CAT : the text

The Convention against torture consists of 3 parts for a total of 33 articles. It forces the State Parties:

• to take all the measures necessary to prevent and suppress acts of torture
• to protect persons deprived of their liberty against attacks on their moral and physical integrity.

It defines torture as « 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 suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions » (article 1)