213. Regarding acts committed in “private,” the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment indicated that another element must be taken into account in addition to those established in the Convention against Torture to classify them as such, to wit, the “powerlessness criterion.”291 For example, he characterized cases of rape as “ an extreme expression of this power relation, of one person treating another person as merely an object.”292Also, to illustrate the possible “parallels” between torture and acts of violence against women “in private,” the Rapporteur noted that: i) the violence can “escalate,” “sometimes resulting in death or leaving women’s bodies mutilated or permanently disfigured;” ii) in these situations, the intention is often to “keep the victim in a permanent state of fear based on unpredictable violence by seeking to reduce the person to submission and destroy his/her capacity for resistance and autonomy with the ultimate aim of achieving total control;” and iii) factors such as the victim’s resulting trauma, the stigma that goes along with cases of sexual violence as an obstacle to the search for justice and “a crucial element at all stages, starting from its humiliating intention as well as its impacts,” both physical and mental, exclusion from the family and community, etc.293 214. Along the same lines, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Radhika Coomaraswamy, noted that if violence against women in private realms such as the home “is a form of torture, States are obliged to adopt legal and other measures to stop” it. She indicated that international human rights laws such as the ban on torture and inhumane treatment can apply to situations including violence in the home when States fail to take positive measures to prevent it and punish violence against women in this realm.294 The Rapporteur also indicated that this type of violence, like torture: i) includes physical and/or psychological suffering, and the nature and seriousness of the assault may be severe enough to make them comparable to “official torture;” ii) is intentional and has a specific end, such as “punishment, intimidation and the diminution of the woman’s personality,” and is also related with “assertion of supremacy and possession over the victim;” iii) rape—as a form of “devastating” violence—is common in the context of “official torture” and “violence in the home;” and iv) “battered women, like official torture victims, may be explicitly punished for infraction of constantly changing and impossible to meet rules.”295 215. For its part, the European Court has established that protecting the substantive rights that are affected by acts of sexual violence (humane treatment and privacy) is part of the State’s obligation to ensure that no person is subject to the conduct prohibited under Article 3 of the European Convention, including acts committed by private parties.296 [… continuation] end adopted addressed the need to find a consensus between the two positions, which was accomplished by including aspects such as complicity with the acts or failure to prevent them given the capacity to do so. See: Organization of American States. Permanent Council. Report of the Committee on juridical and political affairs on the study of alternatives to the articles of the draft Inter-American Convention to prevent and punish torture. OEA/Ser.G.CP/doc.1622/85. 20 November 1985; and Report of the Committee on juridical and political affairs on the draft Convention defining torture as an international crime. OAS/Ser. G.CP/doc.1524/84. 18 October 1984. 291 United Nations. Second Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, before the Human Rights Council. A/HRC/7/3. January 15, 2008, para. 27. 292 The Rapporteur highlighted that this element also allows for taking into consideration “allows the specific status of the victim to be taken into consideration, such as sex, age and physical and mental health, in some cases also religion, which might render a specific person powerless in a given context.” United Nations. Second Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, before the Human Rights Council. A/HRC/7/3. January 15, 2008, para. 28-29. Also see: United Nations. Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak. A/HRC/13/39. February 9, 2010. 60. 293 United Nations. Second Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, before the Human Rights Council. A/HRC/7/3. January 15, 2008, para. 45, 70. 294 United Nations. Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, presented pursuant to resolution 1995/85 of the Human Rights Commission. E/CN.4/1996/53 . February 6, 1996, para. 49. 295 United Nations. Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, presented pursuant to resolution 1995/85 of the Human Rights Commission. E/CN.4/1996/53. February 6, 1996, para. 44-47. 296 See for example: ECHR. Case of M.C. v. Bulgaria. Judgment of 4 December 2003. Application no. 39272/98, para. 149.