A/HRC/25/60 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 10 April 2014 Original: English Human Rights Council Twenty-fifth session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez* Summary The present report focuses on the scope and objective of the exclusionary rule in judicial proceedings and in relation to acts by executive actors. The Special Rapporteur elaborates on the exclusionary rule and its fundamental role in upholding the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by providing a disincentive to carry out such acts. The present report identifies State practices in this regard and elaborates on the rationale and scope of the exclusionary rule in relation to formal proceedings. The second part of the report focuses on the use of information obtained by torture or other illtreatment by executive agencies, including the collecting, sharing and receiving of such information from other States, and its relation to the absolute prohibition of acts of torture and other ill-treatment and the obligation of the State to prevent and discourage such acts. In this context, the report also elaborates on the threshold for State responsibility for complicity in torture or other ill-treatment, or an internationally wrongful act. The Special Rapporteur finds that all actions of executive agencies should be reviewed under the absolute prohibition of torture and that the standards contained in the exclusionary rule should apply, by analogy, to the collecting, sharing and receiving of information by executive actors. * Late submission. GE.14-13468 *1413468*