Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Terrorism and Counter-terrorism Fact Sheet No

B. Challenges to the absolute prohibition against 
torture
The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment 
or punishment is absolute under international law. It is a peremptory 
norm—or a norm of jus cogens
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—and is non-derogable even in states 
of emergency threatening the life of the nation under international and 
regional human rights treaties.
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The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment 
does not yield to the threat posed by terrorism or to the alleged danger 
posed by an individual to the security of a State.
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In practice, however, 
States have often adopted policies and methods to confront terrorism 
that, in effect, circumvent and undermine this absolute prohibition.
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For example, the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading 
treatment to elicit information from terrorist suspects is absolutely 
prohibited, as is the use in legal proceedings of evidence obtained by 
torture, whether at home or abroad, and of “secret evidence” put forward 
by prosecuting and other authorities in judicial proceedings, in violation 
of the principle of non-admissibility of evidence extracted by torture, 
contained inter alia in article 15 of the Convention against Torture.
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States’ policies that aim to exclude the application of human rights law 
to individuals outside their territory may effectively erode the absolute 
prohibition of torture, cruel and degrading treatment or punishment. 
According to the Human Rights Committee, the rights enshrined in the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights apply to all persons 
who may be within a State party’s territory and to all persons subject to 
its jurisdiction (see above). This means that a State party must respect 
and ensure the rights laid down in the Covenant—including the absolute 
prohibition of torture—to anyone within its power or effective control, 
even if not situated within its territory. Similarly, the International Court 
of Justice has stated that, while the jurisdiction of States is primarily 
territorial, the rights enshrined in the Covenant extend “to acts done by 
a State in the exercise of its jurisdiction outside its own territory.”
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Regarding conditions of detention, practices such as the use of secret and 
incommunicado detention,
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as well as prolonged solitary confinement 
and similar measures aimed at causing stress, may amount to torture, 
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
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States must ensure that the full range of legal and practical safeguards 
to prevent torture is available, including guarantees related to the right 
to personal liberty and security, and to due process rights. These are, for 
instance, the right for anyone arrested or detained on criminal charges to 
be brought promptly before a judge and to be tried within a reasonable 
amount of time or to be released. They also include the right promptly to 
challenge the lawfulness of one’s detention before a court. The Human 
Rights Committee, in its general comment N° 29, has confirmed that this 
right is to be protected at all times, including during a state of emergency, 
thereby highlighting the crucial role of procedural guarantees in securing 
compliance with the absolute prohibition of torture or any other form of 
inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment. Additionally, detainees must be 
given regular access to medical doctors and legal counsel. Finally, States 
should allow the regular and independent monitoring of detention centres 
(see also sect. D below).
The entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against 
Torture on 22 June 2006 is a significant development towards ensuring the 
practical protection of detainees against torture and other cruel, inhuman 
or degrading treatment. It establishes an international Subcommittee 
on Prevention of Torture with a mandate to visit places of detention in 
States parties and requires States parties to set up national preventive 
mechanisms, which are also to be provided with access to places of 
detention and prisoners. The High Commissioner for Human Rights has 
encouraged all States to sign and ratify this instrument as an important 
practical measure and a demonstration of their commitment to preventing 
torture and ill-treatment, and protecting the human rights of those within 
their jurisdiction.