rights and human dignity” and has committed to strive for its elimination, recognizing the importance of international standards such as those codified in the CAT.281 183. No exceptional circumstance whatsoever may justify acts of torture, including threats of terrorist acts or armed conflict.282 Fundamental security challenges cannot be used to question the absoluteness and non-derogability of the torture prohibition.283 Nor can an order from a superior officer or a public authority serve as justification to violate the prohibition of torture.284 The absolute and non-derogable character of the prohibition is part of customary international law,285 as acknowledged by the United States,286 and is considered a peremptory norm of international law, or jus cogens.287 The prohibition of illtreatment is similarly considered non-derogable by the Committee against Torture,288 and is reflected in non-derogable terms within Article 7 of the ICCPR.289 184. The United States, as a State party to the CAT, has an obligation to prevent torture and illtreatment “in any territory under its jurisdiction”.290 As explained in the introduction of this report, international bodies have interpreted this obligation to extend not only to their sovereign territory, but also to any areas over which States parties exercise “directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, de jure or de facto effective control”.291 Accordingly, the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment also covers acts committed on ships or aircraft registered by a state as well as at military bases and detention facilities, so long as the State party in question exercises factual or effective control.292 Similarly, rights protected under the ICCPR, including the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, are understood to be applicable to all individuals in the territory or under the jurisdiction of a state, irrespective 281 OSCE Budapest Document, op. cit., note 3, para. 20. CAT, Art. 2; UN CAT, General Comment No. 2, op. cit., note 76, para. 5; ICCPR, Art. 4; UN HRC, General Comment No. 20, Article 7: Prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 at 30, 10 March 1992, para. 3, <http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?Lang=en&TreatyID=8&DocTypeID=11>; OSCE Copenhagen Document, op. cit., note 80, para. 16.3; OSCE Athens Document, op. cit., note 80, para. 4; ICTY, Prosecutor v. Anto Furundžija, Case No. IT-95-17/1-T, 10 December 1998, para. 144, <http://www.icty.org/x/cases/furundzija/tjug/en/furtj981210e.pdf>. 283 UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, “Study on the phenomena of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the world, including an assessment of conditions of detention”, A/HRC/13/39/Add.5, 5 February 2010, paras. 44-45, <http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A.HRC.13.39.Add.5_en.pdf>. 284 CAT, Art. 2; UN HRC, General Comment No. 20, op. cit., note 282, para. 3; UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Theo van Boven, Interim report to the General Assembly, A/59/324, 1 September 2004, para. 15, <http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/59/324>; UN Special Rapporteur on torture, “Study on the phenomena of torture”, ibid., para. 42. 285 UN CAT, General Comment No. 2, op. cit., note 76, para. 1; ICJ, Questions relating to the obligation to prosecute or extradite (Belgium v. Senegal), 20 July 2012, para. 99, <http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/144/17064.pdf>. 286 UN HRC, Fourth periodic report of the United States of America, op. cit., note 39, para. 171. 287 UN CAT, General Comment No. 2, op. cit., note 76, para. 1; UN HRC, General Comment No. 24 (52): Issues relating to reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under article 41 of the Covenant, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.6, 11 November 1994, para. 10, <http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.6>; ICJ, Belgium v. Senegal, op. cit., note 285, para. 99; ICTY, Prosecutor v. Anto Furundžija, op. cit., note 282, para. 144. 288 UN CAT, General Comment No. 2, ibid., para. 3; OSCE Athens Document, op. cit., note 80, para. 3. 289 ICCPR, Art. 7. 290 CAT, Arts. 2, 16. 291 UN CAT, General Comment No. 2, op. cit., note 76, para. 16. 292 Ibid. 282 77