30 BOUYID v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT 108. The fact that the slap may have been administered thoughtlessly by an officer who was exasperated by the victim’s disrespectful or provocative conduct is irrelevant here. The Grand Chamber therefore departs from the Chamber’s approach on this point. As the Court has previously pointed out, even under the most difficult circumstances, the Convention prohibits in absolute terms torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, irrespective of the conduct of the person concerned (see paragraph 81 above). In a democratic society ill-treatment is never an appropriate response to problems facing the authorities. The police, specifically, must “not inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under any circumstances” (European Code of Police Ethics, § 36; see paragraph 51 above). Furthermore, Article 3 of the Convention establishes a positive obligation on the State to train its lawenforcement officials in such a manner as to ensure their high level of competence in their professional conduct so that no one is subjected to torture or treatment that runs counter to that provision (see Davydov and Others, cited above, § 268). 109. Lastly, the Court notes, as a secondary consideration, that the first applicant was born on 22 August 1986 and was thus 17 years old on 8 December 2003. He was therefore a minor at the material time. Ill-treatment is liable to have a greater impact – especially in psychological terms – on a minor (see, for example, Rivas, cited above, § 42, and Darraj v. France, no. 34588/07, § 44, 4 November 2010) than on an adult. More broadly, the Court has on numerous occasions stressed the vulnerability of minors in the context of Article 3 of the Convention. That was the case, for instance, in Okkalı v. Turkey (no. 52067/99, ECHR 2006-XII); Yazgül Yılmaz v. Turkey (no. 36369/06, 1 February 2011) and Iurcu v. the Republic of Moldova (no. 33759/10, 9 April 2013). The need to take account of the vulnerability of minors has also been clearly affirmed at the international level (see paragraphs 52-53 above). 110. The Court emphasises that it is vital for law-enforcement officers who are in contact with minors in the exercise of their duties to take due account of the vulnerability inherent in their young age (European Code of Police Ethics, § 44; see paragraph 51 above). Police behaviour towards minors may be incompatible with the requirements of Article 3 of the Convention simply because they are minors, whereas it might be deemed acceptable in the case of adults. Therefore, law-enforcement officers must show greater vigilance and self-control when dealing with minors. 111. In conclusion, the slap administered to each of the applicants by the police officers while they were under their control in the Saint-Josse-tenNoode police station did not correspond to recourse to physical force that had been made strictly necessary by their conduct, and thus diminished their dignity.