Prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment from an extraterritorial perspective 2015, para. 34
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Furthermore, the use of the phrasing "any territory under its jurisdiction" in articles 11-13 reflects a common-sense drafting choice that cannot be interpreted as intending to limit a State's obligations to take preventive measures against torture and ill-treatment when in fact it is compelled to do so by a factual situation that entails the State's actual control or authority over an area, place or person outside its territory. For example, the preventive obligations enshrined in article 11 that require a systematic review of interrogation rules for custody and treatment of persons in detention cannot be interpreted as limiting States' obligations to their sovereign territories or places over which they exercise complete governmental authority (CAT/C/USA/CO/3-5). Rather, the clause denotes a particular factual situation and the obligations enshrined in the article apply by virtue of the authority or control wielded by State agents involved in the arrest, detention, imprisonment or interrogation of persons abroad, in places such as in Bagram and Abu Ghraib in Iraq and other extraterritorial detention facilities such as Central Intelligence Agency "black sites" or offshore refugee processing centres. Likewise, the obligations enshrined in articles 12 and 13 must also be triggered by virtue of a State's exercise of de jure or de facto control over a particular area, detention facility or individual. By contrast, the obligations enshrined in article 10 do not contain a spatial reference, given that their practical implementation is not contingent upon the State party's control or authority over a particular individual or area. As explained by a former mandate holder, if a soldier of State A under the command of State B in a peacekeeping operation in State C were to commit an act of torture, State A could be responsible for failure to provide appropriate training under article 10 (State B and the United Nations might also be responsible).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Paragraph number
- 34
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