The development of the CAT followed decades of horrific abuses and atrocities, plus growing efforts made by Amnesty International and other organizations to protect human rights, “recognizing torture as a crime against humanity, and calling upon regimes to respect, implement, and improve the national and international laws prohibiting torture.”
Between 1968 and1980, Amnesty gathered reports from all over the world of people being tortured, and launched their first campaign against torture in 1972. In 1973, the UN denounced torture and in 1975 adopted a non-binding Declaration against Torture (the “Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”), proclaimed as a “guideline for all States and other entities exercising effective power.” However, depending upon voluntary domestic measures to uphold such guidelines was considered unrealistic. In response, Amnesty and others argued a need to adopt a legally binding Convention.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly took the first step toward the drafting and adoption of a legally binding instrument on torture, and used the principles enunciated in the 1975 Declaration as a guide for the Convention. The General Assembly adopted the CAT in 1984. After being ratified by 20 states, the Convention entered into force on 26 June 1987.
The CAT’s prohibition of torture was absolute: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” This blanket prohibition was viewed by the drafters of the CAT as “necessary if the Convention is to have significant effect, as public emergencies are commonly invoked as a source of extraordinary powers or as a justification for limiting fundamental rights and freedoms.”