The United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: How it is Still Better to Light a Candle than to Curse the Darkness?

At the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993 the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action was adopted by the representatives of 171 states.! During the ten days of the Conference intense debate and negotiation resulted in a number of profound gains for human rights advocates in the United Nations. Of these, two will have far-reaching consequences for the world community: (1) Paragraph 5 of the Vienna Declaration and Programme for Action recognised that "all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated'? thus rejecting the idea of derogability upon the basis of cultural conditions, and (2) in paragraph 18 the creation of the office of High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations was recommended.3 Such an officer now exists with policy and administrative authority over the Human Rights Centre of the United Nations in Geneva.