The prohibition of torture: tribute to Dimitrios Evrigenis

Abstract

The separate opinion of Professor Dimitrios Evrigenis, the first Greek judge
in Strasbourg following the Greek re-ratification of the European Convention
on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1974, is well-known. This opinion was delivered
in the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the inter-
State application of Ireland against the United Kingdom in January 19781.The
subject of the application was the so-called five interrogation techniques used
by English police officers against suspects suspected of involvement in ter-
rorist activities of the Irish Republican Army. The main feature of those tech-
niques was the temporary deprivation of one or more human senses by sim-
ple, non-medicinal means.
The prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in subse-
quent binding rights instruments, such as the International Covenant on Civ-
il and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and, most
recently, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Finally, it is enshrined in two
specific conventions against torture, one of the United Nations2 and one of the
Council of Europe3, which bear the same title.