6 The Torture Convention contains a series of provisions that indeed are likely to make the international struggle against the use of torture far more effective. Some of these are set out below. • A State Party to the Convention is obliged to “take effective legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.”7 • A State Party is not entitled to invoke as a justification for torture any exceptional circumstances, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency.”8 • An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification for torture.9 • A State Party must ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law and it must make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature. 10 • A State Party must take the measures necessary to establish jurisdiction over the offence of torture: • when the offence is committed in its territory; • when the alleged offender is a national of that State; and • where the victim is a national of that State, if that State considers it appropriate.11 By far the most significant provisions are those that apply the principle of universal jurisdiction. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a State is entitled or even required to bring proceedings in respect of certain serious crimes, irrespective of the location of the crime, and irrespective of the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. The Torture Convention incorporates this principle by requiring that, where an official or a person acting in an official capacity has inflicted torture, or has instigated torture, or has consented or acquiesced to its use in another country, and the alleged torturer is found in the territory of a State Party, that person must either be brought before a court of the State Party in which he or she is found or extradited to a state prepared to try that person. This is provided for in Article 5(2) It is further provided in Article 7(1): “The State Party in the territory under whose jurisdiction a person alleged to have committed any offence [of torture] is found shall in the cases contemplated in Article 5, if it does not extradite him, submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution.” 7 Article 2(1) Article 2(2) 9 Article 2(3) 10 Article 4 11 Article 5(1) 8 Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Only bruises on the soles of their feet. The use of Falanga by the Zimbabwe Republic Police.