Chapter 8 • International Legal Standards for the Protection of Persons Deprived of Their Liberty On this issue, Principle 22 of the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment goes a step further by stipulating that “no detained or imprisoned person shall, even with his consent, be subjected to any medical or scientific experimentation which may be detrimental to his health” (emphasis added). The question may rightly be asked whether such vulnerable persons should ever be subjected to any medical or scientific experimentation, given the often difficult task of predicting the possible adverse effect that such experimentation may have. 2.4 Torture and law enforcement officials, health personnel and prosecutors It follows from what has been said above that every person concerned with the arrest, interrogation or detention and imprisonment of a suspect or convict has the legal duty to treat the person with whom he or she has to deal with respect for human dignity and to refrain from resorting to torture or ill-treatment. With regard to those who exercise police powers, such as arrest and detention, this has also been made explicit in the 1979 Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which provides in its article 5 that: “No law enforcement official may inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, nor may any law enforcement official invoke superior orders or exceptional circumstances such as a state of war or a threat of war, a threat to national security, internal political instability or any other public emergency as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” As far as medical personnel are concerned, Principle 2 of the Principles of Medical Ethics relevant to the Role of Health Personnel, particularly Physicians, in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment stipulates that: “It is a gross contravention of medical ethics, as well as an offence under applicable international instruments, for health personnel, particularly physicians, to engage, actively or passively, in acts which constitute participation in, complicity in, incitement to or attempts to commit torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Rather, it is the duty of these professional groups to protect the physical and mental health of detainees and prisoners and to provide them with treatment “of the same quality and standard as is afforded to those who are not imprisoned or detained” (Principle 1). As pointed out by the Human Rights Committee, it is important that the States parties to the Covenant disseminate information to the population regarding the ban on torture, and, as further emphasized by the Committee, “enforcement personnel, medical personnel, police officers and any other persons involved in the custody or 332 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers