46 | P age b This provision does not criminalize torture as a separate or independent crime. Rather it makes torture one of the acts that constitute crime of use of improper method which is a crime against public office not crime against person. As an act, the CC does not even provide what it means by torture. However, it could be said that torture, physical or mental, is one of the act which maybe constitute crime of use of improper method when the other elements are met. The next sections provide comparative analysis of elements of torture in Ethiopia criminal Code and international law as well as discuss what how prosecution of torture acts are made in the absence of separate and non-defined crime of torture. 4.2. The Nature of the Act The provision Article 424 (1) provides that improperly … treats the person concerned in an improper or brutal manner, or in a manner which is incompatible with human dignity or his office, especially by the use of blows, cruelty or physical or mental torture …‟ The spirit of the provision seems generally punishing all types of ill-treatments. Although there is no clear position as to what distinguish torture from other forms of ill treatments international human rights bodies followed two approaches- severity and purposive approaches. While the HRC under its GC Noon article 7 has provides that The Covenant does not contain any definition of the concepts covered by article 7, nor does the committee consider it necessary to draw up a list of prohibited acts or to establish sharp distinctions between the different kinds of punishment or treatment the distinctions depend on the nature, purpose and severity of the treatment applied. Nevertheless HRC has indicated that the violation of article 7 of ICCPR evaluated on the basis of the circumstances of the case, such as the duration and manner of the treatment, its physical or mental effects as well as the sex, age and state of health of the victim. 212 The CAT has recognized that in practices, the definitional threshold between cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and torture is often not clear. 213 Nevertheless, the jurisprudences of CAT are not clear as to which approach is followed by the committee. In Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), „Torture in International law A guide to jurisprudence, (2008) 8 (Hereinafter APT 2008). CAT, GC No. 2, Para 3 (Emphasis added.
