CAT/C/SR.92 page 2
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The meeting was called to order at 4.05 p.m.
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION (agenda item 4) (continued)
Initial report of the United Kingdom (CAT/C/9/Add.6) (continued)
1.
ME. MORRIS (United Kingdom) said he regretted that the texts of the legislation on torture had not been annexed to the report, as his Government had intended. The texts would be sent with the next report. The report drawn up by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture following its visit to the United Kingdom in 1990 a confidential report communicated only to the State concerned would be made public, together with his Government's detailed reply, subject to the agreement of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
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2. Mrs. EVANS (United Kingdom), replying to a request by several members of the Committee, read out section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988:
3.
"Section 134.
(1) A public official or person acting in an official capacity, whatever his nationality, commits the offence of torture if in the United Kingdom or elsewhere he intentionally inflicts severe pain or suffering on another in the performance or purported performance of his official duties.
(2) A person not falling within subsection (1) above commits the offence of torture, whatever his nationality, if
(a) In the United Kingdom or elsewhere he intentionally inflicts severe pain or suffering on another at the instigation or with the consent or acquiescence:
(b)
(i)
Of a public official; or
(ii) Of the person acting in an official capacity; and
The official or other person is performing or purporting to -perform his official duties when he instigates the commission of the
offence or consents to or acquiesces in it.
(3) It is immaterial whether the pain or suffering is physical or mental and whether it is caused by an act or an omission."
Subsections (4) and (5) of section 134 applied and developed article 1, paragraph 1, of the Convention against Torture.
La. The members of the Committee would note that section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act was very close in substance and form to article 1, paragraph 1, of the Convention. The only differences related to "lawful sanctions", which had been adapted in section 134 to English law concepts, and the absence from that