Part I: Prohibition of torture: The legal background man, particularly slavery, slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment shall be prohibited. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child contains provisions to protect children from torture and other ill-treatment (articles 16, 17 and 30). 2.4. Arab Charter on Human Rights Article 8 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, adopted by the League of Arab States on 22 May 2004 and entered into force 15 March 2008, provides that: 1. No one shall be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, degrading, humiliating or inhuman treatment. 2. Each State party shall protect every individual subject to its jurisdiction from such practices and shall take effective measures to prevent them. The commission of, or participation in, such acts shall be regarded as crimes that are punishable by law and not subject to any statute of limitations. Each State party shall guarantee in its legal system redress for any victim of torture and the right to rehabilitation and compensation. 3. General standards In addition to these various treaties, there are a number of general standards and professional principles that are highly relevant to the prevention of torture. Many of these are soft law standards, which cannot be legally enforced in the same way as treaty obligations. However, they provide detailed and useful guidelines for interpreting terms such as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, as well as for implementing treaty obligations. The Committee against Torture, for example, makes reference to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules), when examining steps taken by States parties to implement article 11 of the Convention against Torture, which requires them to keep their detention procedures under review. 3.1. United Nations standards The United Nations has developed a number of standards and guidelines related to the prevention of torture. Two key UN instruments on detention are: • Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules). These are the primary international standards on detention and cover all aspects of prison management and the treatment of prisoners, pre-trial and convicted. The Rules were first adopted in 1957 and were revised in 2015 to reflect “advances in correctional sciences and best practices. Rule 1 is particularly important as it unequivocally prohibits any form of torture or ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. The revised rules also include other new basic principles such as dignity, non-discrimination, as well as important news rules on body searches, solitary confinement, medical ethics and inspections • Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules).50 Adopted in 2010, these are the first set of international standards addressing the specific needs of women and girls in prisons, filling a gap in international standards in this area. Although adopted in the criminal justice context, the rules are applicable to other types of detention and provide a reference on gender-sensitive treatment in detention more broadly.51 50 The Bangkok Rules complement the Nelson Mandela Rules and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules) 51 United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Female Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules), para.14 35