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Abstract

The 26 June 1987, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the “European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”, which entered eventually into force two years later. Being closely intertwined with the European Convention of Human Rights (1950), the Torture Convention establishes a parallel monitoring system ensuring the respect of the subjective rights contained therein. In addition to the 1950 Convention, it introduces an absolutely novel mechanism aimed to address in a preventive and effective way the needs related to the protection of human dignity and other core human rights belonging to individuals deprived of their liberty. This short study endeavors firstly to describe the preparatory phases of the Convention. In this connection, the raisons d’être and concerns which led to its birth will be likewise analyzed in the first part of the study. Secondly, an operational definition of “torture and inhuman and degrading treatments” will be propounded, in the light of a concise referral to the European Court of Human Rights case-law. A brief survey of the Convention main provisions will be the topic dealt with in the third part of the study. Finally, its implementation, the pivotal role of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the respective roles of the latter and International Committee of the Red Cross will be the focus of the fourth and last part

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