• Certain human rights have become norms of customary international law, including the right to be treated humanely while in detention and certain minimum standards of due process (including the presumption of innocence). Such norms must always be complied with by all States. • Departure from some other human rights standards might be permissible under the ICCPR only: o In times of lawfully proclaimed public emergency which threatens the life of the nation; and o Where departure from those rights is non-discriminatory and strictly necessary and proportionate to the emergency. DISCUSSION The CAT, as noted above, does not allow States to derogate, or depart, from any of the rights contained in that Convention. The CAT states that: 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.109 There will also be certain rights that have become customary norms and therefore cannot be departed from. Such rights include minimum due process rights (including the presumption of innocence),110 the principle of non-discrimination111 and the right not to be subject to 107 Article 6(5), ICCPR. Article 3, Montreal Convention. 109 Article 2(2), CAT. 110 The Human Rights Committee in General Comment 29, para 16 notes that: Safeguards related to derogation as embodied in Article 4 of the [ICCPR] are based on the principle of legality and the rule of law inherent in the [ICCPR] as a whole. As certain elements of the right to a fair trial are explicitly guaranteed under international humanitarian law during armed conflict, the Committee finds no justification for derogation from these guarantees in other emergency situations. The Committee is of the opinion that the principles of legality and the rule of law require that fundamental requirements of fair trial must be respected during a state of emergency. Only a court of law may try and convict a person for a criminal offence. The presumption of innocence must be respected. In order to protect non-derogable rights, the right to take proceedings before a court to enable the court to decide without delay on the lawfulness of detention must not be diminished by a State party’s decision to derogate from the [ICCPR]. 111 On 8 March 2002, for example, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a statement recalling that the prohibition of racial discrimination is a peremptory norm of international law from 108 63