The Commission's decision on the Merits 66. The Commission is called upon to determine whether the actions of the Respondent State as described above constitute a violation of Articles 1, 5, 6, and 7 of the African Charter as alleged by the Complainant. The Commission observes that the Respondent State has not made submissions on the Merits despite having been requested to do so on a number of occasions. The Commission will therefore examine the Communication on the basis of the information at its disposal and must give due weight to the Complainant's allegations insofar as these have been adequately substantiated. Alleged violation of Article 5 67. Article 5 of the Charter provides as follows: Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in the human being and to the recognition of his legal status. All forms of exploitation and degradation of man, particularly slavery, slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment shall be prohibited. 68. The Commission notes from the onset that the present Communication does not raise any issues related to slavery and slave trade and will therefore confine its analysis of Article 5 to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 69. Torture is considered as one of the most egregious and morally reprehensible human rights abuses and its prohibition is one of the most fundamental values of democratic societies. The prohibition is absolute and non-derogable and applies even in the most difficult of circumstances including public emergencies. 70. In interpreting Article 5 of the Charter in respect of torture, the Commission has adopted the definition of torture contained in Article 1 × 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 is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the 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. of the Convention against Torture.23 In Sudan Human Rights Organization and Center for Housing Rights and Evictions v Sudan,24 the Commission set out the elements that constitutes torture, namely, that severe pain or suffering has to have been inflicted; for a specific purpose, such as to obtain information, as punishment or to intimidate, or for any reason based on discrimination; by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of state authorities. 71. The Complainants have submitted that the victims went through various forms of physical torture during their detention ranging from severe beating with whips and sticks, doing the Arannabb Nut (rabbit jump), heavy beating with water hoses on all parts of their bodies, death threats, forcing them to kneel with their feet facing backwards in order to be beaten on their feet and asked to jump up immediately after, as well as other forms of ill-treatment. These facts have not been contested. 72. The medical certificates submitted by the Complainants point to the fact that the treatment of the victims while in detention resulted to serious physical injuries and psychological trauma. The course of events as described by the Complainants also shows that the treatment was inflicted by security forces acting in their official capacity with the aim of extracting confessions from the victims and as punishment for the killing of police men at the Soba Aradi IDP camp. 73. The Commission considers that this treatment and the surrounding circumstances were of such a serious and cruel nature that it attained the threshold of severity as to amount to torture. 74. Regarding the incommunicado detention, death threats, denial of access to medical care and adequate toilet facilities, the Commission observes that holding a person in detention under conditions that are not in keeping with his dignity and pose a threat to his health amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. 75. The Commission considers that the term 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment' is to be interpreted so as to extend to the widest possible protection against abuse, whether physical or mental.25 . As outlined in the Commission's Robben Island Guidelines26 , States Parties are under an obligation to put in place certain procedural safeguards in order to prevent detainees from being subjected to abuse. 8