person and the recognition of his or her legal status, and further prohibits all forms of exploitation and degradation of man or woman, including slavery, slave trade and torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment. 30 89. It is prudent under these circumstances to revisit the definition of torture. The definition provided by the CAT which the Commission has endorsed and adopted reads as follows: For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on ,discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering i~ inflicted by or at the instigation of or with,fhe consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions. 31 90. The essential elements of torture, which must be proven by _a Complainant are a) severe pain or suffering has to have _been inflicted; b) the severe pain or suffering must have been inflicted intentionally; c) this must have been inflicted for a specific purpose, such as to obtain information, as punishment or to intimidate, or for any, reason based on discrimination; and d) this must have been inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of state authorities.32 91. Psychological torture, which is alleged by the Complainant has not been strictly defined under the Charter but the Commission notes that its definition of torture refers to the infliction of pain or suffering, whether physical or mental. The InterAmerican Court in Urrutia v. Guatemala, discussed psychological torture: 91. The Court also underscores that the elements of the concept of torture established in Article 2 of the Inter-American Convention against Torture include methods to obliterate the personalihJ of the victim in order to attain certain objectives, such as obtaining information from a person; or intimi,dation or punishment, which may be inflicted through physical violence or through acts that produce severe mental or moral suffering in the victim. 92. An international juridical regime of absolute prohibition of all forms of torture, both physical and psychological, has been developed and, with regard to the latter, it has been recognized that the threat or real danger of subjecting a person to physical harm produces, under determined circumstances, such a degree of moral anguish that it may be considered