article 3 - prohibition of torture

Question 1

article 3

Answer 1

No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Question 2

chahal v UK 1997

Answer 2

Art.3 of the ECHR set out an absolute prohibition against “torture or inhumane or degrading treatment”, regardless of the circumstances of the case; the primary consideration in the present case was not national security but rather the possibility that C would be subjected to such treatment in the event of his deportation. As there was substantial evidence of serious human rights abuses by the Indian authorities, and as their assurances of C’s safety were not wholly convincing, C’s deportation would violate Art.3.

Question 3

Ireland v UK (1979-80)

Answer 3

• The ECtHR’s distinction between “degrading treatment” and “torture” for the purposes of Article 3 highlights how torture under international law has a subjective element that evolves over time. T
• “devaluation of Convention rights and freedoms.”[27]
• The ECtHR’s conclusion that use of the “five techniques” did not amount to torture appears to have been cited by the US Attorney General as legal authority that the interrogation techniques used by the USA in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay did not amount to torture under international law.[28]
  However, one could equally argue that as the standards of human rights expected by society grow, the Convention evolves to reflect them. Indeed, it has been said that if the facts of this case were to be heard today, they “would now be regarded as torture within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention.”[29]
• The case was also significant in establishing a more general principle that the cumulative effect of mistreatment can amount to a breach of Article