...dialogue with civil society organisations working on human rights protection, ‘in particular those combating racial discrimination’. Human rights defenders and journalists play an important role in the eradication of racial discrimination in all its forms and are often, as a result, ‘subject to harassment, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment’, including by the police.56 States should: ‘Adopt effective and timely measures to prevent acts of harassment, intimidation, retaliation and violence’;57 Prevent and put a stop ‘to all forms...

...enforce a State’s obligations under the ICCPR, please consult the “Ratification and Enforcement of Treaties” chapter, “International Human Rights Law” section. I.1 CRSV under the ICCPR🔗 The Committee has condemned sexual violence as ‘a form of extreme gender-based violence’3 that may also amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (“ill-treatment”), in contravention of: Article 7 (on torture and ill-treatment).4 As the Covenant does not contain an exhaustive definition of the forms of treatment......covered by article 7, and the Committee has not provided an exhaustive list of practices contrary to article 7 or established sharp distinctions between the different kinds of punishment or treatment,5 States should determine whether an act amounts to torture or ill-treatment on a case-by-case basis. However, the Committee has clarified that ‘article 7 relates not only to acts that cause physical pain but also to acts that cause mental suffering to the victim’.6 Further, it has......specified that conflict-related rape may amount to torture, particularly in the form of gang rapes and rapes committed in detention;7 Article 17 (on the right to privacy and family life).8 The Committee has found that conflict-related rape committed by State agents constitutes an arbitrary interference with a victim/survivor’s privacy and sexual autonomy.9 Note to reader The Committee has primarily addressed sexual violence through the lens of article 7. As such, all references to torture and ill-treatment......Political Rights Human Rights Committee (CCPR) General Comments Concluding Observations Views Note to reader On the authoritativeness and the question of bindingness of the Committee’s work, consult the “International Human Rights Law” chapter, “Introduction” section, and the “Introduction” chapter, “Methodology” section. III. Obligations🔗 Prevention🔗 III.1 States must ensure that no one subject to their jurisdiction suffers CRSV🔗 Under article 7, States must ensure that no one is subjected to torture or ill-treatment. The aim of......withdrawn.19 III.2 State should adopt legislative and other measures to eliminate CRSV🔗 Under article 2(2), States should adopt laws or other measures to give effect to the rights recognised in the Covenant. In particular, they should adopt legislative and other measures to afford everyone protection against torture and ill-treatment.20 Thus, criminalising sexual violence in all its forms is an important step in eliminating CRSV.21 Further, States should: Ensure that the Covenant takes precedence over ‘the provisions...

...for classifying acts of gender-based violence as torture ‘are satisfied when acts or omissions are gender-specific or perpetrated against a person on the basis of sex’. In determining whether gender-based violence amounts to torture or ill-treatment, ‘a gender-sensitive approach is required to understand the level of pain and suffering experienced by women’.11 I.2 When Is Sexual Violence Conflict-Related?🔗 The CEDAW’s focus on women and girls is motivated by the fact that, unlike other sections of...

...as well as article 4, which covers attempts to commit torture and any acts which constitute complicity or participation in torture.26 The obligations to prevent torture under article 2 and ill-treatment under article 16(1) ‘are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated’. The obligation to prevent ill-treatment in practice overlaps with the obligation to prevent torture. Article 16, identifying the means of prevention of ill-treatment, emphasises the adoption of the measures outlined in articles 10 to 13 on......person to be removed would enjoy additional protection, under other international instruments or national law, not to be deported to a State where they would face the risk of ill-treatment.65 Furthermore, under article 16, States still have a duty to prevent ill-treatment. Before making an assessment relating to the principle of non-refoulement, States should consider ‘whether the nature of the other forms of ill-treatment that a person facing deportation is at risk of experiencing could......able to deal with all complaints of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence,219 in an impartial manner, and that the mechanism’s investigators are independent from or not influenced by the suspected perpetrators;220 Ensure that investigations of allegations of torture and ill-treatment ‘committed by law enforcement, security, military and prison officials’ are not undertaken by the police or military, but by the complaints mechanism;221 Ensure that complainants of torture and ill-treatment are protected against reprisals and intimidation.222......torture or ill-treatment are immediately terminated from service; Ensure that all responsible officials are subject to criminal prosecution in addition to any disciplinary penalties; Provide the Committee with information on the penalties applied to all officials found to have committed torture or ill-treatment.228 CRSV in the armed forces. The Committee has expressed concern at acts amounting to torture or ill-treatment within the army, such as hazing,229 rape, and other forms of sexual violence.230 While noting the establishment of......rather than torture, a gender-sensitive lens favours treating ‘violations against women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons’ as torture, where they carry all elements of this crime, instead of reducing them to ill-treatment only.10 It is a violation of the CAT to prosecute conduct solely as ill-treatment when the elements of torture are also present.11 Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is not defined in the CAT, which only affirms that such treatment does not...

...offer reparation to victims/survivors of torture and ill-treatment irrespective of: Whether a successful criminal prosecution can or has been brought; Whether the perpetrator is identified, apprehended, investigated, prosecuted or convicted;110 Where the torture and ill-treatment were committed. States should make reparation accessible ‘to victims who were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment outside their territory’;111 Whether torture and ill-treatment are committed by the State or non-State actors. States ‘should provide reparation to victims for acts......and ill-treatment, ‘and on the specific needs of marginalised, disadvantaged and discriminated populations’; Establishing independent investigative mechanisms ‘with the capacity, skills, powers and resources to effectively investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment’; Punishing ‘both individual perpetrators and those in command and/or management positions’; Ensuring that judicial proceedings ‘conform with international due process standards, fairness and impartiality’; Strengthening the independence of the judiciary; ‘Reviewing and reforming laws contributing to or allowing torture and other ill-treatment’;127 and......to torture or ill-treatment. However, the Commission has found that States should interpret the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment as widely as possible, ‘to encompass the widest possible array of physical and mental abuses’.16 Whether an act falls within the scope of article 5 ‘depends on all the circumstances of the case, such as the duration of the treatment, its physical or mental effects and, in some cases, the sex, age and state of health......origin, fortune, birth or other status’. Under the non-discrimination principle, States should ensure equal treatment of an individual or group of persons irrespective of their particular characteristics.52 Under article 18(4), States must provide ‘the aged and the disabled’ with special measures of protection ‘in keeping with their physical or moral needs’. Further, States should pay ‘particular attention to the prohibition and prevention of gender-related forms of torture and ill-treatment and the torture and ill-treatment of......authorities and able to receive and investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment; Establish, support and strengthen independent national institutions such as ‘human rights commissions, ombudspersons and commissions of parliamentarians’ that are empowered to visit places of detention and to prevent torture and ill-treatment, in accordance with the UN Paris Principles Relating to the Status and Functioning of National Institutions for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights; Encourage and facilitate visits by NGOs to places of...

...the absence of any direct State involvement in acts of torture or ill-treatment does not absolve the State from its obligations under article 3.62 While article 3 does not require the State to guarantee, through the legal system, that torture and ill-treatment are never inflicted ‘by one individual on another’, the State must at least effectively protect persons within its jurisdiction, including preventing ill-treatment of which State authorities had or should have had knowledge.63 States......scope of article 3 (see obligation III.1),7 which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (“ill-treatment”). Note to reader The ECtHR has primarily addressed sexual violence through the lens of article 3. As such, all references to torture and ill-treatment in this subchapter encompass CRSV. Following the provisions of the Geneva Conventions,8 the ECtHR has defined armed conflict as an international conflict or a non-international armed conflict between a State and a non-State actor that......south-east of Turkey between security forces and members of the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan,24 the applicant had been detained by security forces and raped while in custody, and subjected to various forms of ill-treatment.25 The ECtHR held that rape of a detainee by a State official is ‘an especially grave and abhorrent form of ill-treatment’ given the ‘vulnerability and weakened resistance’ of the victim.26 The ECtHR considered both the psychological and physical pain caused by rape, stating that:......and freedoms enshrined in the ECHR. The ECtHR has found that under article 1, read together with article 3, States must ensure that individuals within their jurisdiction are not subjected to torture or ill-treatment,30 including that perpetrated by private individuals.31 States should prevent ill-treatment of which the authorities had or should have had knowledge, and provide effective protection, ‘in particular of children and other vulnerable persons’.32 In the case of vulnerable persons, including persons with disabilities, States......and expulsion of non-citizens and non-nationals in accordance with international law.65 However, under article 3, States may not deport such persons to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that a person faces a real risk of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment in that country.66 To determine whether there is a risk of torture or ill-treatment, the ECtHR examines the foreseeable consequences of sending an individual to a specific country, taking into account...

...of police officers and other public officials responsible for the custody of persons deprived of their liberty. Justice and Accountability🔗 III.7 States must investigate and prosecute CRSV🔗 Under articles 1(1) and 5 of the American Convention, States must investigate possible acts of torture or ill-treatment to ensure everyone’s right to humane treatment.70 When there is a well-founded reason to believe that torture or ill-treatment has been committed, States must open and conduct an investigation. States......punishment (“ill-treatment”) under article 5 of the American Convention and the IACPPT.7 Taking into account decisions of the now defunct European Commission on Human Rights, the Commission has determined that treatment is inhuman if it ‘deliberately causes severe mental or psychological suffering’ and is unjustifiable, and that it is degrading if it severely humiliates a person in front of others or forces that person to act against their wishes or conscience.8 The Commission has also......suffering, including their age, gender, and physical condition’.10 The Court has similarly followed the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights to find that psychological and moral suffering may be deemed inhuman ‘even in the absence of physical injuries’. The degrading aspect of ill-treatment is characterised by the inducement of fear, anxiety and inferiority to humiliate and degrade the victim, and break their physical and moral resistance. This situation ‘is exacerbated by the vulnerability......of a person who is unlawfully detained’.11 Whether acts amount to torture or ill-treatment depends primarily on ‘the intensity of the suffering inflicted’: torture is an aggravated form of inhuman treatment perpetrated ‘with a purpose, which is to obtain information or confessions, or to inflict punishment’. The classification should be done on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the nature of the acts, the duration of the suffering, and the physical and mental effects on......conflict, and is complementary to international humanitarian law.25 International humanitarian law does not prevent the application of international human rights law’.26 International human rights law is fully in force during international or non-international armed conflicts.27 Accordingly, sexual violence need not be conflict-related for the Inter-American Conventions to apply.28 Further, the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment is absolute and non-derogable, even in situations ‘such as war, threat of war, the fight against terrorism or any other crime, internal states...