PART B: Substantive Norms on Torture in the African Regional Human Rights System the family of where the individual is being held, to conditions of overcrowded prisons and beatings and other forms of physical torture, such as deprivation of light, insufficient food and lack of access to medicine and care’.177 Threshold for Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Though the Commission has not always clarified whether violations of Article 5 amount to torture or to other ill-treatment, its jurisprudence does provide guidance on the threshold that must be attained for an act to violate Article 5. In HuriLaws v. Nigeria, the Commission concluded that treatment impugned as torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment must attain a minimum level of severity. However, the determination of the minimum required to bring such treatment within the scope of the Charter prohibitions depends on several variables, including the duration of the treatment, its effects on the physical and mental life of the victim and, where relevant, the age, gender and state of health of the victim.178 With regard to the Commission’s interpretation of the definition of torture, it has in its jurisprudence referred to the definition found in Article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture179, which is as follows: [T]he term “torture” means 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. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.180 The Commission has provided some clarification as to the kinds of acts that would fall within the definition of inhuman and degrading treatment. It has consistently held that: Article 5 of the Charter prohibits not only cruel but also inhuman and degrading treatment. This includes not only actions which cause serious physical or psychological suffering, but which humiliate or force the individual against his will or conscience.181 ACHPR, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (on behalf of Esmalia Connateh and 13 Others) v. Angola, Comm. No. 292/2004, 43rd Ordinary Session (May 2008), para. 52 (emphasis added). 178 ACHPR, Huri-Laws v. Nigeria, Comm. No. 225/98, 28th Ordinary Session (6 November 200), para. 4. 179 ACHPR, Sudan Human Rights Organisation and COHRE v. Sudan, Comm. Nos. 279/03 & 296/05, para. 155. 180 UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1984, entered into force on 26 June 1987, Article 1. 181 ACHPR, International Pen, Constitutional Rights Project, INTERIGHTS (on behalf of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr.) and Civil Liberties Organisation v. Nigeria, Comm. Nos. 137/94, 139/94, 154/96 & 161/97, 24th Ordinary Session 177 51