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56. Many other provisions of the CAT apply to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,
including the obligation to prevent such practices. Article 16, in identifying the means to
prevent ill-treatment, emphasises "in particular" the measures outlined in Articles 10 to 13 of
CAT, but does not explicitly limit its application to these articles. 113
57. Furthermore, the obligation to prevent ill-treatment in practice overlaps with and
IS
largely congruent with the obligation to prevent torture. As noted by the Committee Against
Torture in 2007, "in practice, the definitional threshold between ill-treatment and torture is
often not clear. Experience demonstrates that the conditions that give rise to ill-treatment
frequently facilitate torture and therefore the measures required to prevent torture must be
applied to prevent ill-treatment." Accordingly, the Committee Against Torture considered not
only that the use of evidence obtained through ill-treatment is impermissible but that such
prohibition to be likewise non-derogable under the Convention. 114 Later, in 2008, the
Committee considered that Articles 3 to 15, inclusive, are obligatory with regard to both
torture and ill-treatment. llS A UN General Assembly Resolution adopted in 2013 moves in
this same direction by encouraging States to extend the prohibition against invoking torturetainted evidence to evidence obtained through ill-treatment. 116
58. Relevant provisions of both the American and European Conventions on Human Rights
prohibit the use of torture and ill-treatment. ll7 Article 8(3) of the American Convention goes
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Dordrecht:
Martinus Nijhoff, 1988)("Burgers and Danelius"), p. 147-148 ("Unlike the provision of the Declaration [on the
protection of all persons from being subjected to torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment], article
15 of the present Convention applies exclusively to torture."); United Nations Convention Against Torture Oxford Commentaries, pp. 534-535 (noting Article 15 only refers to torture and not ill-treatment, because states
could not reach consensus on which state obligations should apply to all forms of ill-treatment and which to
torture only.); The Chamber further notes that Article 16 of the CAT incorporates cruel, inhuman and degrading
conduct into four additional Articles (10, 11, 12, 13), but fails to include it in Article 15.
113 UNCA T, Article 16 ("Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other
acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defmed in article
I, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public
official or other person acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in Articles 10, 11,
12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture of references to other forms of cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" (emphasis added)).
114 General Comment 2, paras 3, 6; UN Special Rapporteur 2014 Report, paras 20-22 (addressing torture and
other ill-treatment without distinction with respect to Article 15).
115 General Comment No. 2para. 6.
116 UN Doc. AlRES/671161, UN General Assembly Resolution 671161 - Torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, 7 March 2013, para. 16 ("Strongly urges States to ensure that no statement
that is established to have been made as a result of torture is invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except
against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made, encourages States to extend that
~rohibition to statements made as a result of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment [... ]").
17 See Article 5(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights ("ACHR") and Article 3 of the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental freedom which both foresee that no one shall
be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.
Decision on Evidence Obtained through Torture, Public,S February 2016
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