United Nations
A/RES/65/205
Distr.: General
28 March 2011
General Assembly
Sixty-fifth session
Agenda item 68 (a)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 21 December 2010
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/65/456/Add.1)]
65/205. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment
The General Assembly,
Reaffirming that no one shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment,
Recalling that freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment is a non-derogable right that must be protected under all
circumstances, including in times of international or internal armed conflict or
disturbance or any other public emergency, that the absolute prohibition of torture
and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is affirmed in
relevant international instruments and that legal and procedural safeguards against
such acts must not be subject to measures that would circumvent this right,
Recalling also that the prohibition of torture is a peremptory norm of
international law and that international, regional and domestic courts have held the
prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to be customary
international law,
Recalling further the definition of torture contained in article 1 of the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, 1 without prejudice to any international instrument or national
legislation which contains or may contain provisions of wider application,
Emphasizing the importance of properly interpreting and implementing the
obligations of States with respect to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment and of abiding strictly by the definition of torture contained
in article 1 of the Convention,
Noting that, under the Geneva Conventions of 1949, 2 torture and inhuman
treatment are a grave breach and that, under the statute of the International Tribunal
for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International
Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991,
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1
2
10-52484
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1465, No. 24841.
Ibid., vol. 75, Nos. 970–973.
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