at the time that the udhr and iccpr were adopted, solitary confinement was not yet believed to constitute torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. its practice, therefore, was not believed to violate international law. this changed, however, after the un definition of torture was outlined in detail in the 1984 convention against torture (cat); article 1.1 of the cat states that torture is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person" for any reason such as obtaining information or punishment, and article 16 of the same convention prohibits "other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". based on these provisions, many members of the un began to believe that solitary confinement's detrimental psychological effects could, indeed, constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, if not, torture. in the years following the cat, un representatives "have publicly decried the use of solitary confinement as a violation of the cat and iccpr," as well as the udhr.