A/HRC/22/52 international community to end impunity for gross or systematic human violations. The guiding axiom of the United Nations Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity is the obligation on States “to ensure the inalienable right to know the truth about violations”.70 If faithfully implemented, this cluster of rights and duties would by now have ensured accountability not only for those public officials who directly engaged in the secret detention, rendition and torture programme operated by the Bush-era CIA, but also for their superiors, and for any current or former high-ranking officials of State, who planned such strategies or who gave authorization for subordinate public officials to participate in them. The Special Rapporteur is gravely concerned that these norms have not been implemented in this context. 36. The international community‟s expressed commitment to ending impunity is reflected in specific treaty obligations designed to cater for precisely this sort of systematic criminal conduct. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,71 and the more recent International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 72 each require the signatory State to (a) enact domestic criminal law offences prohibiting the commission of acts amounting to torture 73 and enforced disappearance74; (b) assume jurisdiction over such crimes when perpetrated by its own nationals abroad,75 or on territory that falls within its jurisdiction 76, including any detention facility that is under the de facto control of its public officials (even if it is physically located on the territory of another State) 77; (c) conduct effective investigations into allegations that such crimes have been committed 78; and (c) where the evidence justifies it, to prosecute the offender or extradite him or her to another State to face prosecution.79 37. The experience of the past decade, however, shows that there are various means by which the right to truth and the principle of accountability can be (and have been) frustrated, thereby perpetuating impunity for the public officials implicated in these crimes. These include (a) the grant of de facto or de jure immunities80; (b) the officially authorized destruction of relevant evidence81; (c) executive obstruction of (or interference in) 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 14 See Updated Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity, United Nations Doc. E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1 (2005), (“The United Nations Impunity Principles”), noted with appreciation by the Human Rights Council in its Resolution 9/11 of 18 September 2008, preamble, and Resolution 12/12 of 12 October 2009, preamble, at Principles 1 and 4. UNCAT, op. cit., footnote 14. United Nations Convention on Enforced Disappearances, op. cit., footnote 14. Ibid., Article 4. Ibid., Article 14. UNCAT, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 5(1)(b); United Nations Convention on Enforced Disappearances, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 9(1)(b). UNCAT, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 5(1)(a); United Nations Convention on Enforced Disappearances, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 9(1)(a). ECtHR, Al-Skeini v. United Kingdom, Application No. 55721/107; Committee Against Torture, Concluding Observations on the United States, United Nations Doc. CAT/C/USA/CO/2, 25 July 2006, para. 24. UNCAT, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 12; United Nations Convention on Enforced Disappearances, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 12. UNCAT, op. cit., footnote 14, United Nations Convention on Enforced Disappearances, op. cit., footnote 14, Article 11(1). See para. 18 and footnote 12 above; CAT/C/USA/CO/2, op. cit., footnote 8, para. 24. A criminal investigation conducted by Assistant United States Attorney John Durham found that 92 videotapes depicting the ill treatment (including waterboarding) of “high value detainees” had been deliberately destroyed in November 2005 on the authority of Jose Rodriguez Jr., head of the CIA's