CAT/C/GC/2
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12.
Through review of successive reports from States parties, the examination of individual
communications, and monitoring of developments, the Committee has, in its concluding
observations, articulated its understanding of what constitute effective measures, highlights of which
we set forth here. In terms of both the principles of general application of article 2 and
developments that build upon specific articles of the Convention, the Committee has recommended
specific actions designed to enhance each State party’s ability swiftly and effectively to implement
measures necessary and appropriate to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment and thereby assist
States parties in bringing their law and practice into full compliance with the Convention.
13.
Certain basic guarantees apply to all persons deprived of their liberty. Some of these are
specified in the Convention, and the Committee consistently calls upon States parties to use them.
The Committee’s recommendations concerning effective measures aim to clarify the current
baseline and are not exhaustive. Such guarantees include, inter alia, maintaining an official register
of detainees, the right of detainees to be informed of their rights, the right promptly to receive
independent legal assistance, independent medical assistance, and to contact relatives, the need to
establish impartial mechanisms for inspecting and visiting places of detention and confinement,
and the availability to detainees and persons at risk of torture and ill-treatment of judicial and other
remedies that will allow them to have their complaints promptly and impartially examined, to
defend their rights, and to challenge the legality of their detention or treatment.
14.
Experience since the Convention came into force has enhanced the Committee’s
understanding of the scope and nature of the prohibition against torture, of the methodologies of
torture, of the contexts and consequences in which it occurs, as well as of evolving effective
measures to prevent it in different contexts. For example, the Committee has emphasized the
importance of having same sex guards when privacy is involved. As new methods of prevention
(e.g. videotaping all interrogations, utilizing investigative procedures such as the Istanbul Protocol
of 19992, or new approaches to public education or the protection of minors) are discovered, tested
and found effective, article 2 provides authority to build upon the remaining articles and to expand
the scope of measures required to prevent torture.
IV.
Scope of State obligations and responsibility
15.
The Convention imposes obligations on States parties and not on individuals. States bear
international responsibility for the acts and omissions of their officials and others, including agents,
private contractors, and others acting in official capacity or acting on behalf of the State, in
conjunction with the State, under its direction or control, or otherwise under colour of law.
Accordingly, each State party should prohibit, prevent and redress torture and ill-treatment in all
contexts of custody or control, for example, in prisons, hospitals, schools, institutions that engage in
the care of children, the aged, the mentally ill or disabled, in military service, and other institutions
as well as contexts where the failure of the State to intervene encourages and enhances the danger of
privately inflicted harm. The Convention does not, however, limit the international responsibility
2
Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment.