C. Prohibition of slavery, torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment: Article 5 1) Prohibition of slavery 46. Article 14 of the Constitution proclaims the prohibition of slavery and provides that “no one shall be subjected to torture, slavery, physical abuse or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Any individual or agent of the State who is guilty of acts of torture, physical abuse or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in or on the occasion of the discharge of his duties, either on his own initiative or on instructions, shall be punished in accordance with the law.” 47. In order to take its international commitments resulting from the ratification of the legal instruments on slavery into account, the State of Niger, in addition to the prohibition imposed by the Constitution, amended its Criminal Code in 2003. This is why Articles 270.1 to 270.5 punishes the crime and offence of slavery. Article 270.1 of the Criminal Code provides the following definitions: “slavery” is the state or condition of an individual over whom some or all the attributes pertaining to the right to property ownership are exercised; “a slave” is the person who has this status or condition, while the “person of a servile status” is the one who has a status or condition resulting from one of the institutions or practices of slavery, particularly: servitude or any other form of submission to or absolute dependence on a master; any institution or practice whereby: a) a woman is, without her reserving the right to refuse, promised or given in marriage for a monetary or in-kind consideration paid to the master; b) the master of woman considered as a slave has the right to transfer her to a third party, subject to payment or otherwise; c) the master has the right to engage in sexual intercourse with the female slave, and any institution or practice whereby a minor aged less than 18 is handed over, either by his parents, guardian, master or the master of one or both of his parents, to a third party subject to payment or otherwise for the purpose of the exploitation of the person or labour of the said minor. 48.    Under Article 270.2 of the Criminal Code, the crime of slavery is the “act of reducing someone else into a slave or inciting someone else to alienate his freedom or dignity or that of a person under his responsibility to be reduced into slavery.” It is punishable by a term of imprisonment of 10 to 30 years and a fine of 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 Francs. The same punishment applies to a master or his accomplice who:  has sexual intercourse with a woman considered as a slave or the wife of a man considered as a slave, and  provides another person with a woman considered as a slave in order to have sexual intercourse. Complicity and attempted offences under the above-mentioned articles are punishable by the sentence under this article. 49. The offence of slavery is punished by Article 270.4 as follows: “any person found guilty of an offence of slavery shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of between five and ten years and a fine of 500,000 to 1,000,000 Francs. Attempted slavery shall be punishable by the sentence under the preceding paragraph.” 50. 51. It should be stated that Niger has accepted the recommendations of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the contemporary forms of slavery (including their causes and consequences) who visited the country from 11 to 21 November 2014 and is implementing them with a monitoring plan. To further demonstrate the Government’s commitment to the fight against 23