A/HRC/43/49 dehumanizing, debilitating and incapacitating effects of torture. 23 Given that States must interpret and exercise their international obligations in relation to the prohibition of torture in good faith (Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, arts. 26 and 31) and in the light of the evolving values of democratic societies (A/HRC/22/53, para. 14), 24 it would appear irreconcilable with the object and purpose of the universal, absolute and non-derogable prohibition of torture, for example, to exclude from the definition of torture the profound disruption of a person’s mental identity, capacity or autonomy only because the victim’s subjective experience or recollection of “mental suffering” has been pharmaceutically, hypnotically or otherwise manipulated or suppressed. 33. Previous Special Rapporteurs have stated that “assessing the level of suffering or pain, relative in its nature, requires considering the circumstances of the case, including … the acquisition or deterioration of impairment as result of the treatment or conditions of detention in the victim”, and that “medical treatments of an intrusive and irreversible nature”, when lacking a therapeutic purpose and enforced or administered without free and informed consent, may constitute torture or ill-treatment (A/63/175, paras. 40 and 47; and A/HRC/22/53, para. 32). Building on this legacy, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that the threshold of severe “mental suffering” can be reached not only through subjectively experienced suffering but, in the absence of subjectively experienced suffering, also through objectively inflicted mental harm alone. In any case, even below the threshold of torture, the intentional and purposeful infliction of mental harm would almost invariably amount to “other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. 2. Intentionality 34. Psychological torture requires the intentional infliction of mental pain or suffering and thus does not include purely negligent conduct. Intentionality does not require that the infliction of severe mental pain or suffering be subjectively desired by the perpetrator, but only that it be reasonably foreseeable as a result, in the ordinary course of events, of the purposeful conduct adopted by the perpetrator (A/HRC/40/59, para. 41; and A/HRC/37/50, para. 60). Further, intentionality does not require proactive conduct, but may also involve purposeful omissions, such as the exposure of substance-addicted detainees to severe withdrawal symptoms by making the replacement medication or therapy dependent on a confession, testimony or other cooperation (A/73/207, para. 7). Where the infliction of severe mental pain or suffering may result from the cumulative effect of multiple circumstances, acts or omissions on the part of several participants, such as in the case of mobbing, persecution and other forms of concerted or collective abuse, the required intentionality would have to be regarded as present for each State or individual knowingly and purposefully contributing to the prohibited outcome, whether through perpetration, attempt, complicity or participation (Convention, art. 4 (1)). 3. Purposefulness 35. In order to amount to psychological torture, severe mental pain or suffering must be inflicted not only intentionally, but also “for purposes such as obtaining from the victim 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” (Convention, art. 1). Although the listed purposes are only of an indicative nature and not exhaustive, relevant purposes should have “something in common with the purposes expressly listed” (A/HRC/13/39/Add.5, para. 35). At the same time, the listed purposes are phrased so broadly that it is difficult to envisage a realistic scenario of purposeful infliction of severe 23 24 10 A/HRC/23/47, para. 54; Adam Henschke, ‘“Super soldiers’: ethical concerns in human enhancement technologies”, Humanitarian Law and Policy blog, 3 July 2017; and Nayef Al-Rodhan, “Inevitable transhumanism? How emerging strategic technologies will affect the future of humanity”, Center for Security Studies blog, 29 October 2013. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Interpretation of torture in light of the practice and jurisprudence of international bodies”, 2011, p. 8.