Article5: Freedom from Torture

and Degrading Treatment

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture, or to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
What is torture?

 Torture occurs when someone deliberately causes very

serious and cruel suffering (physical or mental) to another
person. This might be to punish someone, or to intimidate
or obtain information from them.
 Based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the
instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting
in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or
incidental to lawful sanctions.

 It is further elaborated in the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture, which makes the
absolute nature of the prohibition of torture crystal clear: “No exceptional circumstances
whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any
other public emergency, may be invoked as justification of torture.”
What is degrading treatment?

 Degrading treatment means treatment that is extremely

humiliating and undignified. Whether treatment reaches a
level that can be defined as degrading depends on a
number of factors. These include the duration of the
treatment, its physical or mental effects and the sex, age,
vulnerability and health of the victim. This concept is
based on the principle of dignity - the innate value of all
human beings.
 As one former UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay put it, “no one is let off the hook – neither the
actual torturers themselves, nor the policy-makers and public officials who define the policy or give the
orders.”

In 1975, a young woman was arrested by Pinochet’s political police and interrogated at the infamous
Villa Grimaldi torture centre in Chile’s capital, Santiago. Decades later, after democracy was restored,
Michelle Bachelet went on to serve two terms as president of Chile. Today she is the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights.

This is one in a series of articles published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) to mark the 70th anniversary of adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on
10 December 1948. All rights enshrined in the UDHR are connected to each other, and all are equally
important.