Chapter 8 • International Legal Standards for the Protection of Persons Deprived of Their Liberty Covenant either taken together or separately, depending on the viciousness of the treatment.44 ***** With regard to means of constraint of detained persons, the Committee against Torture has recommended that the United States of America abolish “electro-shock stun belts and restraint chairs as methods of restraining those in custody”, since their use almost invariably leads to breaches of article 16 of the Convention against Torture, which outlaws cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.45 ***** In a case against Zaire, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights concluded that “beating of detainees with fists, sticks and boots, the keeping of prisoners in chains and subjecting them to electric shock, physical suspension and submersion in water ... offend the human dignity”; such acts, together and separately, constitute a violation of article 5 of the African Charter.46 Similarly, in a case against Malawi, the Commission concluded that the acts to which Vera and Orton Chirwa were subjected in prison “jointly and separately” clearly constituted a violation of article 5; their ill-treatment and punishment for disciplinary reasons included reduction in diet, chaining for two days of the arms and legs with no access to sanitary facilities, detention in a dark cell without access to natural light, water or food, forced nudity, and beating with sticks and iron bars; these were “examples of torture, cruel and degrading punishment and treatment”.47 ***** The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has also had on numerous occasions to deal with cases involving torture and other kinds of ill-treatment, as in the so-called “Street Children” case, where the Court found that, after their having been abducted by Guatemalan State security forces and prior to their murder, “the physical and mental integrity” of the four adolescents had been violated and that “they were 44 See e.g. among many other cases, Communication No. 328/1988, R. Zelaya Blanco v. Nicaragua (Views adopted on 20 July 1994), in UN doc. GAOR, A/49/40 (vol. II), pp. 15-16, paras. 6.5-6.6 and p. 18, para. 10.5: attempts to extract confession by threats, beatings, assassination of fellow detainees etc. contrary to articles 7 and 10(1) of the Covenant; Communication No. 613/1995, A. Leehong v. Jamaica (Views adopted on 13 July 1999), in UN doc. GAOR, A/54/40 (vol. II), p. 60, para. 9.2: ill-treatment and conditions were “such as to violate the author’s right to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” under articles 7 and 10(1) (emphasis added); the author, who was on death row, had been beaten by prison warders and only allowed to see a doctor once although having made other requests to this effect; Communication No. 481/1991, J. Villacnés Ortega v. Ecuador (Views adopted on 8 April 1997), in UN doc. A/52/40 (vol. II), p. 4, para. 9.2 as compared with p. 2 para. 2.4: ill-treatment by prison personnel after an escape attempt by author’s cell-mates; the author had, inter alia, “multiple round black traces on his abdomen and thorax resulting from the application of electric discharges”; the treatment amounted to “cruel and inhuman treatment” contrary to articles 7 and 10(1) of the Covenant (emphasis added); Communication No. 612/1995, Arhuacos v. Colombia (Views adopted on 29 July 1997), in UN doc. GAOR, A/52/40 (vol. II), p. 181, para. 8.5: torture of two brothers in violation of article 7, the victims being, inter alia, “blindfolded and dunked in a canal”. 45 UN doc. GAOR, A/55/44, p. 32, para. 180(c). 46 ACHPR, World Organisation against Torture and Others v. Zaire, Communications Nos. 25/89, 47/90, 56/91 and 100/93, decision adopted during the 19th session, March 1996, para. 65 of the text of the decision as published at http://www.up.ac.za/chr/. 47 ACHPR, Krishna Achuthan and Amnesty International (on behalf of Aleke Banda and Orton and Vera Chirwa) v. Malawi, Communications Nos. 64/92, 68/92 and 78/92, decision adopted during the 16th session, October-November 1994, para. 33 of the text of the decision as published at http://www.up.ac.za/chr/. 328 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers