Prohibition against torture
No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, may be invoked as a justification of torture, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency. This principle is strongly underlined in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United Nations in 1984 and entered into force in 1987. A committee of experts - Committee Against Torture, CAT - was established under the Convention and mandated to oversee and monitor the implementation by its State Parties. The Committee may also, under certain conditions, consider individual complaints.
In 1985, the Commission on Human Rights established a Special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to examine, monitor and report on torture worldwide. The special rapporteur reports regularly to the Human Rights Council.
The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture was established in 1981 to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of torture and their families. The Fund receives voluntary contributions from governments, NGOs and individuals.
More on UN and prohibition against torture
- Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).
- Documents of the Committee against Torture carry the following symbols
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CAT/- |
Committee Against Torture |
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Ex. CAT/C/55/Add.7 |
Committee Against Torture. Country report, 55th session. Addendum 7 |
- Committee against Torture (CAT). Background information and news, full text reports and documents, conventions and protocols, lists of signatures and ratifications and reporting guidelines and a link to the Treaty Body Database.
- State Parties Reports. The State Parties are obliged to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention for consideration by the Committee.
- Concluding observations, reports and comments of the Committee.
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Information about the special rapporteur on torture, the mandate and activities, as well as reports and other documentation in fulltext.
- United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. Information on activities and mandate as well as provides fulltext documents.
Human Rights, conventions and declaration
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Swedish | in English
- Resolution 217 A (III) / (A/RES/217) adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 during its 183rd plenary meeting.
- The Core International Human Rights Instruments and their monitoring bodies.
- Universal Human Rights Index - UHRI. Human rights recommendations from all parts of the UN system: the UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies, the Human Rights Council mechanisms Universal Periodic Review and Special Procedures. Each document links to other related information in the database.
- Charter-based Body Database. Documents and reports of the Human Rights Council, its predecessor and their subsidiaries and parent organs. Maintained by OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
- Treaty Body Database. Full text documents from the UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies.
- Yearbook on Human Rights 1946-1988
- OHCHR website for background information, documents and reports.
- Research guides by Dag Hammarskjöld Library:
Key UN documents
- UN Charter in Swedish | in English
- UN System Chart
- Yearbook of the United Nations
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Swedish | in English
- Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
- Statue of the International Court of Justice
UN documents and publications in catalogues and databases
- United Nations Digital Library offers UN documents and open access publications, UN voting data and speeches, UN maps, Content in 6+ languages. Replaces the traditional online catalogue UNBISnet.
- UN iLibrary UN publications online covering different topics.
- ODS full-text UN documents published from 1993 onward and scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993 in the official languages of the UN.
- Daily list of documents (ODS). Documents published for the day, with full text links, can be found in the United Nations full text database ODS.
- UNBIS Thesaurus a multilingual database of the controlled vocabulary used to describe UN documents.
- Index to proceedings is an annual bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the major UN organs. The index includes:
- a list of all documents
- a comprehensive subject index
- an index to speeches
- a voting chart of resolutions
- United Nations Documents Index (United Nations Digital Library) References to all documents by subject area are published. A collection of indexes is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld and Law Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva.