The European convention for the prevention of torture: 1992-1997

Five years ago we surveyed the early years of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment1. At that time there was already a good deal of information available regarding the modus operandi of the Committee which was established but comparatively little regarding the manner in which the Committee was translating its mandate2 into practice. Today the picture has changed considerably. The manner in which the Committee conducts its work is essentially unchanged but from the large corpus of published reports it is possible now to map out the principal standards promulgated by the Committee and through which it seeks to fulfil its functions3. The purpose of this article is to highlight these developments.