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Torture

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For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation).

Captured Viet Cong soldier, blindfolded and tied in a stress position by American forces during the Vietnam War, 1967

Torture is the deliberate, state-sponsored infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties.

Torture has been carried out since ancient times. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western countries abolished the official use of torture in the judicial system, but torture continued to be used. A variety of methods of torture are used, often in combination; the most common form of physical torture is beatings. Since the twentieth century, many torturers have preferred non-scarring or psychological methods to provide deniability. Torturers often operate in a permissive organizational environment that facilitates and encourages their behavior. Most victims of torture are poor and marginalized people suspected of crimes, although torture against political prisoners or during armed conflict has received disproportionate attention. Judicial corporal punishment and capital punishment are sometimes seen as forms of torture, although this is internationally controversial.

Torture aims to break the victim's will and destroy their agency and personality. Torture is one of the most devastating experiences that a person can undergo. Torture can also negatively affect perpetrating individuals and institutions. Public opinion research has shown general opposition to torture, although a minority of people support the use of torture in certain cases. Torture is prohibited under international law for all states under all circumstances, under both international customary law and various treaties, as it is considered a violation of human dignity. Opposition to torture stimulated the formation of the human rights movement after World War II, and torture continues to be an important human rights issue. Although its incidence has declined, torture is still practiced by most countries in the world.

Definitions[edit]

Main article: Definitions of torture

Torture (from Latin torcere: to twist)[1] is defined as the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on someone under the control of the perpetrator.[2][3] The treatment must be inflicted for a specific purpose, such as forcing the victim to confess, provide information, or to punish them.[4][5] The definition under the United Nations Convention against Torture only considers torture carried out by the state.[6][7][8] Most legal systems include agents acting on behalf of the state, and some definitions add non-state armed groups, organized crime, or private individuals working in state-monitored facilities (such as hospitals). The most expansive definitions encompass anyone as a potential perpetrator.[9] The severity threshold at which treatment can be classified as torture is the most controversial aspect of the definition of torture; over time, more actions have been considered torture.[8][6][10] The purposive approach, preferred by scholars such as Manfred Nowak and Malcolm Evans, distinguishes torture from other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment by considering only the purpose for which it is applied and not the severity.[11][12] Other definitions, such as the one used in the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, focus on the torturer's aim "to obliterate the personality of the victim".[13][14]

History[edit]

Pre-abolition[edit]

Two Elamite chiefs flayed alive after the Battle of Ulai, Assyrian relief

In most ancient, medieval, and early modern societies, torture was considered legally and morally acceptable.[15] There is archaeological evidence of torture in Early Neolithic Europe, about 7,000 years ago.[16] Torture is commonly mentioned in historical sources on Assyria and Achaemenid Persia.[17][18] Societies used torture both as part of the judicial process and as punishment, although some historians make a distinction between torture and painful punishments.[19][20] Historically, torture was seen as a reliable way to elicit the truth, a suitable punishment, and deterrence against future offenses.[21] When torture was legally regulated, there were restrictions on the allowable methods;[21] common methods in Europe included the rack and strappado.[22] In most societies, citizens could be judicially tortured only under exceptional circumstances for a serious crime such as treason, often only when some evidence already existed. In contrast, non-citizens such as foreigners and slaves were commonly tortured.[23]

Torture was rare in early medieval Europe but became more common between 1200 and 1400.[24][25][26] Because medieval judges used an exceptionally high standard of proof, they would sometimes authorize torture where circumstantial evidence tied a person to a capital crime if there were fewer than the two eyewitnesses required to convict someone in the absence of a confession.[25][26] Torture was still an expensive and labor-intensive process that was only used for the most serious crimes.[27] Most torture victims were men accused of murder, treason, or theft.[28] Medieval ecclesiastical courts and the Inquisition used torture under the same procedural rules as secular courts.[29] The Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran used torture in cases where circumstantial evidence tied someone to a crime, although Islamic law has traditionally considered evidence obtained under torture to be inadmissible.[30]

Abolition and continued use[edit]

"The custody of a criminal does not require torture" by Francisco Goya, c. 1812

During the seventeenth century, torture remained legal, but its practice declined.[31][32] Torture had already became of marginal importance to the criminal justice systems of European countries by the time it was abolished in the 18th and early 19th centuries.[33][34] Theories for why torture was abolished include the rise of Enlightenment ideas about the value of the human person,[35][36] the lowering of the standard of proof in criminal cases, popular views that no longer saw pain as morally redemptive,[31][36] and the expansion of prisons as an alternative to executions or painful punishments.[35][37] The use of torture declined after its abolition and it was increasingly seen as unacceptable.[38][39] It is not known if torture also declined in non-Western states or in European colonies during the nineteenth century.[40] In China, judicial torture, which had been practiced for more than two millennia,[21] was banned in 1905 along with flogging and lingchi (dismemberment) as a means of execution,[41] although torture in China has continued throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.[42]

Torture was widely used by colonial powers to subdue resistance and reached a peak during the anti-colonial wars in the twentieth century.[43][44] An estimated 300,000 people were tortured during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962),[45] and the United Kingdom and Portugal also used torture in attempts to retain their empires.[46] Independent states in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia often used torture in the twentieth century, but it is unknown whether the use of torture there increased or decreased compared to nineteenth-century levels.[43] During the first half of the twentieth century, torture became more prevalent in Europe because of the advent of secret police,[47] World War I and World War II, and the rise of communist and fascist states.[15]

Torture was also used by both communist and anti-communist governments during the Cold War in Latin America, with an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 victims of torture by United States-backed regimes.[48][49] The only countries in which torture was rare during the twentieth century were the liberal democracies of the West, but even there torture was used against ethnic minorities or criminal suspects from marginalized classes, and during overseas wars against foreign populations.[43] After the September 11 attacks, the United States government embarked on an overseas torture program as part of its "war on terror".[50] The George W. Bush administration labeled its methods "enhanced interrogation techniques" and denied that they were torture.[51][52][53]

A 2016 study concluded that torture had declined in at least 16 countries since 1985 and most likely more, although it has worsened in others.[54]

Prevalence[edit]

Homeless Indians under the Howrah Bridge in Kolkata. Poor and marginalized people are at increased risk of torture.
Tear gas used during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Use of tear gas on protestors is sometimes considered a form of torture.[55]

Most countries practice torture, although few acknowledge it.[56][57] The international prohibition of torture has not completely stopped states from torturing; instead, they have changed which techniques are used and denied, covered up, or outsourced torture programs.[58] Measuring the rate at which torture occurs is difficult because it is typically committed in secrecy, and reporting such cases is affected by the human rights information paradox: abuses are more likely to come to light in open societies where there is a commitment to protecting human rights.[59] Available estimates underrepresent torture because they do not include people who are unwilling to report. [60][61][62] In addition, monitoring has focused on police stations and prisons, although torture can also occur in other facilities such as immigration detention and youth detention centers.[63][64] Torture that occurs outside of custody—including extrajudicial punishment, intimidation, and crowd control—has traditionally not been counted.[60][61][62] There is even less information on the prevalence of torture before the twentieth century.[15] Although some studies have found that men are more likely to face torture than women, other studies have found that both suffer torture at equal rates.[65]

While liberal democracies are less likely to abuse their citizens, they do still practice torture, especially against marginalized citizens and non-citizens to whom they are not democratically accountable.[66][44] Voters may support violence against out-groups seen as threatening; majoritarian institutions are ineffective at preventing torture against minorities or foreigners.[67] Torture is more likely when a society feels threatened because of wars or crises,[66][67] but studies have not been able to draw a consistent connection between the use of torture and terrorist attacks.[68]

Torture is directed against certain segments of the population, who are denied the protection against torture that others enjoy.[69][70][67] Torture of political prisoners and torture during armed conflicts have received a disproportionate amount of attention.[71][59] Most victims of torture are suspected of crimes; a disproportionate number of victims are from poor or marginalized communities, especially unemployed young men, the urban poor, and LGBT people.[72][59] Other groups especially vulnerable to torture include refugees and migrants, ethnic and racial minorities, indigenous people, and people with disabilities.[73] Relative poverty and the resulting inequality in particular leave the poor vulnerable to torture.[74] Criminalization of the poor with laws targeting homelessness, sex work, or working in the informal economy can lead to violent and arbitrary policing.[75] Routine violence against poor and marginalized people is often not seen as torture, and its perpetrators justify the violence as legitimate policing tactic,[76] while the victims lack the resources or standing to seek redress.[74]

Perpetrators[edit]

Many torturers see their actions as serving a higher political or ideological goal that justifies torture as a legitimate means of protecting the state.[77][78][67] Torture cultures value self-control, discipline, and professionalism as positive values, helping torturers to maintain a positive self-image.[78] Torturers who inflict more suffering than necessary to break the victim or act out of impermissible motives (revenge, sexual gratification) may be rejected by peers or relieved of duty.[79] Torture victims are often viewed by the perpetrators as serious threats and enemies of the state.[80] Philosopher Jessica Wolfendale argues that since "the decision to torture a person involves a refusal to see the victim's status as a person as setting limits on what may be done to them", its victims are already seen as less than fully human before they are tortured.[69] Psychiatrist Pau Pérez-Sales finds that torturers act from a variety of motives such as ideological commitment, personal gain, group belonging, avoiding punishment, or avoiding guilt from previous acts of torture.[81]

A combination of dispositional and situational effects lead a person to become a torturer.[81] In most cases where torture is used systematically, the torturers were desensitized to violence by being exposed to physical or psychological abuse during training.[82][83][84] Wolfendale argues that military training aims to inculcate unquestioning obedience, therefore making military personnel more likely to become torturers.[85] Even when torture is not explicitly ordered by the government,[86] perpetrators may feel peer pressure to torture because refusing is seen as weak or unmanly.[87] Elite and specialized police units are especially prone to torturing, perhaps because of their tight-knit nature and insulation from oversight.[86]

Torture can be a side effect of a broken criminal justice system in which underfunding, lack of judicial independence, or corruption undermines effective investigations and fair trials.[88][89] In this context, poor or marginalized people who cannot afford bribes are likely to become victims of torture.[90][89] Police that are understaffed or poorly trained are more likely to resort to torture when interrogating suspects.[91][92] In some countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, suspects are more likely to be tortured at the end of the month because of performance quotas.[91]

Torture perpetrators rely on both active supporters and bystanders who ignore torture.[93] Military, intelligence, psychology, medical, and legal professionals can help build a torture culture.[78] Incentives can favor the use of torture on an institutional or individual level, and some perpetrators are motivated by the prospect of career advancement.[94][95] Bureaucracy diffuses responsibility for torture, helping perpetrators excuse their actions.[82][96] Maintaining secrecy and keeping abuses hidden from the public is often essential to maintaining a torture program, which can be accomplished in different ways, ranging from direct censorship, denial or mislabeling torture as something else, to offshoring abuses outside the state territory.[97][98] Along with official denials, torture is fueled by moral disengagement from the victims and impunity for the perpetrators[67]—criminal prosecutions for torture are rare.[99]

Once a torture program is begun, it is difficult or impossible to prevent it from escalating to more severe techniques and larger groups of victims, beyond what is originally intended or desired by high-level decision-makers.[100][101][102] Escalation of torture is especially difficult to contain in counterinsurgency operations.[87] Torture and specific torture techniques are known to spread between different countries, especially by soldiers returning home from overseas wars, though this process is poorly understood.[103][104]

Purpose[edit]

Punishment[edit]

Caning sentence in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in 2014, in accordance with Islamic criminal law in Aceh

The use of torture for punishment dates back to antiquity, and is still employed in the 21st century.[19] A common practice in countries with dysfunctional justice systems or overcrowded prisons is for police to apprehend young men, torture them, and release them without a charge.[105][106] Such torture could be performed in a police station,[107] the victim's home, or a public place.[108] In South Africa, the police have been observed handing suspects over to vigilantes to be tortured.[109] This type of extrajudicial violence is often carried out in public in order to deter others. It discriminatorily targets minorities and marginalized groups and may be supported by public opinion, especially when people do not trust the official justice system.[110]

The classification of judicial corporal punishment as torture is internationally controversial, although it is explicitly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions.[111] Some authors, such as John D. Bessler, argue that capital punishment is inherently a form of torture carried out for punishment.[112][113] Executions may be carried out in brutal ways, such as stoning, death by burning, or dismemberment.[114] The psychological harm of capital punishment is sometimes considered a form of psychological torture.[115] Others do not consider corporal punishment with a fixed penalty to be torture as it does not seek to break the victim's will.[116]

Deterrence[edit]

See also: Deterrence (penology)

Torture may also be used indiscriminately to terrorize people other than the direct victim or to deter opposition to the government.[117][118] In the United States, torture was used to deter slaves from escaping or rebelling.[119] Some defenders of judicial torture prior to its abolition saw it as a useful means of deterring crime; reformers argued that because torture was carried out it secret, it could not be an effective deterrent.[120] In the twentieth century, well-known examples include the Khmer Rouge[117] and anti-communist regimes in Latin America, who tortured and murdered their victims as part of forced disappearance.[121] Regimes that are otherwise weak are more likely to resort to torture to deter opposition.[122] Many authoritarian regimes choose indiscriminate repression as they are otherwise ineffective at identifying potential opponents.[123] Some armed groups use violence as a form of terrorism against opposition, especially in the context of ethnic violence where widespread rape is used to demoralize an opposing ethnic group.[118] Many insurgencies lack the infrastructure necessary for a torture program and instead intimidate by killing.[124] Research has found that state torture can extend the lifespan of terrorist organizations, increase incentives for insurgents to use violence, and radicalize the opposition.[125] Researchers James Worrall and Victoria Penziner Hightower argue that the Syrian government's systematic torture during the Syrian civil war shows that the widespread use can be effective in instilling fear into certain groups or neighborhoods during a civil war.[126] Another form of torture for deterrence is violence against migrants, as has been reported during pushbacks on the European Union's external borders.[127]

Confession[edit]

Throughout history, torture has been used to extract confessions from detainees. In 1764, Italian reformer Cesare Beccaria denounced torture as "a sure way to acquit robust scoundrels and to condemn weak but innocent people".[21][128] Similar doubts about torture's effectiveness had been voiced for centuries previously, including by Aristotle.[129][130] Despite the abolition of judicial torture, torture to elicit a confession continues to be used, especially in judicial systems placing a high value on confessions in criminal matters.[131][132] The use of torture to force suspects to confess is facilitated by laws allowing extensive pre-trial detention.[133] Research has found that coercive interrogation is slightly more effective than cognitive interviewing for extracting a confession from a suspect, but at a higher risk of false confession.[134] Many torture victims will say whatever the torturer wants to hear to end the torture.[135][136] Others who are guilty refuse to make a confession under torture,[137] especially if they believe that confessing will only bring more torture or punishment.[132] Medieval justice systems attempted to safeguard against the risk of false confession under torture by requiring those who confessed to provide details about the crime that could be falsified and only allowing torture if there was already some evidence against the accused.[138][28] In some countries, political opponents are tortured to force them to confess publicly as a form of state propaganda. This tactic was used in show trials in the Eastern Bloc and in Iran.[131]

Interrogation[edit]

Main article: Interrogational torture
Two United States soldiers and one South Vietnamese soldier waterboard a captured North Vietnamese prisoner of war near Da Nang, 1968.

The use of torture to obtain information during interrogation accounts for a small percentage of torture cases in the world; the use of torture for obtaining confessions or intimidation is more common.[139] Although interrogational torture has been used in conventional wars, it is even more common in asymmetric war or non-international armed conflict.[131] The ticking time bomb scenario is extremely rare, if not impossible in the real world,[59][140] but is cited to justify torture for interrogation. Fictional portrayals of torture as an effective interrogational method have fuelled misconceptions that justify the use of torture.[141] Experiments testing whether torture is more effective than other interrogation methods cannot be performed for ethical and practical reasons,[142][143][144] but most scholars of torture are skeptical about its efficacy in obtaining accurate information, although torture sometimes has obtained actionable intelligence.[145][146] Interrogational torture can often shade into confessional torture or simply into entertainment,[147] and some torturers do not distinguish between interrogation and confession.[144]

Methods[edit]

Main article: List of methods of torture
Ali Shallal al-Qaisi being tortured by United States forces at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

A wide variety of techniques have been used for torture.[148] Nevertheless, there are a limited number of ways of inflicting pain while minimizing the risk of death.[149] Survivors report that the exact method used is not significant.[150] Most forms of torture include both physical and psychological elements[151][152] and multiple methods are typically used on one person.[153] Different methods of torture are popular in different countries.[154] Low-tech methods are more commonly used than high-tech ones, and attempts to develop scientifically validated torture technology have failed.[155] The prohibition of torture has motivated a shift to methods that do not leave marks to make torture more palatable for the torturer or the public, to hide it from the media, and to deprive victims of legal redress.[156][157] As they faced more pressure and scrutiny, democracies led the innovation in torture practices.[158][21] The patterns of how torture is perpetrated differ based on the time limits faced by the torturer, for example resulting from legal limits on pre-trial detention.[159]

Beatings or blunt trauma are the most common form of physical torture.[160] They may be either unsystematic[161] or focused on a specific part of the body, as in falanga (the soles of the feet), repeated strikes against both ears, or shaking the detainee so that their head moves back and forth.[162] Often, people are suspended in painful positions such as Palestinian hanging or upside-down hanging in combination with beatings.[163] People may also be subjected to stabbings or puncture wounds, have their nails removed, or body parts amputated.[164] Burns are also common, especially cigarette burns, but other instruments are also used, including hot metal, hot fluids, the sun, or acid.[165] Forced ingestion of various substances, including water, food, or other substances, or injections are also used as forms of torture.[166] Electric shocks are often used to torture, especially to avoid other methods that are more likely to leave scars.[167] Asphyxiation, of which waterboarding is a form, inflicts torture on the victim by cutting off their air supply.[164]

Psychological torture includes methods that involve no physical element as well as forcing a person to do something and physical attacks that ultimately target the mind.[151] Death threats, mock execution, or being forced to witness the torture of another person are often reported to be subjectively worse than being physically tortured and are associated with severe sequelae.[168] Other torture techniques include sleep deprivation, overcrowding or solitary confinement, withholding food or water, sensory deprivation (such as hooding), exposure to extremes of light or noise (e.g., musical torture),[169] humiliation (which can be based on sexuality or on the victim's religious or national identity),[170] and the use of animals such as dogs to frighten or injure a prisoner.[171][172] Positional torture works by forcing the person to adopt a stance, putting their weight on a few muscles, causing pain without leaving marks, for example standing or squatting for extended periods.[173] Rape and sexual assault are universal torture methods and frequently instill a permanent sense of shame in the victim, and in some cultures humiliate their family and society.[174][175] Cultural and individual differences affect how different torture methods are perceived by the victim. Many survivors from Arab or Muslim countries report that forced nudity is worse than beatings or isolation.[176]

Effects[edit]

See also: Psychology of torture
Vietnamese doctor Que Phung Trän Huynh, tortured to death after the Pinochet coup in Chile in 1973

Torture is one of the most devastating experiences that a person can undergo.[177] Torture aims to break the victim's will[178] and destroy the victim's agency and personality.[179] Torture survivor Jean Améry argued that it was "the most horrible event a human being can retain within himself" and that "whoever was tortured, stays tortured".[180][181] Many torture victims, including Améry, later die by suicide.[182] Survivors often experience social and financial problems.[183] Current circumstances, such as housing insecurity, family separation, and the uncertainty of applying for asylum in a safe country, strongly impact survivors' well-being.[184]

Death is not an uncommon outcome of torture.[185] Health consequences can include peripheral neuropathy, damage to teeth, rhabdomyolysis from extensive muscle damage,[160] traumatic brain injury,[186] sexually transmitted infection, and pregnancy from rape.[187] Chronic pain and pain-related disability are commonly reported, but there is very little research into this effect or possible treatments.[188] Common psychological effects of torture on survivors include traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance.[189][183] Uncontrolled studies on torture survivors have found that between 15 and 85 percent meet the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with a higher risk for psychological torture compared to physical torture.[190] Torture carries a higher risk of traumatic sequelae than any other known human experience.[177] Although the traditional view is that fear causes trauma, Pérez-Sales argues that loss of control explains trauma in torture survivors.[191] As torture can be a form of political violence, not all survivors or rehabilitation experts support using medical categories to define their experience,[192] and many survivors remain psychologically resilient.[193]

Survivors of torture, their families, and others in the community may require long-term material, medical, psychological and social support.[194] Most torture survivors do not disclose their status unless specifically asked by a healthcare provider.[195] Psychological interventions have shown a statistically significant but clinically minor decrease in PTSD symptoms, but this decrease did not persist at follow-up. Other metrics, such as psychological distress or quality of life, showed no benefit or were not measured.[196] Most studies have narrowly focused on PTSD symptoms, and there is a lack of research on integrated or patient-centric approaches to treatment.[197]

Although there is less research on the effects of torture on perpetrators,[198] they can experience moral injury or trauma symptoms similar to the victims, especially when they feel guilty about their actions.[199][200] Torture has corrupting effects on the institutions and societies that perpetrate it and erodes professional competence. Torturers forget important investigative skills because torture can be an easier way to achieve high conviction rates through coerced and often false confessions than time-consuming police work. This encourages the continued and increased use of torture.[201][199][202] Public disapproval of torture can harm the international reputation of countries that use torture, strengthen and radicalize violent opposition to the torturing state,[203][204][205] and encourage the adversary to themselves use torture.[206]

Public opinion[edit]

Studies have found that most people around the world oppose the use of torture in general[207][208] but a minority is willing to justify its use in specific cases.[208] Some people hold categorical views on torture, while for others torture's acceptability depends on the context.[209] More Americans are willing to authorize torture against someone described as a terrorist, Muslim, or culpable.[210] Support for torture in specific cases is correlated with inaccurate beliefs about the effectiveness of torture.[211] Nonreligious people are less likely to support the use of torture than religious people, although for people who identify with a religion, increased religiosity increases opposition to torture.[212] Public opinion is an important constraint on the use of torture by states, and opposition to torture can increase following the experience of political repression.[213] On the other hand, public support for torture against certain groups, such as drug addicts or criminal suspects, can facilitate its use.[70]

Prohibition[edit]

Further information: Torture in international law
Proposed United States poster, 1942 or 1943

The stigma against torture as barbaric and uncivilized originated in the debates around its abolition.[214] By the late nineteenth century, countries began to be condemned internationally for the use of torture.[215] The ban on torture became part of the civilizing mission justifying colonial rule on the pretext of ending torture,[216][217] despite the use of torture by colonial rulers themselves.[218] The stigma against torture was strengthened during the twentieth century in reaction to the use of torture by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which was widely condemned despite these regimes' secrecy and denial.[219] Shocked by Nazi atrocities during World War II, the United Nations drew up the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which prohibited torture.[220][221] Torture is criticized on the basis of all major ethical frameworks, including deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics.[222][223] Some contemporary philosophers argue that torture is never morally acceptable, while others propose exceptions to the general rule in real-life equivalents of the ticking time bomb scenario.[224][225]

Torture was the primary issue that stimulated the creation of the human rights movement.[226] In 1969, the Greek case was the first time that an international body (the European Commission on Human Rights) found that a state practiced torture.[227] In the early 1970s, Amnesty International launched a global campaign against torture, exposing its widespread use despite international prohibition, and eventually leading to the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) in 1984.[228] Successful civil society mobilizations against torture can prevent its use by governments that possess both motive and opportunity to use torture.[229] Torture remains central to the human rights movement in the twenty-first century.[230]

Parties to the Convention against Torture in dark green, states that have signed the treaty in light green, and others in gray

The prohibition of torture is a peremptory norm (jus cogens) in international law, meaning that it is forbidden for all states under all circumstances.[231][232] Most jurists justify the absolute legal prohibition on torture based on its violation of human dignity.[233] The CAT and its Optional Protocol focus on the prevention of torture, which was already prohibited in international human rights law under other treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[234][235] The CAT specifies that torture must be a criminal offense,[64] evidence obtained under torture may not be admitted in court, and deporting a person to another country where they are likely to face torture is forbidden.[232] Even though it is illegal under national law, judges in many countries continue to admit evidence obtained under torture or ill treatment.[236][237] A 2009 study found that 42 percent of parties to the CAT continue to use torture systematically.[67]

In international humanitarian law, which regulates the conduct of war, torture was first outlawed by the 1863 Lieber Code.[238] Torture was prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials as a crime against humanity.[239] Torture is recognized by both the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as a war crime.[240][241] According to the Rome Statute, torture can also be a crime against humanity if committed as part of a systematic attack on a civilian population.[242]

Prevention[edit]

The Torture Never Again Monument in Brazil, by sculptor Demétrio Albuquerque [pt], features the body of a naked man in the position of the pau de arara.

Torture proliferates in situations of incommunicado detention.[243][244] Because the risk of torture is highest directly after an arrest, procedural safeguards such as immediate access to a lawyer and notifying relatives about an arrest are the most effective ways of preventing torture.[245] Visits by independent monitoring bodies to sites of detention can also help reduce the incidence of torture.[246] Because legal provisions may not be applied in practice, actual procedure correlates much better with the incidence of torture than legal rights.[247] Changes to the legal system can be particularly ineffective in places where the law has limited legitimacy or is routinely ignored.[64]

Sociologically, torture operates as a subculture, frustrating prevention efforts because torturers can find a way around rules.[248] Safeguards against torture in detention can be evaded by beating suspects during round-ups or on the way to the police station.[249][250] General training of police to improve their ability to investigate crime has been more effective at reducing torture than specific training focused on human rights.[251][252] Institutional police reforms have been effective when abuse is systematic.[253][254] Political scientist Darius Rejali criticizes torture prevention research for not figuring out "what to do when people are bad; institutions broken, understaffed, and corrupt; and habitual serial violence is routine".[255]

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  64. ^ a b c Kelly et al. 2020, p. 65.
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  118. ^ a b Pérez-Sales 2016, p. 270.
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  121. ^ Hajjar 2013, p. 28.
  122. ^ Worrall & Hightower 2021, p. 4.
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Sources[edit]

Books[edit]

Book chapters[edit]

  • Beam, Sara (2020). "Violence and Justice in Europe: Punishment, Torture and Execution". The Cambridge World History of Violence: Volume 3: AD 1500–AD 1800. Cambridge University Press. pp. 389–407. ISBN 978-1-107-11911-6.
  • Evans, Rebecca (2020). "The Ethics of Torture: Definitions, History, and Institutions". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.326. ISBN 978-0-19-084662-6.
  • Frahm, Eckart (2006). "Images of Assyria in 19th and 20th Century Scholarship". Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bible. Sheffield Phoenix Press. pp. 74–94. ISBN 978-1-905048-37-3.
  • Kelly, Tobias; Jensen, Steffen; Andersen, Morten Koch (2020). "Fragility, states and torture". Research Handbook on Torture: Legal and Medical Perspectives on Prohibition and Prevention. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 63–79. ISBN 978-1-78811-396-0.
  • Nowak, Manfred (2014). "Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment". The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict. Oxford University Press. pp. 387–409. ISBN 978-0-19-163269-3.
  • Pérez-Sales, Pau (2020). "Psychological torture". Research Handbook on Torture: Legal and Medical Perspectives on Prohibition and Prevention. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 432–454. ISBN 978-1-78811-396-0.
  • Quiroga, José; Modvig, Jens (2020). "Torture methods and their health impact". Research Handbook on Torture: Legal and Medical Perspectives on Prohibition and Prevention. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 410–431. ISBN 978-1-78811-396-0.
  • Rejali, Darius (2020). "The Field of Torture Today: Ten Years On from Torture and Democracy". Interrogation and Torture: Integrating Efficacy with Law and Morality. Oxford University Press. pp. 71–106. ISBN 978-0-19-009752-3.
  • Saul, Ben; Flanagan, Mary (2020). "Torture and counter-terrorism". Research Handbook on International Law and Terrorism. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 354–370. ISBN 978-1-78897-222-2.
  • Shue, Henry (2015). "Torture". The Routledge Handbook of Global Ethics. Routledge. pp. 113–126. ISBN 978-1-315-74452-0.
  • Thomson, Mark; Bernath, Barbara (2020). "Preventing Torture: What Works?". Interrogation and Torture: Integrating Efficacy with Law and Morality. Oxford University Press. pp. 471–492. ISBN 978-0-19-009752-3.
  • Wolfendale, Jessica (2019). "The Making of a Torturer". The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies. Routledge. pp. 84–94. ISBN 978-1-315-10288-7.

Journal articles[edit]

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