Chapter 1 • International Human Rights Law and the Role of the Legal Professions: A General Introduction Convention against Torture as such was ratified on 8 December 1988. By virtue of these changes, torture, wherever it takes place in the world, became a triable criminal offence in the United Kingdom. The question before the House of Lords on second appeal turned on whether there were any extraditable offences and, in the affirmative, whether Senator Pinochet was immune from trial for committing those crimes.59 The question of double criminality became an important issue, with a majority of the Lords being of the view that Senator Pinochet could be extradited only on charges concerning acts which were criminal in the United Kingdom when they took place. A majority of the law Lords concluded that State immunity in respect of torture had been excluded by the Convention against Torture, and that the offences of torture and conspiracy to torture committed after 8 December 1988 were extraditable, with a minority of the House of Lords holding that English courts had extraterritorial jurisdiction as from 29 September 1988 when Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 entered into force. This decision allowed the United Kingdom Home Secretary to go ahead with the proceedings relating to the relevant parts of the Spanish request for Senator Pinochet’s extradition. However, on 2 March 2000, after medical experts had concluded that the former Head of State of Chile was unfit to stand trial, the Home Secretary decided that he would not be extradited to Spain but was free to leave Britain. In spite of its final outcome, this case is a landmark in the international law of human rights in that it confirmed the erosion of the notion of State immunity for international crimes as a result of the entry into force of the Convention against Torture. South Africa: The example of South Africa is significant in that, after the collapse of the apartheid regime, it drafted a constitution which was heavily influenced by international human rights standards and which contains, in its Chapter 2, a detailed Bill of Rights, which includes a wide range of rights, such as the right to equality, the right to freedom and security of the person, the freedoms of expression, assembly and association, political rights, environmental rights, the right to property, the right of access to adequate housing, the right to health care services, sufficient food and water, social security, the rights of the child, the right to basic education, the right of access to courts and the rights of arrested, detained and accused persons. International human rights law has had a considerable impact on the development of law at the domestic level and is now frequently invoked and applied by domestic courts. 59 See definition of question by Lord Brown Wilkinson, House of Lords, Judgment of 24 March 1999 – Regina v. Bartle and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Others Ex Parte Pinochet; Regina v. Evans and Another and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Others Ex Parte Pinochet (On Appeal from a Divisional Court of the Queen’s Bench Division); this Judgment is found on the following web site: http://www.publications.parliament.uk. 24 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers