A License to Torture ? During the development of struggle for an international prohibition on torture, the role of definitions and elements of torture in deed matters. As a result of criticism on the adequacy of the definition of torture in the Torture Declaration, Article 1 of UNCAT, as a source of international law, defines torture in a more elaborate way as follows: “For the purposes of this convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason 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.”7 In addition to that definition of ‘torture’, Article 16 of UNCAT also states, “Each State party shall undertake to prevent … other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1…”, despite no precise definition of such treatments in UNCAT.8 While the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is an absolute right, the obligation to prohibit torture crosscuts three parts of international law – international human rights law (IHRL), international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL). Myanmar is not a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) – both are sources of international human rights law that require the State party to ensure the prohibition of torture. However, international obligation to prohibit any form of torture is a matter of customary international law or jus cogen which binds all States including Myanmar as a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The prohibition of torture applies not only in the times of peace but the times of war pursuant to the international humanitarian law (IHL). This means torture is not justified in international armed conflicts but non-international armed conflicts.9 In addition to these facts, practice of torture constitutes a violation of international criminal law (ICL). 1998 Rome Statute describes torture, along with some other kinds of atrocities, as 7 Ibid. Art 1 8 World Organisation Against Torture, Interpretation of the Definition of Torture or Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in the Light of European and International Case Law: the Need to Preserve Legal and Jurisprudential Evolutions and Acquis, October 30, 2004, http://www.refworld.org/docid/46c190b20 9 Rule 90. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ICRC, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule90, (accessed June 10, 2023) Equality Myanmar 13