SELMOUNI v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 29 94. The French Government pointed to a contradiction between the finding by the Commission, which noted the “seriousness” of the injuries found by Dr Garnier in his report of 7 December 1991, and the finding by Dr Garnier himself, who concluded in a later report that the injuries had “no serious features”. The Government also submitted that the eye specialist had concluded that there was no causal link between the alleged facts and the loss of visual acuity. In any event, they contended in the light of both the Court’s case-law (see the Ireland v. the United Kingdom, Tomasi and Aydın judgments cited above) and the circumstances of the case that the ill-treatment allegedly inflicted by the police officers did not amount to “torture” within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention. 95. The Court reiterates that Article 3 enshrines one of the most fundamental values of democratic societies. Even in the most difficult circumstances, such as the fight against terrorism and organised crime, the Convention prohibits in absolute terms torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Unlike most of the substantive clauses of the Convention and of Protocols Nos. 1 and 4, Article 3 makes no provision for exceptions and no derogation from it is permissible under Article 15 § 2 even in the event of a public emergency threatening the life of the nation (see the following judgments: Ireland v. the United Kingdom cited above, p. 65, § 163; Soering cited above, pp. 34-35, § 88; and Chahal v. the United Kingdom, 15 November 1996, Reports 1996-V, p. 1855, § 79). 96. In order to determine whether a particular form of ill-treatment should be qualified as torture, the Court must have regard to the distinction, embodied in Article 3, between this notion and that of inhuman or degrading treatment. As the European Court has previously found, it appears that it was the intention that the Convention should, by means of this distinction, attach a special stigma to deliberate inhuman treatment causing very serious and cruel suffering (see the Ireland v. the United Kingdom judgment cited above, pp. 66-67, § 167). 97. The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which came into force on 26 June 1987, also makes such a distinction, as can be seen from Articles 1 and 16: