A/HRC/13/42* page 18 article 17, paragraph 1, explicitly prohibits secret detention. The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances confirmed in its general comment on article 10 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance that under no circumstances, including states of war or public emergency, can any State interest be invoked to justify or legitimize secret centres or places of detention which, by definition, would violate the Declaration, without exception.”22 29. Article 24, paragraph 1, of the International Convention explicitly includes in the definition of “victim” of enforced disappearances not only the disappeared person, but also any individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of an enforced disappearance.” When exercising its mandate to monitor the implementation by Member States to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has always adopted the perspective that families of the disappeared are to be considered victims themselves. According to article 1.2 of the Declaration, 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.” 30. Since secret detention amounts to an enforced disappearance, if resorted to in a widespread or systematic manner, such aggravated form of enforced disappearance can reach the threshold of a crime against humanity. In its article 7, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court labels the “enforced disappearance of persons” as a crime against humanity if it is committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.23 Article 5 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity as defined in applicable international law, and should attract the consequences provided for under such applicable international law, thus confirming this approach. 4. Secret detention and the absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment 31. Every instance of secret detention is by definition incommunicado detention. According to the Human Rights Committee, even comparably short periods of incommunicado detention may violate the obligation of States, as contained in article 10, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to treat all persons deprived of their liberty with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. The Committee confirmed that “prisoners should be allowed under necessary supervision to communicate with their family and reputable friends at regular intervals, by correspondence as well as by receiving mail.”24 Although shorter time periods may also be prohibited, incommunicado detention of 15 22 E/CN.4/1997/34. 23 See also Prosecutor v. Kupreskic et al, IT-95-16-A, judgement of the trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, para. 566 (14 January 2000). 24 Miguel Angel Estrella v. Uruguay, communication No. 74/1980 (CCPR/C/OP/2).