or punishment is based. Indeed, as it stated in Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and Interights v. Egypt, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment necessarily violates human dignity.v This means that any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment constitutes an affront to human dignity. 126. Neither the African Charter nor the Maputo Protocol defines the concept of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In the absence of such a definition, the Commission can only look to other international human rights instruments to understand its scope. In its General Comment No. 20 interpreting Article 7 of the ICCPR, which prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the 'BN Human Rights Committee has indicated that the prohibition in Article 7"re1.ates not only to acts that cause physical pain to the victim, but also to acts that inflict mental sufferings' . '."-';""', , /' . i 127. Furthermore, in the Committee's view, the,prohi'bition should extend to corporal punishment, including excessive punishment", as a penal, educational or disciplinary measure+ . In the case of Egyptian Injtiative for Personal Rights and Interights v. Arab Republic of Egypt, the Committee noted that the acts covered by Article 5 are notofily acts causing severe physical or mental suffering but also acts that humiliate or coerce the person against his or her will or conscience.s'' 128. The Human Rights, Committee does not provide an exhaustive list of what constitutes torture;' .cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. However, some.of the treatments already considered by the Committee as torture, cruel, inhuman or degradingjtreatment or punishment can serve as a basis for understanding the scope of torture. For example, it considered that allegations of ill-treatment or, abuse against prisoners, including beatings, burnings, electric shocks, burial ?live in sand until death and rape of women, constitute evidence of widespread use of.torture or cruel or inhuman treatment=. 129. In this case, the Commission is called upon to determine whether the alleged facts constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 5 of the African Charter. The Complainants allege in particular that the victims are subjected to ill-treatment by health care providers resulting in debilitating injuries or death as women die due to unnecessary delays in obtaining Malawi International, Ms Sarr Oiop; Union interafricaine Ayants-Oroit, Association Mauritanienne des droits de l'Homme des Oroits de I'Homme / Mauritanie 24 Africa Association, Amnesty and RAOOHO, Collectif des Veuves et (2000) ACHPR para 118.