tion against Torture), BiH is obliged to take effective measures to prevent acts of torture; defined as the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental for a certain purpose.15 This obligation is further bolstered by Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which supports the right not to be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.16 Similarly, BiH is obliged to prohibit torture or inhuman and degrading punishment as set out by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).17 Additionally, according to these same instruments, BiH is also obliged to prevent and prohibit acts that may be of lesser severity than torture. Sharp distinctions between the differences in torture and ill-treatment have not been and should not be drawn.18 However, the European Court of Human Rights has provided that for treatment or punishment to reach the threshold of inhumane treatment, there needs to be bodily injury, or intense physical and mental suffering.19 Alternatively, degrading treatment is recognized by the Court as treatment that humiliates and debases an individual, and “showing a lack of respect for, or diminishing, his or her human dignity, or arouses feelings of fear, anguish or inferiority capable of breaking an individual's moral and physical resistance”.20 Accompanying these standards, international law also compels BiH to prohibit and prevent acts of torture or ill-treatment when they are specifically “committed by, or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting an official capacity”, as set forth in the Convention against Torture.21 This is additionally emphasized in such international standards as the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.22 Persons within prisons are particularly vulnerable due to the dependent and subordinate relationship they have with persons acting in an official capacity. 15 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1987). Article 2 (1) requires State parties to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture. Article 1(1) defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.” 16 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, UN Doc. A/6316 (1966). Article 7, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.” 17 Article 3 ECHR provides: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” 18 Human Rights Committee, General Comment 20, Article 7, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 at 30 (1994). Para 4: “The Covenant [ICCPR] does not contain any definition of the concepts covered by Article 7, nor does the Committee consider it necessary to draw up a list of prohibited acts or to establish sharp distinctions between the different kinds of punishment or treatment; the distinctions depend on the nature, purpose and severity of the treatment applied.” 19 Pretty v United Kingdom, ECtHR, 29 April 2002 at para. 52. 20 Pretty v United Kingdom at para. 52. 21 Convention Against Torture, Article 1, “[a]ny act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person…. when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.” (emphasis added). 22 UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, General Assembly resolution 34/169 of 17 December 1979, Article 5: “[n]o law enforcement official may inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. 5