United Nations Convention Against Torture

The United Nations Convention Against Torture is an international human rights instrument, organized by the United Nations and intended to prevent torture and other similar activities. It created the UN Committee Against Torture, which focuses on the duties of national leaders in a preventive role. To date, it has been ratified by 65 nations, with another 16 having signed but not yet ratified.

The Convention Against Torture is one of a series of UN agreements that seek to protect human rights. It defines torture in the following terms:

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. (Convention, Article 1.)

The Convention also requires states to take effective measures to prevent torture within their borders, and forbids states to return refugees to their home country if there is reason to believe they will be tortured.