The eradication of the torture as a legal objective: the highs and the lows of the contribution of the International Law

Abstract

In this work the author analyzes in which way the International Law seeks the eradication of torture, its prevention and effective repression. It is about a goal which consecution could hardly be reached without the taking part of a decisive and sustainable political will from the States of the international community. Even though, the prohibition of torture, currently imposed to the States “erga omnes parte” by the International Law with an universal character, absolute and unabolishable –de ius cogens- it is contained within a plurality of international tools, universal and regional, among of which it is outstanding the Convention against Torture of the United Nations, concluded in 1984. It examines, in first place, in which way the content of the obligation of the State of non torture should be summarized with the aim, in second place, of focusing the assessment on the developments that the International Law of the Human Rights has resulted in regarding the positivation of the human right of non being subject of torture or inhuman treatment, on the one side, and with the international responsibility of the individual who should be considered as author of tortures committed in a common or systematic way, on the other.