IX: Armed conflict 62. Situations of armed conflict involving conventional hostilities, asymmetric warfare or counterterrorism operations pose particular challenges with respect to the protection of human and peoples’ rights including the freedom from torture and other ill-treatment. State Parties are not permitted to derogate from their treaty obligations which prohibit torture and other ill-treatment under any circumstances, even during emergency situations such as war, insurgency or severe social unrest. State Parties are therefore required in times of armed conflict to uphold their obligations by both precluding their agents from committing acts in violation of Article 5 of the African Charter and intervening where non-State actors in armed conflict commit similar violations. State Parties are obliged to provide redress to victims as outlined in this General Comment including in the context of armed conflict. 63. The prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment in the context of armed conflict is well established under treaty and customary international humanitarian law. Torture and other ill-treatment may constitute war crimes in both international and non-international armed conflicts. The prohibition under international humanitarian law is upheld as part of the general principles of law recognised by African States in terms of Articles 60 and 61 of the African Charter. The ban applies not only with respect to the armed forces of State Parties but also dissident armed forces and other organised nonState forces who are party to a non-international armed conflict. Torture under international criminal law is also a recognised element of crimes against humanity and war crimes and may also form part of the actus reus of genocide, all of which attract individual rather than State responsibility. However, individual responsibility must encompass responsibility of all officials implicated in the commission of an offence throughout the chain of command. 64. State Parties therefore have the obligation to investigate and prosecute those responsible for torture and other ill-treatment and to provide redress to victims in an armed conflict. Though complementary, where there is doubt as to whether international 19