A/77/502 IV. Applicable international legal framework against torture and other ill-treatment A. Definition of torture under international law 28. The prohibition of torture, an erga omnes and jus cogens norm, 9 is one of the first and few absolute human rights, reflected in its non -derogability. It is prohibited in peacetime, in armed conflict and during other public emergencies and is without territorial limits. Lesser forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treat ment or punishment are prohibited under customary international law. 10 29. Torture is within a unique class of international norm that is both (a) a human rights violation actionable by individuals against Governments and by Governments against Governments 11 and (b) a crime under international law. The systematic or widespread practice of torture constitutes a crime against humanity, while torture, cruel treatment and outrages upon human dignity committed during armed conflict are war crimes. Torture is often used as a form of genocide 12 and to reinforce apartheid systems and is regularly a precursor to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions. Rape and sexualized torture are prohibited in all circumstances. 13 Other prohibited conduct includes medical or scientific experimentation or punishment; 14 and corporal punishment used as an educative or disciplinary measure, or as unlawful punishment for a crime. 15 Torture and inhuman treatment can define the persecution from which refugees are granted asylum, representing the loss of protection of their own Governments. 30. What is understood globally as “torture” is best laid out in the definition contained in the Convention against Torture (art. 1 (1)): The term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspe cted of __________________ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 22-22673 Questions relating to the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite (Belgium v. Senegal), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2012, p. 422, para. 99; International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Mucić et al., IT-96-21-T, Judgment of 16 November 1998, para. 454; International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Furundžija, IT-95-17/1-T, Judgment of 10 December 1998, paras. 153 ff.; International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Kunarac et al., IT-96-23-T and IT-96-23/1-T, Judgment of 22 February 2001, para. 466; Committee against Torture, general comment No. 2 (2007), para. 1; and the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its seventy-first session (29 April–7 June and 8 July–9 August 2019) (A/74/10), pertaining to peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens). General Assembly resolution 74/143, fourth preambular paragraph. See e.g. International Court of Justice, Questions relating to the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite (Belgium v. Senegal), Application Instituting Proceedings, 19 February 2009; European Court of Human Rights, Cyprus v. Turkey, Application No. 25781/94, Judgment of 10 May 2001; and European Court of Human Rights, Ireland v. United Kingdom, Application No. 5310/71, Judgments of 18 January 1978 and 10 September 2018. See also OHCHR, “Accountability in Syria under the Convention against Torture: the joint Canada/Netherlands’ initia tive”, press release, December 2021. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, ICTR-96-4-T, Judgment of 2 September 1998, para. 504. Ibid., para. 687; International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Mucić et al., IT-96-21-T, Judgment of 16 November 1998, para. 495. See also A/74/148, paras. 29 ff. See further Alice Edwards, Violence against Women under International Human Rights Law (Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 219 –227. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 7. See also Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 20 (1992), para. 7. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 20 (1992), para. 5. 9/17