Part 3 99 3.5.1 Torture and Ill-treatment is a Crime in International Law and Should Be Outlawed in Domestic Law118 The rule of law focuses not only on what is done, but on how it is done. Law enforcement officials have a duty to respect and enforce all laws, including those that protect human rights. They are to implement any laws in a human rights-compliant manner. If police fail to do so, they are not reducing criminality, but rather adding to it and committing crimes themselves, for which they are liable to be punished. Torture and other forms of ill-treatment are crimes under international law and all OSCE participating States have committed themselves to criminalize all acts of torture (including other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment) in domestic legislation, ensure that these acts are punished by adequate penalties, and provide adequate remedies for victims. Any attempt to commit torture or any participation and complicity in torture should be similarly criminalized. This requires that the definition of torture in domestic law comply with international standards, in particular the Convention against Torture. Case Study – Complicity in torture* X is seized from a bus by officials of state A and held incommunicado for 23 days. He is interrogated repeatedly and accused of being a member of a terrorist organization, without being charged. He is denied access to a lawyer, translator and consular official from his home country, as well as to his family. He is then handed over to agents of state B, in the absence of any arrest warrant or legitimate request for extradition, and tortured by them at the airport, in the presence of officials from state A. State A does not seek diplomatic assurances that X will not be tortured by agents of state B, despite publicly available information attesting that there are credible reasons to believe that he may be at risk of torture in their custody. 118 For a comprehensive explanation of the status of torture in international law and the impact of that status on domestic legal systems see Countering Terrorism, Protecting Human Rights: A Manual, op. cit., note 19, Chapter 10.