Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

A/RES/68/156No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 69aImplementation of human rights instruments, published in 2014.

What other versions does this mandate have?

30 versions · 1977–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/198

2025A/RES/80/198Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/77/209Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/143Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/163Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentCompare with previous version
2016A/RES/70/146Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Human Rights Monitoring Prisoner Treatment Torture and Other Cruel Treatment Torture Prevention Torture Victims

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

2 reports of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2014–2015.

2015A/70/223United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture report of the Secretary-General
2014A/69/296United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

48 operative paragraphs

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;

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 domestic criminal law punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature, and calls upon States to prohibit under domestic law acts constituting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Welcomes the establishment of national preventive mechanisms to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, urges States to consider establishing, appointing, maintaining or enhancing independent and effective mechanisms that have experts with the required capabilities and professional knowledge to undertake monitoring visits to places of detention, inter alia, with a view to preventing acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and calls upon States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to fulfil their obligation to designate or establish national preventive mechanisms that are truly independent, properly resourced and effective;

Emphasizes the importance of States ensuring proper follow-up to the recommendations and conclusions of the relevant treaty bodies and mechanisms, including the Committee against Torture, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, national preventive mechanisms and the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, while recognizing the important role of the universal periodic review, national human rights institutions and other relevant national or regional bodies in preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Condemns any action or attempt by States or public officials to legalize, authorize 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 accountability of those responsible for all such acts;

Encourages States to consider establishing or maintaining appropriate national processes to record allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to ensure that such information is accessible in accordance with applicable law;

Stresses that an independent, competent domestic authority must promptly, effectively and impartially investigate all allegations of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that such an act has been committed, and that those who encourage, instigate, order, tolerate, acquiesce in, consent to or perpetrate such acts must be held responsible, brought to justice and punished in a manner commensurate with the severity of the offence, including the officials in charge of any place of detention or other place where persons are deprived of their liberty where the prohibited act is found to have been committed;

Recalls, in this respect, the Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Principles) as a valuable tool in efforts to prevent and combat torture and the updated set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity;

Calls upon all States to implement effective measures to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, particularly in places of detention and other places where persons are deprived of their liberty, including legal and procedural safeguards, as well as education and training of personnel who may be involved in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment;

Urges States, as an important element in preventing and combating torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to ensure that no authority or official orders, applies, permits or tolerates any sanction, reprisal, intimidation or other prejudice against any person, group or association, including persons deprived of their liberty, for contacting, seeking to contact or having been in contact with any national or international monitoring or preventive body active in the prevention and combating of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Also urges States to ensure accountability for any act of sanction, reprisal, intimidation or other form of unlawful prejudicial conduct against any person, group or association, including persons deprived of their liberty, for cooperating, seeking to cooperate or having cooperated with any national or international monitoring or preventive body active in the prevention and combating of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by ensuring impartial, prompt, independent and thorough investigations of any alleged act of sanction, reprisal, intimidation or other form of unlawful prejudicial conduct; to bring the perpetrators to justice; to provide access to effective remedies for victims, in accordance with their international human rights obligations and commitments; and to prevent any recurrence;

Calls upon all States to adopt a victim-oriented approach in the fight against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, paying special attention to the views and needs of victims in policy development and other activities relating to rehabilitation, prevention and accountability for torture;

Also calls upon all States to adopt a gender-sensitive approach in the fight against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, paying special attention to gender-based violence;

Calls upon States to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities, bearing in mind the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, are fully integrated into torture prevention and protection, and welcomes the efforts of the Special Rapporteur in this regard;

Encourages all States to ensure that persons convicted of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have no subsequent involvement in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any person under arrest, detention, imprisonment or other deprivation of liberty and that persons charged with torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have no involvement in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any person under arrest, detention, imprisonment or other deprivation of liberty while such charges are pending;

Emphasizes that acts of torture 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,Error: Reference source not found 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;

Strongly urges States to ensure that no statement that is established to have been made as a result of torture is invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made, encourages States to extend that prohibition to statements made 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;

Stresses that States must not punish personnel for not obeying orders to commit or conceal acts amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

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 under international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, in particular the principle of non-refoulement;

Recalls that, for the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations, including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights;

Calls upon States parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentError: Reference source not found to fulfil their obligation to submit for prosecution or extradite those alleged to have committed acts of torture, and encourages other States to do likewise, bearing in mind the need to fight impunity;

Stresses that national legal systems must ensure that victims of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have effective access to justice and obtain redress without suffering any retribution for bringing complaints or giving evidence;

Calls upon States to provide redress for victims of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, encompassing effective remedy and adequate, effective and prompt reparation, which should include restitution, fair and adequate compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, taking into full account the specific needs of the victim;

Urges States to ensure that appropriate rehabilitation services are promptly available to all victims without discrimination of any kind and without limitation in time until the fullest rehabilitation possible is achieved, provided either directly by the public health system or through the funding of private rehabilitation facilities, including those administered by civil society organizations, and to consider making rehabilitation available to the immediate family or dependants of the victim and persons who have suffered harm in intervening to assist victims in distress or to prevent victimization;

Also urges States to establish, maintain, facilitate or support rehabilitation centres or facilities where victims can receive such treatment and where effective measures for ensuring the safety of their staff and patients are taken;

Recalls its resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988 on the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, and in this context stresses that ensuring that any individual arrested or detained is promptly brought before a judge or other independent judicial officer in person and permitting prompt and regular medical care and legal counsel throughout all stages of detention, as well as visits by family members and independent monitoring mechanisms, are effective measures for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Reminds all States that prolonged incommunicado detention or detention in secret places can facilitate the perpetration of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and can in itself constitute a form of such treatment, and urges all States to respect the safeguards concerning the liberty, security and dignity of the person and to ensure that secret places of detention and interrogation are abolished;

Emphasizes that conditions of detention must respect the dignity and human rights of persons deprived of their liberty, highlights the importance of reflecting on this in efforts to promote respect for and protection of the rights of persons deprived of their liberty, calls upon States to address and prevent detention conditions that amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and notes in this regard concerns about solitary confinement, which may amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Encourages States to take effective measures to address overcrowding in detention facilities, which may impact the dignity and human rights of persons deprived of their liberty, including through enhancing the use of alternatives to pretrial detention and custodial sentences and reducing pretrial detention, by, inter alia, adopting and effectively implementing both new and existing legislative and administrative measures and policies on its preconditions, limitations, duration and alternatives and by taking measures aimed at the implementation of existing legislation, as well as by ensuring access to justice and legal advice and assistance, and invites States to make use of technical assistance offered by the relevant United Nations entities and programmes in order to strengthen national capacities and infrastructures in this regard;

Calls upon all States to take appropriate effective legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures to prevent and prohibit the production, trade, export, import and use of equipment that has no practical use other than for the purpose of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Urges all States that have not yet done so to become parties to the Convention and to give early consideration to signing and ratifying the Optional Protocol thereto as a matter of priority;

Urges all States parties to the Convention that have not yet done so to make the declarations provided for in articles 21 and 22 of the Convention concerning inter-State and individual communications, to consider the possibility of withdrawing their reservations to article 20 and to notify the Secretary-General of their acceptance of the amendments to articles 17 and 18, with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of the Committee as soon as possible;

Urges States parties to comply strictly with their obligations under the Convention, including, in view of the high number of reports not submitted in time, their obligation to submit reports in accordance with article 19 of the Convention, and invites States parties to incorporate a gender perspective and information concerning children and juveniles and persons with disabilities when submitting reports to the Committee;

Welcomes the work of the Committee and of the Subcommittee and their reports, recommends that they continue to include information on the follow-up by States parties to their recommendations, and supports the Committee and the Subcommittee in their efforts to further improve the effectiveness of their working methods;

Invites the Chairs of the Committee and the Subcommittee to present oral reports on the work of the committees and to engage in an interactive dialogue with the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth and seventieth sessions under the sub-item entitled “Implementation of human rights instruments” of the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”;

Calls upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in conformity with her mandate established by the General Assembly in its resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993, to continue to provide, at the request of States, advisory services for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including for the preparation of national reports to the Committee and for the establishment and operation of national preventive mechanisms, as well as technical assistance for the development, production and distribution of teaching material for this purpose, and to provide the support necessary to enable the Subcommittee to provide advice and assistance to States parties to the Optional Protocol;

Welcomes the interim report of the Special Rapporteur, and encourages him to continue to include in his recommendations proposals on the prevention and investigation of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including its gender-based manifestations;

Notes the work of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group on the revision of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, reiterating that any changes should not lower any existing standards but should improve them so that they reflect recent advances in correctional science and best practices as well as international human rights obligations and commitments, and in this regard acknowledges that the expert group can benefit from the expertise of United Nations entities and other relevant stakeholders;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to consider including in his report information on the follow-up by States to his recommendations, visits and communications, including progress made and problems encountered, and on other official contacts;

Calls upon all States to cooperate with and assist the Special Rapporteur in the performance of his task, to supply all necessary information requested by the Special Rapporteur, to fully and expeditiously respond to and follow up on his urgent appeals, to give serious consideration to responding favourably to requests by the Special Rapporteur to visit their countries and to enter into a constructive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on requested visits to their countries as well as with respect to the follow-up to his recommendations;

Stresses the need for the continued regular exchange of views among the Committee, the Subcommittee, the Special Rapporteur and other relevant United Nations mechanisms and bodies, as well as for the pursuance of cooperation with relevant United Nations programmes, notably the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, with regional organizations and mechanisms, as appropriate, and with civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations, with a view to enhancing further their effectiveness and cooperation on issues relating to the prevention and eradication of torture, inter alia, by improving their coordination;

Recognizes the global need for international assistance to victims of torture, stresses the importance of the work of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, appeals to all States and organizations to contribute annually to the Fund, preferably with a substantial increase in the level of contributions, welcomes the establishment of and encourages contributions to the Special Fund established by the Optional Protocol to support the implementation of the recommendations made by the Subcommittee as well as education programmes of the national preventive mechanisms;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to transmit to all States the appeals of the General Assembly for contributions to the Funds and to include the Funds, on an annual basis, among the programmes for which funds are pledged at the United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities;

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Human Rights Council, and to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth and seventieth sessions, a report on the operations of the Funds;

Further requests the Secretary-General to ensure, within the overall budgetary framework of the United Nations, the provision of adequate staff and facilities for the bodies and mechanisms involved in preventing and combating torture and assisting victims of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including, in particular, the Committee, the Subcommittee and the Special Rapporteur, commensurate with the strong support expressed by Member States for preventing and combating torture and assisting victims of torture, in order to enable them to discharge their mandates in a comprehensive, sustained and effective manner and taking fully into account the specific nature of their mandates;

Calls upon all States, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other United Nations bodies and agencies, as well as relevant intergovernmental and civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations, to commemorate, on 26 June, the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture;

Decides to consider at its sixty-ninth and seventieth sessions the reports of the Secretary-General, including the report on the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and the Special Fund established by the Optional Protocol, the report of the Committee, the report of the Subcommittee and the interim report of the Special Rapporteur;

Also decides to give its full consideration to the subject matter at its seventieth session.

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