A/HRC/7/3 page 8 Committee against Torture indicated that “Since the failure of the State to exercise due diligence to intervene to stop, sanction and provide remedies to victims of torture facilitates and enables non-State actors to commit acts impermissible under the Convention with impunity, the State’s indifference or inaction provides a form of encouragement and/or de facto permission”.8 Similarly, other universal9 and regional10 bodies have been applying the due diligence test. 33. Whereas the Committee against Torture often does not specify whether a violation amounts to torture or to other forms of ill-treatment, it has stressed that ill-treatment is often conducive to torture, and therefore torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are closely intertwined. In the view of the Special Rapporteur, the main elements distinguishing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are the powerlessness of the victim and the purpose of the act. B. What constitutes torture? 1. Torture and ill-treatment of women in the public sphere11 (a) Rape and sexual violence 34. Custodial violence against women very often includes rape and other forms of sexual violence such as threats of rape, touching, “virginity testing”, being stripped naked, invasive body searches, insults and humiliations of a sexual nature, etc.12 It is widely recognized, including by former Special Rapporteurs on torture13 and by regional jurisprudence, that rape 8 Committee against Torture general comment No. 2 (2007) on the implementation of article 2 by States parties, para. 18. 9 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women general comment No. 19 (1992) on violence against women, para. 9. 10 See Inter-American Court of Human Rights (series C), Veláquez Rodríguez v. Honduras, 29 July 1988, No. 4. In MC v. Bulgaria, the European Court of Human Rights found that the failure to establish and apply a criminal law system punishing all forms of rape and sexual abuse constituted a violation of the prohibition of degrading treatment. 11 The large majority of the communications sent by the Special Rapporteur on torture in relation to violence against women involve the active participation of State officials both in and outside of classic detention settings, which include prisons, police and military detention facilities, psychiatric clinics, social care centres etc. During the last four years the Special Rapporteur on torture has sent 122 joint communications together with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women (22 in 2007, 27 in 2006, 27 in 2005 and 46 in 2004). 12 See for instance Committee against Torture concluding observations on Mexico, CAT/C/MEX/CO/4; on Guyana, CAT/C/GUY/CO/1; on Togo, CAT/C/TGO/CO/1; on Burundi, CAT/C/BDI/CO/1. 13 See E/CN.4/1992/SR.21, para. 35 and E/CN.4/1995/34, para. 19.