Details
- Offers thorough article-by-article commentary with historical context and analysis of relevant case-law from monitoring bodies, and international, regional, and domestic courts
- Provides easy access to and detailed discussion of the practice of the UN Committee Against Torture
- Highly topical in view of allegations of torture in Guantanamo and Iraq and of attempts to extradite persons considered to be 'threats to national security' to States where they may be at risk of torture
- Illustrates a model of universal jurisdiction for grave breaches of human rights
The prohibition of torture - the right to physical and mental integrity - is guaranteed in the strongest terms under international law. It is protected as an absolute right, non-derogable even in times of war or public emergency under many human rights treaties and is also generally accepted as a part of customary international law and even ius cogens.
The problem of torture resurfaced in the second half of the 20th century, and more recently in the contexts of the war in Iraq, the situation of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and of attempts to extradite persons considered to be 'threats to national security' to States where they may be at risk of torture.
The main instrument to combat torture within the framework of the United Nations is the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). It is one of the few human rights treaties which makes explicit use of the criminal law in order to prevent and eradicate violations - the main obligation of Sates parties to the CAT is to ensure that all acts of torture are offences under domestic criminal law and that punishments are appropriate to the grave nature of such crimes. The CAT even goes beyond the traditional principles of territorial and personal jurisdiction and for the first time applies the principle of universal jurisdiction under a human rights treaty.
This volume explores the problematic definition of torture in the Convention, the substantive obligations of States parties, the principle of 'non-refoulement', provisions for international monitoring, and also the concept of preventative visits to all places of detention as contained in the Optional Protocol to the CAT. It also covers issues including the distinction between torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment and the principle of non-admissibility of evidence extracted under torture. Full article by article commentary on the Convention also provides historical context and thorough analysis of case-law and practice from international and regional courts and monitoring bodies. Relevant case-law from domestic courts (such as that of the House of Lords in the Pinochet case) and the practices of domestic prison inspection panels are also discussed.
Readership: Intended as a full guide to the interpretation of the Convention for practitioners of law; human rights activists; scholars and advanced students of international law, human rights, and prison law; and for civil servants
Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Preamble
Part I
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Article 5
Article 6
Article 7
Article 8
Article 9
Article 10
Article 11
Article 12
Article 13
Article 14
Article 15
Article 16
Part II
Article 17
Article 18
Article 19
Article 20
Article 21
Article 22
Article 23
Article 24
Part III
Article 25
Article 26
Article 27
Article 28
Article 29
Article 30
Article 31
Article 32
Article 33
The Optional Protocol
Professor Manfred Nowak, Director of the Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Professor of International Human Rights, University of Vienna, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and a former Judge of the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovnia, and Elizabeth McArthur, Research Assistant, Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights and a former Human Rights Officer with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
"A work like this was long overdue...Both volumes consist of careful, up-to-date and comprehensive, article-by-article, consideration of the relevant normative texts and ensuing practice, and thus recommend themselves as indispensable for both academic international lawyers and for practitioners, whether at public service or in private practice." - Alexander Orakhelashvili, European Journal of International Law, 2009
"The publication of this timely addition to the literature, regarding an incredibly timely subject, removes any excuse for misinterpreting the norms and definitions of every feature of the Un's 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane of Degrading Treatment of Punishment...From this point forward, any book or article that fails to rely on this valuable resource is suspect, if its goal is to accurately state the underpinnings of these various features of the Torture Convention...Libraries or private collections which specialize in the assessment of issues relating to torture could not possibly boast of completeness without this well-written and superbly documented contribution to the literature on torture." - ASIL Newsletter, May 2009
