ten independent experts have the status of guidance with respect to the states that have ratified the convention. Sweden’s latest report was reviewed in autumn 2014. The UN Convention against Torture has been applicable in Sweden since 1987. The countries that have signed the convention are scrutinised by a special committee, the Committee against Torture (CAT). States are to report regularly on their compliance with the convention. If allowed by a acceding state, private individuals may also make complaints to the committee.7 However, the UN convention does not give the committee a mandate to conduct visits in acceding states. Non-governmental organisations8 were early in arguing that the most effective way to prevent torture and other violations of persons deprived of their liberty would be to introduce a system that would give them the opportunity to conduct regular visits. Several states agreed with this view, and a protocol supplementing the convention to this effect was adopted in 2002. The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture is more commonly known as OPCAT. OPCAT entered into force in 2006. OPCAT established an international committee, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT). It also stated that acceding states are to appoint one or more national preventive mechanisms (NPM9). The task of both the SPT and the national preventive mechanisms 6 Factors significant to the assessment are the duration of the abuse, its effects on physical and mental well-being, the victim’s gender, age and state of health and how the abuse was carried out. 7 Sweden allows complaints from private individuals. 8 The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Swiss Committee against Torture (later the Association for the Prevention of Torture, APT) 9 National Preventive Mechanism