A/72/178 28. Second, torture constitutes an aggravated form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 34 “Aggravation” here refers to aggravated wrong, which does not necessarily require aggravated pain and suffering. As pointed out by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, “the violation of an individual’s right to physical and mental integrity has different levels that range from torture to other types of abuse or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the physical and mental consequences of which vary in intensity according to factors that are endogenous and exogenous to the individual (such as, duration of the treatment, age, sex, health, context, and vulnerability), which must be analysed in each specific situation”. 35 29. Third, while the notion of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment may include a wide range of actions a mounting to unlawful infliction of pain or suffering, the aggravated threshold of torture requires a number of additional criteria that may vary slightly depending on the applicable treaty definition and its interpretation by the relevant oversight bodies. Thus, according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, “an act constitutes torture when the ill -treatment: (a) is intentional; (b) causes severe physical or mental suffering, and (c) is committed with a specific purpose or objective”. 36 Similarly, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has interpreted torture as “the intentional and systematic infliction of physical or psychological pain and suffering in order to punish, intimidate or gather information” and usefully pointed out that tort ure could be carried out by “State or non-State actors at the time of exercising control over such person or persons”. 37 According to the European Court of Human Rights, torture, as opposed to other inhuman and degrading treatment, involves “deliberate inhuman treatment causing very serious and cruel suffering”. 38 Both the European Court and the African Commission have used article 1 of the Convention against Torture as a reference point for defining torture for the purposes of the European Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 39 whereas inter-American bodies have tended to refer to the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture. 40 30. As a previous mandate holder has clarified, “torture constitutes such a horrible assault on the dignity of a human being because the torturer deliberately inflicts severe pain or suffering on a powerless victim for a specific purpose, such as extracting a confession or information from the victim” ( A/HRC/13/39, para. 60; see also A/63/175, para. 50). The distinguishing factor between torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment “is not the intensity of the __________________ 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 12/24 Convention against Torture, art. 16, and Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Trea tment or Punishment, art. 1 (2). See also Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, report No. 92/05, case 12.418, para. 62; and European Court of Human Rights, Selmouni v. France (application No. 25803/94), Judgment of 28 July 1999, para. 96. Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Lysias Fleury et al. v. Haiti, Judgment of 23 November 2011, para. 73. Ibid., para. 72. See also Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “Gayle v. Jamaica, Merits”, para. 62. African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, communication No. 279/03-296/05, “Sudan Human Rights Organization and Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions v. Sudan”, 27 May 2009, para. 156. European Court of Human Rights, Selmouni v. France, Judgment of 28 July 1999, para. 96. See, for example, European Court of Human Rights, Salman v. Turkey (application No. 21986/93), Judgment of 27 June 2000, para. 114, and Selmouni v. France, Judgment of 28 July 1999, para. 97; and African Commission on Human and Peoples’ R ights, communication No. 279/03-296/05, para. 156. See, for example, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Fernández Ortega et al. v. Mexico, Judgment of 30 August 2010, paras. 77 and 120, and Bueno-Alves v. Argentina, Judgment of 11 May 2007, para. 78. 17-12326