CAT/C/CR/33/1 page 2 (c) The repeal in 2003 of executive decree No. 1581/01, which required the automatic rejection of requests for extradition in cases involving serious and flagrant violations of human rights under the military dictatorship. 4. The Committee also warmly welcomes the following positive developments: (a) The recent ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention in November 2004; (b) The ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in February 2001; (c) The promulgation in January 2004 of the new Migration Act, No. 25.871, which lays down, inter alia, that a foreigner may be detained only by a judicial authority; (d) The work accomplished by the National Commission for the Right to an Identity, which was entrusted with the task of locating children who disappeared under the military dictatorship. C. Factors and difficulties impeding the application of the Convention 5. The Committee takes note of the difficulties encountered by the State party, especially those of an economic and social nature. However, it points out that there are no exceptional circumstances of any kind which may be invoked to justify torture. D. Subjects of concern 6. The Committee expresses its concern at the following: (a) The many allegations of torture and ill-treatment committed in a widespread and habitual manner by the State’s security forces and agencies, both in the provinces and in the federal capital; (b) The lack of proportion between the high number of reports of torture and ill-treatment and the very small number of convictions for such offences, as well as the unjustifiable delays in the investigation of cases of torture, all of which contributes to the prevailing impunity in this area; (c) The repeated practice of miscategorization of actions by judicial officials, who treat the crime of torture as a minor offence (such as unlawful coercion), which carries a lesser punishment, when in fact such actions should be categorized as torture; (d) The uneven application of the Convention in the various provinces of the State party, and the lack of machinery for accommodating the requirements of the Convention to the federal structure of the country, despite the fact that the State party’s Constitution grants those provisions the same status as the Constitution itself;

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