17 | P age b one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This provision differs from Article UDHR and Article ICCPR only insofar as it omits the word cruel. Inter-American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) provides that No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment. All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person ‟. 70 The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) 71 also under its Art. 5 prohibit torture as follow Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status. All forms of exploitation and degradation of man particularly slavery, slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment shall be prohibited. The Charter is different from the other instruments as it contains several prohibitions in a single article and attaches the issue of torture with value of human dignity. 72 Finally International Humanitarian Laws (IHL) and International Criminal laws (ICL) prohibit torture. The Four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols as well as the Statutes of ad hoc and Permanent International Criminal tribunals make torture punishable as war crime and crimes against humanity at international level. 73 Article 17 of the third Geneva Convention specifies that no physical or mental torture, nor any form of coercion, maybe inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever ‟. Torture is also precluded as a grave breach of each of the Geneva Conventions. 70 ACHR, Art. 5/2 F. Ouguergouz, The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights A Comprehensive Agenda for Human Dignity and Sustainable Democracy in Africa (Hague: Kluwer Law International 2003) 118-123. ibid. I, art 12; GC II, art. 12; GC III, art. 17 and 87; and GC IV, art. 32; API, Art. 75 (2) (ii) and AP II, Art. 4 (2) (a UN Security Council, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court(last amended 2010) Hereinafter ICC) Art. 7 and 8; UN Security Council, Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (as amended on 17 May 2002) Hereinafter ICTY Statute) Art. 3 and 5; UN Security Council, Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (as amended on 13 October 2006) Hereinafter ICTR Statute, Art. 3 and 4; see also C. Smith, Common article 3 of the Geneva conventions as a minimum standard in international humanitarian law (2005) 13 Irish Students Law Review 168.
