A/HRC/40/CRP.1 Any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity. It is condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed and developed in international instruments in this field. Any act of enforced disappearance places the persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families. It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia, the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.459 d) Refoulement The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees prohibits any State party from expelling or returning (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. 460 This prohibition against return is also established in the AU Convention Governing Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa.461 The Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that James Gatdet Dak and Dong Samuel Luak, who both had refugee status in Kenya, were detained and transferred back to South Sudan in violation their right to non-refoulement. Kenya is a party to both these conventions and as such violated its international legal obligations.462 Furthermore, although Aggrey Izbon Idris did not have refugee status in Kenya, he was nonetheless deported without due process despite having a valid visa to reside in Kenya. e) Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which South Sudan is a party, defines torture as: “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.”463 The same acts not perpetrated for the purposes enumerated above may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Commission finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe, on the basis of information collected as described above, that members of the NSS and SPLA Military Intelligence Directorate engage in widespread and regular use of torture through the use of severe beatings, whippings, positional restraint, electrocution and psychological abuse such as threats. This mistreatment is, in most instances, undertaken to obtain information or confessions about professional activities or political support or to punish detainees for perceived political or ethnic affiliations and therefore amounts to torture. The Commission further recalls that conditions of detention may in certain instances amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment including: “Conditions of detention, such as a small or overcrowded cell, solitary confinement, unhygienic conditions, no access to toilet facilities, irregular or contaminated food and water, exposure to extremes 459 Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance Adopted by General Assembly resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992, Article 1. 460 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 33(1). 461 AU Convention Governing Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, Article II(3). 462 Kenya ratified the Refugee Convention on 16 May 1966 and the AU Convention on 23 June 1992. 463 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 1(1). 72