Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment A/RES/77/209 national preventive mechanisms, and the considerable network of centres for the rehabilitation of victims of torture, to prevent and combat torture and to alleviate the suffering of victims of torture, Deeply concerned about all acts which can amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment committed against persons exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and freedom of expression in all regions of the world, 1. Condemns all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including through intimidation, which are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever and can thus never be justified, and calls upon all States to implement fully the absolute and non -derogable prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; 2. Also condemns any action or attempt by States or public officials to legalize, instigate, authorize, consent to or acquiesce in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under any circumstances, including on grounds of national security and counter-terrorism or through judicial decisions, and urges States to ensure the accountability of those responsible for all such acts; 3. Stresses that States must neither punish personnel for not obeying orders to commit or conceal acts amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment nor allow pleas of respondeat superior as a criminal defence in cases in which such orders were obeyed; 4. Emphasizes that acts of torture or inhuman treatment are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, that acts of torture and cruel treatment in armed conflict are serious violations of international humanitarian law and in this regard constitute war crimes, that acts of torture can constitute crimes against humanity and that the perpetrators of all acts of torture must be prosecuted and punished, and in this regard notes the efforts of the International Criminal Court to end impunity by seeking to ensure accountability and punishment of perpetrators of such acts, in accordance with the Rome Statute, bearing in mind its principle of complementarity, and encourages States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or acceding to the Rome Statute; 5. Also emphasizes that States must take persistent, determined and effective measures to prevent and combat all acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, stresses that all acts of torture must be made offences under national criminal law punishable by appropriate penalties tha t take into account their grave nature, and calls upon States to prohibit under national law acts constituting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; 6. Stresses that States must ensure that no statement or evidence that is established to have been obtained as a result of torture is invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement or evidence was obtained, urges States to extend that prohibition to statements or evidence obtained as a result of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and recognizes that adequate corroboration of statements, including confessions, used as evidence in any proceedings constitutes one safeguard for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; 7. Urges States not to expel, return (“refouler”), extradite or in any other way transfer a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, stresses the importance of effective legal and procedural safeguards in this regard, and recognizes that diplomatic assurances, where given, do not release States from their obligations 22-28950 3/10