INTRODUCTION

• 1. One important reason for the existence of a right to personal integrity at an international level is the reaction of the international community to the reality of torture, the atrocious treatment to which individuals have been subjected for centuries to confess their alleged crimes, part of the history of the world for centuries. The legal international reaction to torture in the last century started with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and continued with numerous instruments intended specifically to prohibit it. These instruments regulated not only torture but also cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In 1975, the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted in the United Nations. The United Nations also subsequently adopted the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Punishment. Inhuman treatment is one of the acts that constitute the crime of apartheid. In the framework of the OAS, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture (the Inter-American Torture Convention) was adopted in 1985. Two years later, Europe approved a European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Torture constitutes a severe violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which establish the requirement of humane treatment along with the prohibition of torture and similar acts. Other international instruments regulate different aspects of this phenomenon. Although the instruments speak of torture as a phenomenon different from other ill-treatment, most of its rules also apply to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

  It is not only the number of international instruments specifically regulating this phenomenon that illustrates its gravity. Its gravity is also reflected by the fact that, first, perpetrators will incur criminal responsibility for the conduct. Furthermore, States can rely on universal jurisdiction to prosecute and punish it. Neither can torture and inhuman treatment be subject to the application of a statute of limitations. Finally, the prohibition of torture constitutes a jus cogens norm – that is, a peremptory norm of international law from which a State cannot exempt itself by, for example, making a reservation upon committing itself to a human rights treaty.