Committee Against Torture (CAT) United Nations Special Rapporteur,1 which examines the relationship between corruption and torture or maltreatment, including poor judicial accountability or use of torture to combat corruption. On particular note, a limited number of persons have been held to account before Palestinian courts for acts of torture or maltreatment, as demonstrated in the State’s report. • In regards to the definition of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment 1. The effective legislative framework does not provide a definition of the crime of torture as an independent crime within the meaning of the Convention. Operative laws consider a number of acts that constitute physical assault as torture. However, these are less criminalised than the act of “torture” or “maltreatment” as defined by the Convention. On the other hand, laws in force deem the offence of torture as a misdemeanour, rather than a crime. The perpetrator is liable to insufficiently dissuasive penalties, which are disproportionate to the criminal offence and other conditions laid out by the Convention. These laws do not include the act of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”, which is committed by public servants within the format, manner, and conditions provided for by the Convention. Accordingly, the State needs to incorporate this term into its legal framework in conformity with the criminalisation of “torture” and other actions taken thereon as contained in the Convention. 2. The State has not put in place any legislative procedures for fully incorporating the Convention within the national legal system. Such measures would enable citizens to invoke the provisions of the Convention before national judiciary. Moreover, the Report does not lay out the State’s guidelines for full incorporation of the Convention into the national legal system. • Data on the Gaza Strip o It is pertinent to refer to note that the Gaza Strip comprises (6%) percent (360 out of a total 5,860 square kilometres) of the territory of the State of Palestine as recognised by the United Nations. According to data released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in mid-2022, the Gaza 1 United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, fortieth session, 25 February–22 March 2019, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 9