Uses of torture in recent times
Encyclopedia
Torture
, the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain
upon an individual to extract information or a confession, or as an illicit extrajudicial punishment, is prohibited by international law and is illegal in most countries. However, it is still used by many governments. This article describes uses of torture in recent times, that is to say, the use of torture since the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR), which prohibited it.
s in 70 countries and other prisoners and detainees in more than 130 countries. State torture has been extensively documented and studied, often as part of efforts at collective memory and reconciliation
in societies that have experienced a change in government. Surveys of torture survivors reveal that torture "is not aimed primarily at the extraction of information ... Its real aim is to break down the victim's personality and identity." When applied indiscriminately, torture is used as a tool of repression
and deterrence against dissent
and community empowerment.
While many states use torture, few wish to be described as doing so, either to their own citizens or to international bodies. So a variety of strategies are used to circumvent their legal and humanitarian duties, including plausible deniability
, secret police
, "need to know", denial that certain treatments constitute torture, appeal to various laws (national or international), use of jurisdictional argument, claim of "overriding need", the use of torture by proxy, and so on. Almost all regime
s and governments engaging in torture (and other crimes against humanity) consistently deny engaging in it, in spite of overwhelming hearsay
and physical evidence
from the citizens they tortured. Through both denial and avoidance of prosecution, most people ordering or carrying out acts of torture do not face legal consequences for their actions. UN Special Rapporteur for the Commission on Human Rights, Sir Nigel Rodley, believes that "impunity continues to be the principal cause of the perpetuation and encouragement of human rights violations and, in particular, torture."
While states, particularly their prisons, law enforcement and intelligence apparatus, are major perpetrators of torture, many non-state actors also engage in it. These include paramilitaries
and guerrilla
armies
, criminal actors such as organized crime
syndicates and kidnappers, and those enacting individual forms of power in extreme forms of domestic violence
and child abuse
.
A recent approach to interrogations has been to use techniques such as waterboarding
, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse
, and dogs to intimidate or pressure prisoners in a manner claimed to be legal under national or international law. Electric shock techniques such as the use of stun belts and taser
s have been considered appropriate provided that they are used to "control" prisoners or suspects, even non-violent ones, rather than to extract information. This has been used on several prisoners in the courtroom itself, while conducting their own defense. These techniques have been widely criticized as torture.
Substantial cooperation between states in the methods and coordination of torture has been documented. Through the Phoenix Program
, the United States helped South Vietnam
co-ordinate a system of detention, torture and assassination of suspected members of the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong. During the 1980s wars in Central America, the U.S. government provided manuals and training on interrogation
that extended to the use of torture (see U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals). The manuals were also distributed by Special Forces Mobile Training teams to military personnel and intelligence schools in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. The manuals have a chapter devoted to "coercive techniques".
The southern cone governments of South America -- Chile
, Argentina
, Uruguay
, Bolivia
, Paraguay
and Brazil
-- involved in Operation Condor
co-ordinated the disappearance
, torture and execution of dissidents in the 1970s. Hundreds were killed in coordinated operations, and the bodies of those recovered were often mutilated and showed signs of torture. This system operated with the knowledge and support of the United States government through the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department.
The United States government has, at least since the Bush administration, used the tactic of legal rendition
in which suspected terrorists were extradited to countries where they were to be prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed. In the "war on terror" this has evolved into extraordinary rendition
, the delivery of prisoners or others recently captured, including terrorism suspects, to foreign governments known to practice torture are Egypt
, Jordan
, Morocco
, and Afghanistan
. Human rights activists have alleged that the practice amounts to kidnapping
for the purpose of torture, or torture by proxy. A related practice is the operation of facilities for imprisonment, and it is widely believed torture, in foreign countries. In November 2005, the Washington Post reported —- citing administration sources —- that such facilities are operated by the CIA in Thailand
(until 2004), Afghanistan, and several unnamed Eastern European countries. Human Rights Watch
reports that planes associated with rendition have landed repeatedly in Poland
and Romania
.
, which did not use the United Nations Convention Against Torture
as its definition of torture, of its case files found "reports of torture or ill-treatment by state officials in more than 150 countries from 1997 to 2000". These reports described widespread or persistent patterns of abuse in more than 70 countries and torture-related deaths in more than 80.
region, dominated by the warlord Ismail Khan
, Human Rights Watch
reported extensive torture in 2002. Torture by US troops has been alleged in news reports by the New York Times. In March 2008 the U.K. Ministry of Defence claimed that that they and the Afghan army had uncovered a Taliban torture chamber where two individuals were believed to have been beaten.
Socialist People's Republic of Albania, torture was widely used. Since its fall, Amnesty International has reported police abuses amounting to torture; the government says it has "made efforts to punish all acts of torture under the Albanian criminal justice system".
in "Torture; Cancer of Democracy" and "Les Damnees de la Terre" by Franz Fanon, torture was practiced endemically by the French forces, commanded by General Jacques Massu
, bringing together the experience of "Les Paras" in the Indo-China War and German troops in the French Foreign Legion
. Between 1 million and 1.5 million were killed, often using torture techniques based on electricity and drowning techniques. On the withdrawal of French forces and the dispersal of the OAS after the failed putsch, many of the personnel involved were able to pass on their expertise to regimes in South America and South Africa and even the British at Fort Morbut in Aden. The legacy in Algeria itself has been seen in the recent "dirty war", in which extreme atrocities have been committed by both sides.
n separatists.
" carried out in the 1970s, in particular, but not only, by the military dictatorship
from 1976 to 1983, tens of thousands of Argentines were "disappeared
" by the junta, many never to be seen again. The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons concluded:
Much of the torture and subsequent murders took place in the Naval Engineering School in Buenos Aires, carried out under two officers, Hector Astiz and Francis Whammond, and many of the bodies were dropped from helicopters over the sea or deep jungle.
in Chile
in the 1970s used torture extensively against political opponents. Chile's National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture
(Comisión Nacional sobre Prisión Política y Tortura) concluded in 2004 that torture had been a systematically implemented policy of the government, and recommended reparations. The commission heard the testimony of more than 35,000 witnesses, whose testimonies are to be kept secret for fifty years. Among those tortured were future president Michelle Bachelet
, who was held along with her mother at the notorious Villa Grimaldi
detention center in Santiago
.
(1954–1962), the French military
used torture against the National Liberation Front
and the civilian
population. The French interrogators were notorious for the use of man-powered electrical generator
s on suspects: this form of torture was called (la) gégène.
Paul Aussaresses
, a French general in charge of intelligence services during the Algerian war, defended the use of torture in a 2000 interview in the Paris newspaper Le Monde
. In an interview on the CBS
newsmagazine 60 Minutes
, in response to the question of whether he would torture Al-Qaeda
suspects, his answer was, "It seems to me it's obvious."
That France has provided a pivotal role in the evolution of western torture practices is the central thesis of the French film Death Squadrons: The French School by Monique Robin.
The French had themselves developed practices in defence of its declining empire through the 20th century, setting up torture "universities" at Paolo Condor - an island off Vietnam
(then French Indo-China, subsequently taken over by the United States) and at Phillippeville in Algeria
.
Involved in post-war French colonialism were the Foreign Legion
and its paratroopers "Les Paras". These would have employed many German war veterans with experience of the commission of atrocities throughout the Second World War.
Upon the dissolution of French Algeria and the abortive uprising of the OAS many of these personnel were dispersed, only to turn up as "consultants" in various torture centres throughout the post-colonial world: Fort Morbut in British Aden, Apartheid South Africa, the Naval Mechanical School in Argentina, and Pinochet's Chile, as well as establishing methods of torture subsequently practised in North African successor regimes in Tunisia and Algeria.
Popular methods include "le poulet roti" ("roast chicken"), where the victim is tied to a rod between his knees and suspended, the "submarine", whereby the victim has water forced into his stomach from a jerrycan
, and "waterboarding", where a saturated towel is wrapped around the face to simulate the sensation of drowning.
On the other hand, police abuse remains a reality in France today, while France has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) for the conditions of detention in prison
s, including the use of torture on detainees. Although the law and the Constitution prohibits any kind of torture, such practices happen. In 2004, the Inspector General of the National Police received 469 registered complaints about illegitimate police violence during the first 11 months of the year, down from 500 during the same period in 2003. There were 59 confirmed cases of police violence, compared to 65 in the previous year. In April 2004, the ECHR condemned the government for "inhumane and degrading treatments" in the 1997 case of a teenager beaten while in police custody. The court ordered the government to pay Giovanni Rivas $20,500 (15,000 euros) in damages and $13,500 (10,000 euros) in court costs. The head of the police station in Saint-Denis
, near Paris, has been forced to resign after allegations of rape
and other violence committed by the police force under his orders. Nine investigations concerning police abuse in this police station were carried out in 2005 by the IGS
inspection of police. These repeated abuses are said to be one of the causes of the 2005 civil unrest
. Conditions in detention center
s for illegal aliens
have also been widely criticized by human rights NGOs. In 2006 a young 20-year-old Serbian girl accused a policeman of attempting to rape her in such a centre in Bobigny
, in the suburbs of Paris, the year before.
secret police, against suspected opponents of the regime.
and the repression by the army against civilians and suspected opponents of the military dictatorship
, murder (even genocide
), torture, rape and inhumane and degrading treatment was systematically used by the Guatemalan armed forces and police. There is evidence that the CIA, in anticommunist campaigns during the 1980s, was involved in these tortures (in Latin America the threat of communism was often used as justification for dictatorship during the Cold War
). Thousands of victims were tortured and murdered. For example, Dianna Ortiz
, an American nun who was teaching poor Maya
n children in the Guatemala highlands, claims that U.S. personnel were present in interrogation and torture rooms in Guatemala City
in 1989 when she was kidnapped, taken to a secret prison and repeatedly raped and tortured by Guatemalan right-wing forces. Ortiz survived because of her American citizenship. Sister Ortiz chronicled her experiences and recovery in a book, The Blindfold's Eyes. "There were other people in the clandestine cell, the clandestine prison, as well, and I could hear terrible screams. Many were killed. I saw some bodies. There were children, as well", wrote Dianna Ortiz.
India will now bring the anti torture act 2010 so it can ratify the UN convention against torture.The bill provides up to 10 year sentence for physical or mental torture by the police.
for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information" and the "compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath." It also states that "any testimony, confession, or oath obtained under duress is devoid of value and credence." The Islamic Republic itself vehemently denies the existence of torture by the government.
Nonetheless, human rights groups and observers, such as Amnesty International
, the United Nations
, and Human Rights Watch
, have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran.
Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament
that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in 2003 when reformists controlled Parliament, but were rejected by the Guardian Council
.
Saddam Hussein
made extensive use of torture, including at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison
.
The post-invasion
Iraqi government
holds thousands of people in prison. After investigating from July to October 2004, Human Rights Watch
found that torture was "routine and commonplace." According to their report,
Despite apparently credible claims that people were fed into Saddam Hussein's plastic shredder
(most likely within Abu Ghraib) prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, no such device was found after the war. In October 1990, it was alleged that Iraqi soldiers had "thrown babies from incubators" during the invasion of Kuwait
. This story was supposed to have come from the 'eye-witness testimony' of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, Nurse Nayirah
. Years later it emerged that she was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah
, Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, and that the story was the creation of the Hill & Knowlton
public relations firm employed by the Kuwaitis.
continues to express concerns to Israel about treatment which amounts to torture, and remains unhappy about the steps taken by Israel to eliminate torture. Amnesty International stated in 2002:
The human rights group B'Tselem
estimated that 85% of all Palestinian detainees suspected of terrorism are subject to prolonged sleep deprivation
; prolonged sight deprivation or sensory deprivation
; forced, prolonged maintenance of body positions that grow increasingly painful; confinement in tiny, closet-like spaces; exposure to temperature extremes, such as in deliberately overcooled rooms; prolonged toilet and hygiene deprivation; and degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to eat and use the toilet at the same time. Allegations have been made of frequent beatings. Such acts violate Article 16 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture
. In January 2000, B'Tselem claimed that the Israeli General Security Service's (GSS) methods of interrogation amounted to the five techniques
: "[The] GSS used methods comparable to those used by the British in 1971, viz. sleep deprivation, infliction of physical suffering, and sensory isolation. But the GSS used them for much longer periods, so the resulting pain and suffering were substantially greater. In addition, the GSS used direct violence... Thus,... in practice, the GSS methods were substantially more severe than those used by the British in 1971..."
Suspected Hezbollah guerrillas, their families and Lebanese civilian internees were previously detained in the South Lebanon Army
(SLA) prison at Khiam
in the then Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon. Torture, including electric shock torture, by the SLA was routine. This was detailed after the end of the occupation in 2000, when Lebanese who freed the prisoners found instruments of torture. Such methods of torture have not been documented in Israel proper or in the occupied Palestinian territories.
, Lagos
and Kano
routinely practice torture. Dozens of witnesses and survivors stepped forward to testify to repeated, severe beatings, abuse of sexual organs, rape, death threats, injury by shooting, and the denial of food and water. These abuses were used in campaigns against common crime.
Systematic torture was used in conjunction with military occupation in an attempt to quell anti-oil
protests by the Ogoni people
in the Niger Delta
, according to a World Council of Churches
report.
Christian pastors in Nigeria have been involved in the torturing and killing of children accused of witchcraft. Church pastors, in an effort to distinguish from the competition, establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft. When repeatedly asked to comment about the matter, the Church has refused to comment.
According to a 1975 secret CIA counterintelligence study, the "'Cuban Program'...was a Hanoi University Psychological Study." Hanoi's Ministry of Public Security's Medical Office (MPSMO) was responsible for "preparing studies and performing research on the most effective Soviet, French, Communist Chinese and other ...techniques..." of extracting information from POWs. The MPSMO "...supervised the use of torture and the use of drugs to induce [American] prisoners to cooperate." Its functions also "...included working with Soviet and Communist Chinese intelligence advisors who were qualified in the use of medical techniques for intelligence purposes."
See Con Son Island
for accounts of US torture practices.
forbids arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment. Part 2 of Article 21 of the Constitution states that "no one may be subjected to torture, violence or any other harsh or humiliating treatment or punishment…". However Russian police are regularly observed practicing torture - including beatings, electric shocks, rape, asphyxiation - in interrogating arrested suspects.
Torture and humiliation, or dedovshchina
, are also widespread in Russian army, according to Human Rights Watch. Many young men are killed or commit suicide every year because of it. Amnesty International reported on allegations of Chechen locals, that Russian military forces in Chechnya
rape and torture local women with electric shock
s, when electric wires are connected to the straps of their bra on their chest.
In the most extreme cases, hundreds of innocent people from the street were arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured, and raped by special police forces. Such incidents took place not only in Chechnya, but also in the Russian towns of Blagoveshensk, Bezetsk, and Nefteyugansk.
officially considers torture illegal under Islamic Law
; however, it is widely practiced, as in the case of William Sampson
. According to a 2003 report by Amnesty International, "torture and ill-treatment remained rife." Hanny Megally, Executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, stated in 2002 "The practice of torture in Saudi Arabia is well documented", According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2003, "Torture under interrogation of political prisoners and criminal suspects continued", and the 2006 report notes that "Arbitrary detention, mistreatment and torture of detainees, restrictions on freedom of movement, and lack of official accountability remain serious concerns".
during the Stalinism
era to extract confessions from suspects often called enemies of the people
. One of the most prevalent types of torture was sleep deprivation, nicknamed "conveyor" due to interrogators replacing one another to keep the inmate from sleeping. The use of torture was authorized by the Central Committee of the Communist Party
and personally by Joseph Stalin
. During the Doctor's Plot, Stalin ordered falsely accused physicians to be tortured "to death".
However, the Spanish authorities consistently fail to implement recommendations by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the UN Committee Against Torture to combat the use of torture in detention. The UN committee expressed its concern "about the length of judicial procedures and made reference to reports that indicated that five years had sometimes passed between crime and sentence. The Committee warned that this problem reduces the effect of penal action and discourages people to file complaints." It further indicated that "all members of the Committee were also deeply concerned about the legal practice of five days incommunicado detention" (since October 2003, a reform of the Criminal Procedure Code has extended that period to a maximum of 13 days).
Royal Sheik
, Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
(a son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) directing the torture of an Afghan grain dealer Mohammed Shah Poor The video includes the man being tortured with a cattle prod to his genitals, sand in his mouth and being run over by a Mercedes
SUV. A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down. The official response of the UAE government was that Sheik Issa is the man shown in the video but he did nothing wrong. The incidents depicted in the videotapes were not part of a pattern of behaviour, the Ministry of the Interior said.
(ECtHR) trial "Ireland
v. the United Kingdom
" (Case No. 5310/71) the facts were not in dispute and judges court published the following in their judgement:
These were referred to by the court as the five techniques. The court ruled:
The ECHR case was a ruling on British policy before the "Parker report" which was published on 2 March 1972 and had found the five techniques to be illegal under domestic law:
On the same day (2 March 1972), the United Kingdom Prime Minister
, Edward Heath
, stated in the House of Commons
that the techniques would not be used in future as an aid to interrogation. As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly prohibiting the use of the techniques, whether singly or in combination, were then issued to the security forces by the government. These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the government.
camp called Bread Basket, in Basra
, during May 2003. The judge at the military court, Judge Advocate Michael Hunter, said of photographs and the soldier's behaviour:
At the court martial, the prosecution alleged that in giving the order to "work [the prisoners] hard" Captain Dan Taylor had broken the Geneva Conventions
. Neither Taylor, nor his commanding officer Lt-Col Paterson (who was briefed on the operation "Ali Baba" by Taylor), were sanctioned and, indeed, during the period of time between the offence and the trial, both were given promotions. All the leaders of the major British political parties condemned the abuse. Tony Blair
, British Prime Minister, declared that the pictures were "shocking and appalling". After sentencing, the Chief of the General Staff
, General Sir Mike Jackson
, made a statement on television and said that he was "appalled and disappointed" when he first saw photographs of the Iraqi detainees and that
On 7 December 2005 the House of Lords reversed the deportations of Muslims convicted on "evidence procured by torture inflicted by foreign officials," and cited the 1978 case in ruling that centuries of common law and recent international conventions made torture anathema in the country's courts. Lord Bingham said it was "clear that from its very earliest days the common law of England set its face firmly against the use of torture"; Lord Nicholls said "Torture is not acceptable. This is a bedrock moral principle in this country"; Lord Hoffman said "The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it."; Lord Hope said it was "one of most evil practices known to man"; Lord Rodgers said "the unacceptable nature of torture ... has long been unquestioned in this country."; Lord Carswell referred to the "abhorrence felt by civilised nations for the use of torture"; and Lord Brown said that "torture is an unqualified evil. It can never be justified. Rather it must always be punished.".
On 13 March 2007 the six-month court martial of the seven soldiers — including Colonel Jorge Mendonca and Major Michael Peebles — over the detention of Iraqi prisoners in Basra during May 2003 ended with all but one, Corporal
Donald Payne, being acquitted. On 30 April 2007 Payne, Britain's first convicted war criminal found guilty under the provisions of the International Criminal Court Act 2001
, who had pleaded guilty to mistreating prisoners, was jailed for a year and dishonourably discharged from the army.
In March 2008 the Ministry of Defence admitted breaching the human rights of Baha Mousa
, who died in British custody in Basra, and of eight other Iraqi men held at the same facility, opening the way for a multimillion-pound compensation package for the relatives of Baha Mousa and the other men injured during illegal interrogations. On 14 May 2008 Defence Secretary Des Browne
announced in the House of Commons that there would be a public inquiry
into the death of Baha Mousa
in which "no stone [will be left] unturned in investigating his tragic death."
On 26 July 2008, the Joint Committee on Human Rights
accused Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram
in 2004 and Lieutenant-General Robin Brims
, Commander Field Army, in 2006 of misleading the committee when they declared that conditioning practices (based on the five techniques
, banned since their used in Northern Ireland in the 1970s) were not being used. It has now emerged that such techniques were being used by some troops deployed abroad. The BBC reported that "Labour MP Andrew Dismore, chairman of the committee, said he hoped the public inquiry
[into the death of Baha Mousa
] would give some indications as to why they were given 'wrong evidence'. Earlier this month, the MoD agreed to pay almost £3m in compensation to Mr Mousa's family and nine Iraqi men after admitting breaching human rights".
. Torture has principally been reported or alleged in three main areas:
Criminal justice system - Abusive and torturous practices are regularly reported within prison
s, and not uncommon in police custody. Police brutality
in the United States has at times escalated to torture, as in the cases of Abner Louima
who was sodomized with a broomstick by New York police.
The Chicago Police Department
's Area 2 unit under Commander Jon Burge
repeatedly used electroshock, near-suffocation by plastic bags and excessive beating on suspects in the 1970s and 1980s. The City of Chicago's Office of Professional Standards (OPS) concluded that the physical abuse was systematic and, "The type of abuse described was not limited to the usual beating, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture." The Supermax facility at the Maine State Prison has been the scene of video-taped forcible extractions that Lance Tapley in the Portland Phoenix wrote "look[ed] like torture."
Military detention, internment and interrogation - Torture has allegedly been practiced within prisons, immigration detention facilities and military compounds. American government officials have participated in torture abroad, maintained interrogation facilities where torture is practiced and trained foreign officials in interrogation methods that include practices considered torturous by international standards.
In 2003 and 2004 there was substantial controversy over the "stress and duress
" methods that were used in the U.S. War on Terrorism
that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Executive branch of government at Cabinet level. Similar methods in 1978 were ruled by ECHR
to be inhuman and degrading treatment -- though explicitly not of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture -- when used by the U.K.
in the early 1970s in Northern Ireland
.
Extensive use of torture techniques was reported after the Second Iraq War (2003–2010), allegedly supported by American military intelligence agents, in Iraqi jails such as Abu Ghraib
. US government legal memoranda from as early as 2002 approve the practice of techniques deemed by many observers as torture. The Military Commissions Act of 2006
authorizes the President to hold military tribunals of alleged enemy combatants, to approve testimony obtained through humiliating or degrading treatment, and to suspend habeas corpus
by holding such prisoners indefinitely without judicial review. Amnesty International
and numerous commentators have criticized the Act for approving a system that uses torture, destroying the mechanisms for judicial review created by the Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
, and creating a parallel legal system below international standards.
CIA agents have anonymously confirmed to the Washington Post in a 25 December 2002 report that the CIA routinely uses so-called "stress and duress
" interrogation techniques (e.g. water boarding), which are claimed by human rights organisations to be acts of torture, in the US
-led War on Terrorism
. These sources state that CIA and military personnel beat up unco-operative suspects, confine them in cramped quarters, duct tape them to stretchers, and use other restraints which maintain the subject in an awkward and painful position for long periods of time. The Washington Post article continues that sensory deprivation
, through the use of hoods
and spraypainted goggles, sleep deprivation, and selective use of painkillers for at least one captive who was shot in the groin during his apprehension are also used.
In an interview with the Washington Post, the convening authority
of military commissions, Susan J. Crawford
, a retired Judge
, who was responsible for reviewing practices at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, said of one Guantanamo Bay detainee, "his treatment met the legal definition of torture, and that is why I did not refer the case" for prosecution, and then went on to describe treatment not meeting the legal definition of torture.
Extraordinary rendition - Media reports, human rights group statements and governmental investigations (including an investigation by the European Union
) conclude that since the 1990s, the U.S. government has handed suspects over to foreign intelligence services for more intensive interrogation
, often including torture by proxy. There has been a lack of denial in official circles of this practice. A U.S. official is reported to have said "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job." The U.S. Government denies that torture is being conducted in the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay
. It is alleged that terror suspects are arbitrarily or illegally arrested, then secretly transferred to other countries without trial and without respect for legal rights, there to be interrogated and often tortured. Maher Arar
(2002) is an example of this practice.
It was reported in June 2008 that, according to human rights lawyers, the USA was "operating floating prisons to house those arrested in its war on terror":
See also:
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Bagram torture and prisoner abuse
Criticisms of the War on Terrorism
Extraordinary Rendition
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
In 2009, the Obama administration began the process of reversing the Bush administration policies that had permitted the use of torture by the US government. The Obama administration has consistently made it clear that it did not support the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques', and that it viewed their use as a breach of law.
concluded:
Forms of torture frequently cited include immersion in boiling water, exposure to extreme heat and cold, "the use of electric shock, temporary suffocation, hanging by the ankles or wrists, removal of fingernails, punctures with sharp objects, rape, the threat of rape, and the threat of murder of family members. (For example, see Muzafar Avazov
.)
In 2003, Britain's Ambassador for Uzbekistan
, Craig Murray, said that information was being extracted under extreme torture from dissidents in that country, and that the information was subsequently being used by Britain and other western, democratic countries which disapproved of torture.
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain
Suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...
upon an individual to extract information or a confession, or as an illicit extrajudicial punishment, is prohibited by international law and is illegal in most countries. However, it is still used by many governments. This article describes uses of torture in recent times, that is to say, the use of torture since the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
(UDHR), which prohibited it.
Torture in modern society
Torture is widely practiced worldwide: Amnesty International received reports of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in more than 150 countries during the four-year period from 1997 to 2000. These accusations concerned acts against political prisonerPolitical prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s in 70 countries and other prisoners and detainees in more than 130 countries. State torture has been extensively documented and studied, often as part of efforts at collective memory and reconciliation
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences, and some were selected...
in societies that have experienced a change in government. Surveys of torture survivors reveal that torture "is not aimed primarily at the extraction of information ... Its real aim is to break down the victim's personality and identity." When applied indiscriminately, torture is used as a tool of repression
Political repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
and deterrence against dissent
Dissent
Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or an entity...
and community empowerment.
While many states use torture, few wish to be described as doing so, either to their own citizens or to international bodies. So a variety of strategies are used to circumvent their legal and humanitarian duties, including plausible deniability
Plausible deniability
Plausible deniability is, at root, credible ability to deny a fact or allegation, or to deny previous knowledge of a fact. The term most often refers to the denial of blame in chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible,...
, secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
, "need to know", denial that certain treatments constitute torture, appeal to various laws (national or international), use of jurisdictional argument, claim of "overriding need", the use of torture by proxy, and so on. Almost all regime
Regime
The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
s and governments engaging in torture (and other crimes against humanity) consistently deny engaging in it, in spite of overwhelming hearsay
Hearsay
Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. When submitted as evidence, such statements are called hearsay evidence. As a legal term, "hearsay" can also have the narrower meaning of...
and physical evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
from the citizens they tortured. Through both denial and avoidance of prosecution, most people ordering or carrying out acts of torture do not face legal consequences for their actions. UN Special Rapporteur for the Commission on Human Rights, Sir Nigel Rodley, believes that "impunity continues to be the principal cause of the perpetuation and encouragement of human rights violations and, in particular, torture."
While states, particularly their prisons, law enforcement and intelligence apparatus, are major perpetrators of torture, many non-state actors also engage in it. These include paramilitaries
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
and guerrilla
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
armies
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
, criminal actors such as organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
syndicates and kidnappers, and those enacting individual forms of power in extreme forms of domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
and child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
.
A recent approach to interrogations has been to use techniques such as waterboarding
Waterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
, and dogs to intimidate or pressure prisoners in a manner claimed to be legal under national or international law. Electric shock techniques such as the use of stun belts and taser
Taser
A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...
s have been considered appropriate provided that they are used to "control" prisoners or suspects, even non-violent ones, rather than to extract information. This has been used on several prisoners in the courtroom itself, while conducting their own defense. These techniques have been widely criticized as torture.
Technology
While methods of torture are often quite crude, a number of new technologies of control have been used by torturers in recent years. The Brazilian government devised a number of new electrical and mechanical means of torture during the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, and proceeded to train military officials from other Latin American countries in their techniques. One is the use of tasers and electro-shock devices now widely sold to prison authorities around the world. Minor refinements of ancient techniques, including tearing out fingernails and toenails with iron appliances and burning the soles of the feet with clothes irons, are also widely applied.Inter-state collaboration
Phoenix Program
The Phoenix Program |phoenix]]) was a controversial counterinsurgency program designed, coordinated, and executed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , United States special operations forces, and the Republic of Vietnam's security apparatus during the Vietnam War that operated...
, the United States helped South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
co-ordinate a system of detention, torture and assassination of suspected members of the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong. During the 1980s wars in Central America, the U.S. government provided manuals and training on interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
that extended to the use of torture (see U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals). The manuals were also distributed by Special Forces Mobile Training teams to military personnel and intelligence schools in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. The manuals have a chapter devoted to "coercive techniques".
The southern cone governments of South America -- Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
-- involved in Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...
co-ordinated the disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
, torture and execution of dissidents in the 1970s. Hundreds were killed in coordinated operations, and the bodies of those recovered were often mutilated and showed signs of torture. This system operated with the knowledge and support of the United States government through the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department.
The United States government has, at least since the Bush administration, used the tactic of legal rendition
Rendition (law)
In law, rendition is a "surrender" or "handing over" of persons or property, particularly from one jurisdiction to another. For criminal suspects, extradition is the most common type of rendition. Rendition can also be seen as the act of handing over, after the request for extradition has taken...
in which suspected terrorists were extradited to countries where they were to be prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed. In the "war on terror" this has evolved into extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
, the delivery of prisoners or others recently captured, including terrorism suspects, to foreign governments known to practice torture are Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. Human rights activists have alleged that the practice amounts to kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
for the purpose of torture, or torture by proxy. A related practice is the operation of facilities for imprisonment, and it is widely believed torture, in foreign countries. In November 2005, the Washington Post reported —- citing administration sources —- that such facilities are operated by the CIA in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
(until 2004), Afghanistan, and several unnamed Eastern European countries. Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
reports that planes associated with rendition have landed repeatedly in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
.
Recent instances of torture in selected countries
The use of torture is geographically widespread. A review by Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, which did not use the United Nations Convention Against Torture
United Nations Convention Against Torture
The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international human rights instrument, under the review of the United Nations, that aims to prevent torture around the world....
as its definition of torture, of its case files found "reports of torture or ill-treatment by state officials in more than 150 countries from 1997 to 2000". These reports described widespread or persistent patterns of abuse in more than 70 countries and torture-related deaths in more than 80.
Afghanistan
Torture has been reported in Afghanistan under each of its recent governments. Under Najibullah's Soviet-backed regime, beating and electric shocks were widely reported. After the mujahidin victory, Afghanistan fell into a state of chaos, and, according to Amnesty International, "Torture of civilians in their homes has become endemic ... In almost every jail run by the armed political groups, torture is reported to be a part of the daily routine". The Taliban are likewise reported to have engaged in torture. Since the U.S. overthrow of the Taliban, torture has been reported on several occasions, both by Afghan groups and by U.S. troops. In the HeratHerat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
region, dominated by the warlord Ismail Khan
Ismail Khan
Ismail Khan is a politician and former mujahideen commander from Afghanistan. Born in the western Afghan city of Herat, he rose to become a powerful rebel commander during in the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and then a key member of the Northern Alliance until finally becoming the Governor of Herat...
, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
reported extensive torture in 2002. Torture by US troops has been alleged in news reports by the New York Times. In March 2008 the U.K. Ministry of Defence claimed that that they and the Afghan army had uncovered a Taliban torture chamber where two individuals were believed to have been beaten.
Albania
Under Enver Hoxha'sEnver Hoxha
Enver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
Socialist People's Republic of Albania, torture was widely used. Since its fall, Amnesty International has reported police abuses amounting to torture; the government says it has "made efforts to punish all acts of torture under the Albanian criminal justice system".
Algeria
According to Pierre Vidal-NaquetPierre Vidal-Naquet
Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in 1969....
in "Torture; Cancer of Democracy" and "Les Damnees de la Terre" by Franz Fanon, torture was practiced endemically by the French forces, commanded by General Jacques Massu
Jacques Massu
Jacques Émile Massu was a French general who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Algerian War and the Suez crisis.-Early life:Jacques Massu was born in Châlons-sur-Marne to a family of military officers; his father was an artillery officer...
, bringing together the experience of "Les Paras" in the Indo-China War and German troops in the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
. Between 1 million and 1.5 million were killed, often using torture techniques based on electricity and drowning techniques. On the withdrawal of French forces and the dispersal of the OAS after the failed putsch, many of the personnel involved were able to pass on their expertise to regimes in South America and South Africa and even the British at Fort Morbut in Aden. The legacy in Algeria itself has been seen in the recent "dirty war", in which extreme atrocities have been committed by both sides.
Angola
In Angola's 27-year civil war, according to Amnesty International, "many were tortured" by both sides. Since that time, AI has also reported that "unarmed civilians are being extrajudicially executed and tortured" in Angola's war against CabindaCabinda (province)
Cabinda is an exclave and province of Angola, a status that has been disputed by many political organizations in the territory. The capital city is also called Cabinda. The province is divided into four municipalities - Belize, Buco Zau, Cabinda and Cacongo.Modern Cabinda is the result of a fusion...
n separatists.
Argentina
During the so-called "Dirty WarDirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
" carried out in the 1970s, in particular, but not only, by the military dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
from 1976 to 1983, tens of thousands of Argentines were "disappeared
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
" by the junta, many never to be seen again. The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons concluded:
In nearly all the cases brought to the attention of the Commission, the victims speak of acts of torture. Torture was an important element in the methodology of repression. Secret torture centres were set up, among other reasons, to enable the carrying out of torture to be carried out undisturbed.
Much of the torture and subsequent murders took place in the Naval Engineering School in Buenos Aires, carried out under two officers, Hector Astiz and Francis Whammond, and many of the bodies were dropped from helicopters over the sea or deep jungle.
Brazil
Torture was used regularly by the Brazilian dictatorship regime from 1964 to 1984 against dissidents.Chile
The regime of Augusto PinochetAugusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in the 1970s used torture extensively against political opponents. Chile's National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture
Valech Report
The Valech Report was a record of abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. The report was published on November 29, 2004 and detailed the results of a six-month investigation. A revised version was released on June 1, 2005...
(Comisión Nacional sobre Prisión Política y Tortura) concluded in 2004 that torture had been a systematically implemented policy of the government, and recommended reparations. The commission heard the testimony of more than 35,000 witnesses, whose testimonies are to be kept secret for fifty years. Among those tortured were future president Michelle Bachelet
Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Social Democrat politician who was President of Chile from 11 March 2006 to 11 March 2010. She was the first woman president of her country...
, who was held along with her mother at the notorious Villa Grimaldi
Villa Grimaldi
Villa Grimaldi was a complex of buildings used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners by DINA, the Chilean secret police, during the government of Augusto Pinochet. The complex was located in Peñalolén, in the outskirts of Santiago, and was in operation from mid-1974 to mid-1978...
detention center in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
.
China
Although torture was outlawed in China in 1996, a UN investigator found it to still be widespread in 2005, particularly because the narrow definition of the law, leaving a mark, does not comply with the UN definition.Cuba
People imprisoned by the communist regime are reportedly tortured.France
During the Algerian War of IndependenceAlgerian War of Independence
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France...
(1954–1962), the French military
Military of France
The French Armed Forces encompass the French Army, the French Navy, the French Air Force and the National Gendarmerie. The President of the Republic heads the armed forces, with the title "chef des armées" . The President is the supreme authority for military matters and is the sole official who...
used torture against the National Liberation Front
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
and the civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
population. The French interrogators were notorious for the use of man-powered electrical generator
Electrical generator
In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
s on suspects: this form of torture was called (la) gégène.
Paul Aussaresses
Paul Aussaresses
Paul Aussaresses is a retired French Army general, who fought during World War II, the First Indochina War and Algerian War...
, a French general in charge of intelligence services during the Algerian war, defended the use of torture in a 2000 interview in the Paris newspaper Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
. In an interview on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
newsmagazine 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, in response to the question of whether he would torture Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
suspects, his answer was, "It seems to me it's obvious."
That France has provided a pivotal role in the evolution of western torture practices is the central thesis of the French film Death Squadrons: The French School by Monique Robin.
The French had themselves developed practices in defence of its declining empire through the 20th century, setting up torture "universities" at Paolo Condor - an island off Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
(then French Indo-China, subsequently taken over by the United States) and at Phillippeville in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
.
Involved in post-war French colonialism were the Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
and its paratroopers "Les Paras". These would have employed many German war veterans with experience of the commission of atrocities throughout the Second World War.
Upon the dissolution of French Algeria and the abortive uprising of the OAS many of these personnel were dispersed, only to turn up as "consultants" in various torture centres throughout the post-colonial world: Fort Morbut in British Aden, Apartheid South Africa, the Naval Mechanical School in Argentina, and Pinochet's Chile, as well as establishing methods of torture subsequently practised in North African successor regimes in Tunisia and Algeria.
Popular methods include "le poulet roti" ("roast chicken"), where the victim is tied to a rod between his knees and suspended, the "submarine", whereby the victim has water forced into his stomach from a jerrycan
Jerrycan
A jerrycan is a robust fuel container originally made from pressed steel. It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold 20 litres of fuel. The development of the Jerrycan was a huge improvement on earlier designs, which required tools and funnels to use.-Uses:Today similar...
, and "waterboarding", where a saturated towel is wrapped around the face to simulate the sensation of drowning.
On the other hand, police abuse remains a reality in France today, while France has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
(ECHR) for the conditions of detention in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, including the use of torture on detainees. Although the law and the Constitution prohibits any kind of torture, such practices happen. In 2004, the Inspector General of the National Police received 469 registered complaints about illegitimate police violence during the first 11 months of the year, down from 500 during the same period in 2003. There were 59 confirmed cases of police violence, compared to 65 in the previous year. In April 2004, the ECHR condemned the government for "inhumane and degrading treatments" in the 1997 case of a teenager beaten while in police custody. The court ordered the government to pay Giovanni Rivas $20,500 (15,000 euros) in damages and $13,500 (10,000 euros) in court costs. The head of the police station in Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Denis....
, near Paris, has been forced to resign after allegations of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and other violence committed by the police force under his orders. Nine investigations concerning police abuse in this police station were carried out in 2005 by the IGS
IGS
- Computers/Video Games :*IGS Go server*iGamespot, former professional MLG Halo 2 team*Information Gateway Services, an Internet Service Provider*Information Global Service, video game company...
inspection of police. These repeated abuses are said to be one of the causes of the 2005 civil unrest
2005 civil unrest in France
The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...
. Conditions in detention center
Detention center
A detention center or a detention centre is any location used for detention. Specifically, it can mean:*A jail or prison*A structure for immigration detention*An internment camp or concentration camp...
s for illegal aliens
Alien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...
have also been widely criticized by human rights NGOs. In 2006 a young 20-year-old Serbian girl accused a policeman of attempting to rape her in such a centre in Bobigny
Bobigny
Bobigny is a commune, or town, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Bobigny is the préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Bobigny...
, in the suburbs of Paris, the year before.
Germany
Torture was used commonly during the Third Reich. In the German Democratic Republic in east Germany, torture & inhumane and degrading treatment were systematically used by the security forces, including the StasiStasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
secret police, against suspected opponents of the regime.
Guatemala
During the Guatemalan civil warGuatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
and the repression by the army against civilians and suspected opponents of the military dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
, murder (even genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
), torture, rape and inhumane and degrading treatment was systematically used by the Guatemalan armed forces and police. There is evidence that the CIA, in anticommunist campaigns during the 1980s, was involved in these tortures (in Latin America the threat of communism was often used as justification for dictatorship during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
). Thousands of victims were tortured and murdered. For example, Dianna Ortiz
Dianna Ortiz
Sister Dianna Ortiz is an American Roman CatholicUrsuline nun.A native of the state of New Mexico, while serving as a missionary in Guatemala in 1989, she was abducted by members of the Guatemalan military and brutally tortured. Among other torments she states being exposed to were gang-rape and...
, an American nun who was teaching poor Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
n children in the Guatemala highlands, claims that U.S. personnel were present in interrogation and torture rooms in Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
in 1989 when she was kidnapped, taken to a secret prison and repeatedly raped and tortured by Guatemalan right-wing forces. Ortiz survived because of her American citizenship. Sister Ortiz chronicled her experiences and recovery in a book, The Blindfold's Eyes. "There were other people in the clandestine cell, the clandestine prison, as well, and I could hear terrible screams. Many were killed. I saw some bodies. There were children, as well", wrote Dianna Ortiz.
India
India has not ratified the UN treaty against torture.Custodial deaths and extra judicial killings are on the rise.The Asian Centre for Human Rights today released its report, Torture in India 2010, at a press conference in New Delhi and stated that taking 2000 as the base year, custodial death have increased by 41.66% persons under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between 2004-2005 to 2007-2008. This includes 70.72% increase of deaths in prison custody and 12.60% in police custody.India will now bring the anti torture act 2010 so it can ratify the UN convention against torture.The bill provides up to 10 year sentence for physical or mental torture by the police.
Iran
Article 38 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids "all forms of tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information" and the "compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath." It also states that "any testimony, confession, or oath obtained under duress is devoid of value and credence." The Islamic Republic itself vehemently denies the existence of torture by the government.
Nonetheless, human rights groups and observers, such as Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran.
Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in 2003 when reformists controlled Parliament, but were rejected by the Guardian Council
Guardian Council
The Guardian Council of the Constitution , also known as the Guardian Council or Council of Guardians, is an appointed and constitutionally-mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran....
.
Iraq
The government headed by BaathistBaath Party
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was a political party mixing Arab nationalist and Arab socialist interests, opposed to Western imperialism, and calling for the renaissance or resurrection and unification of the Arab world into a single state. Ba'ath is also spelled Ba'th or Baath and means...
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
made extensive use of torture, including at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison
Abu Ghraib prison
The Baghdad Central Prison, formerly known as Abu Ghraib prison is in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi city 32 km west of Baghdad. It was built by British contractors in the 1950s....
.
The post-invasion
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
Iraqi government
Iraqi Interim Government
The Iraqi Interim Government was created by the United States and its coalition allies as a caretaker government to govern Iraq until the Iraqi Transitional Government was installed following the Iraqi National Assembly election conducted on January 30, 2005...
holds thousands of people in prison. After investigating from July to October 2004, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
found that torture was "routine and commonplace." According to their report,
Despite apparently credible claims that people were fed into Saddam Hussein's plastic shredder
Saddam Hussein's alleged shredder
In the runup to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, press stories appeared in the United Kingdom and United States of a plastic shredder into which Saddam and Qusay Hussein fed opponents of their Baathist rule. These stories attracted worldwide attention and boosted support for military action, in stories...
(most likely within Abu Ghraib) prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, no such device was found after the war. In October 1990, it was alleged that Iraqi soldiers had "thrown babies from incubators" during the invasion of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
. This story was supposed to have come from the 'eye-witness testimony' of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, Nurse Nayirah
Nurse Nayirah
Nayirah refers to the controversial testimony given before the non-governmental Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a female who provided only her first name, Nayirah...
. Years later it emerged that she was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah
Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah
Shaikh Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah is a member of the Kuwait House of Al-Sabah ruling family and the former Kuwaiti ambassador to U.S.His daughter Nayirah and himself were reportedly involved in Citizens for a Free Kuwait which was a front group established by the Kuwaiti government to promote the...
, Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, and that the story was the creation of the Hill & Knowlton
Hill & Knowlton
Hill & Knowlton is a global public relations company, headquartered in New York City, United States, with 79 offices in 44 countries. Hill & Knowlton was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1927 by John W. Hill and is today led by Chairman & CEO, Paul Taaffe...
public relations firm employed by the Kuwaitis.
Israel
After investigation of continued allegations of torture, the Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that all torture - even moderate physical pressure - was illegal. This decision was praised by human-rights organizations. Despite this reform of the law, certain actions tantamount to torture were still not completely prohibited in Israel. Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
continues to express concerns to Israel about treatment which amounts to torture, and remains unhappy about the steps taken by Israel to eliminate torture. Amnesty International stated in 2002:
The human rights group B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
estimated that 85% of all Palestinian detainees suspected of terrorism are subject to prolonged sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
; prolonged sight deprivation or sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...
; forced, prolonged maintenance of body positions that grow increasingly painful; confinement in tiny, closet-like spaces; exposure to temperature extremes, such as in deliberately overcooled rooms; prolonged toilet and hygiene deprivation; and degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to eat and use the toilet at the same time. Allegations have been made of frequent beatings. Such acts violate Article 16 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture
United Nations Convention Against Torture
The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international human rights instrument, under the review of the United Nations, that aims to prevent torture around the world....
. In January 2000, B'Tselem claimed that the Israeli General Security Service's (GSS) methods of interrogation amounted to the five techniques
Five techniques
The term five techniques refers to certain interrogation practices adopted by the Northern Ireland and British governments during Operation Demetrius in the early 1970s...
: "[The] GSS used methods comparable to those used by the British in 1971, viz. sleep deprivation, infliction of physical suffering, and sensory isolation. But the GSS used them for much longer periods, so the resulting pain and suffering were substantially greater. In addition, the GSS used direct violence... Thus,... in practice, the GSS methods were substantially more severe than those used by the British in 1971..."
Suspected Hezbollah guerrillas, their families and Lebanese civilian internees were previously detained in the South Lebanon Army
South Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army , also "South Lebanese Army," was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon...
(SLA) prison at Khiam
Khiam
'Khiam' is a town located in South Lebanon Governorate, near the city of Nabatieh. It is located in Southern Lebanon, 750 meters above sea level, 120 km away from Beirut and roughly four kilometers from the Israeli border.The town was the scene of a major confrontation between the Israeli...
in the then Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon. Torture, including electric shock torture, by the SLA was routine. This was detailed after the end of the occupation in 2000, when Lebanese who freed the prisoners found instruments of torture. Such methods of torture have not been documented in Israel proper or in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Nigeria
In 2005, Human Rights Watch documented that Nigerian police in the cities of EnuguEnugu
Enugu is the capital of Enugu State in Nigeria. It is located in the southeastern area of Nigeria and is largely populated by members of the Igbo ethnic group. The city has a population of 722,664 according to the 2006 Nigerian census. The name Enugu is derived from the two Igbo words Enu Ugwu...
, Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
and Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
routinely practice torture. Dozens of witnesses and survivors stepped forward to testify to repeated, severe beatings, abuse of sexual organs, rape, death threats, injury by shooting, and the denial of food and water. These abuses were used in campaigns against common crime.
Systematic torture was used in conjunction with military occupation in an attempt to quell anti-oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
protests by the Ogoni people
Ogoni people
Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples in the region of southeast Nigeria. They share common oil related environmental problem with the Ijaw people of Niger Delta, but Ogonis are not listed in the list of people historically belonging to Niger Delta...
in the Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...
, according to a World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
report.
Christian pastors in Nigeria have been involved in the torturing and killing of children accused of witchcraft. Church pastors, in an effort to distinguish from the competition, establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft. When repeatedly asked to comment about the matter, the Church has refused to comment.
North Vietnam
From 1961 to 1973, the North Vietnamese and Vietcong held hundreds of Americans captive. In North Vietnam alone, more than a dozen prisons were scattered in and around the capital city of Hanoi. American POWs gave them nicknames: "Alcatraz", "Briarpatch", "Dirty Bird", "the Hanoi Hilton", and "the Zoo". Conditions were appalling; food was watery soup and bread. Prisoners were variously isolated, starved, beaten, tortured for countless hours and paraded in anti-American propaganda. "It's easy to die but hard to live," a prison guard told one new arrival, "and we'll show you just how hard it is to live."According to a 1975 secret CIA counterintelligence study, the "'Cuban Program'...was a Hanoi University Psychological Study." Hanoi's Ministry of Public Security's Medical Office (MPSMO) was responsible for "preparing studies and performing research on the most effective Soviet, French, Communist Chinese and other ...techniques..." of extracting information from POWs. The MPSMO "...supervised the use of torture and the use of drugs to induce [American] prisoners to cooperate." Its functions also "...included working with Soviet and Communist Chinese intelligence advisors who were qualified in the use of medical techniques for intelligence purposes."
See Con Son Island
Con Son Island
Côn Sơn Island is the largest island of the Côn Đảo archipelago, off the coast of southern Vietnam. The island is also known after its Malay name as Pulo Condore , while its French variant Poulo Condor was well-known during the times of French Indochina.-Early modern era:In 1702, the British...
for accounts of US torture practices.
Russia
The Constitution of RussiaConstitution of Russia
The current Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993. Russia's constitution came into force on 25 December 1993, at the moment of its official publication...
forbids arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment. Part 2 of Article 21 of the Constitution states that "no one may be subjected to torture, violence or any other harsh or humiliating treatment or punishment…". However Russian police are regularly observed practicing torture - including beatings, electric shocks, rape, asphyxiation - in interrogating arrested suspects.
Torture and humiliation, or dedovshchina
Dedovshchina
Dedovshchina is the name given to the informal system of subjection of new junior conscripts, formerly to the Soviet Armed Forces and today to the Russian armed forces, Interior Ministry, and FSB border guards, as well as the military forces of certain former Soviet Republics, to brutalization...
, are also widespread in Russian army, according to Human Rights Watch. Many young men are killed or commit suicide every year because of it. Amnesty International reported on allegations of Chechen locals, that Russian military forces in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
rape and torture local women with electric shock
Electric shock
Electric Shock of a body with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles or hair. Typically, the expression is used to denote an unwanted exposure to electricity, hence the effects are considered undesirable....
s, when electric wires are connected to the straps of their bra on their chest.
In the most extreme cases, hundreds of innocent people from the street were arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured, and raped by special police forces. Such incidents took place not only in Chechnya, but also in the Russian towns of Blagoveshensk, Bezetsk, and Nefteyugansk.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
officially considers torture illegal under Islamic Law
Islamic law
Islamic law can refer to:*Sharia: The code of conduct enjoined upon Muslims in the Quran*Fiqh: Muslim jurisprudence...
; however, it is widely practiced, as in the case of William Sampson
William Sampson (author)
William Sampson, born , is a dual British and Canadian national who was arrested in Saudi Arabia on December 17, 2000 on a variety of charges including terrorism, espionage and murder...
. According to a 2003 report by Amnesty International, "torture and ill-treatment remained rife." Hanny Megally, Executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, stated in 2002 "The practice of torture in Saudi Arabia is well documented", According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2003, "Torture under interrogation of political prisoners and criminal suspects continued", and the 2006 report notes that "Arbitrary detention, mistreatment and torture of detainees, restrictions on freedom of movement, and lack of official accountability remain serious concerns".
Soviet Union
Torture was widely practiced by the Soviet secret policeNKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
during the Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
era to extract confessions from suspects often called enemies of the people
Enemy of the people
The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...
. One of the most prevalent types of torture was sleep deprivation, nicknamed "conveyor" due to interrogators replacing one another to keep the inmate from sleeping. The use of torture was authorized by the Central Committee of the Communist Party
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
and personally by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. During the Doctor's Plot, Stalin ordered falsely accused physicians to be tortured "to death".
Spain
The Spanish government categorically denies the existence of torture.However, the Spanish authorities consistently fail to implement recommendations by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the UN Committee Against Torture to combat the use of torture in detention. The UN committee expressed its concern "about the length of judicial procedures and made reference to reports that indicated that five years had sometimes passed between crime and sentence. The Committee warned that this problem reduces the effect of penal action and discourages people to file complaints." It further indicated that "all members of the Committee were also deeply concerned about the legal practice of five days incommunicado detention" (since October 2003, a reform of the Criminal Procedure Code has extended that period to a maximum of 13 days).
United Arab Emirates
In April 2009 a video emerged of a United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
Royal Sheik
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
, Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nayhan is the son of the late United Arab Emirates President Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan; the brother of the present ruler of Abu Dhabi, the Emir Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; and the brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.Issa is a prominent real estate...
(a son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) directing the torture of an Afghan grain dealer Mohammed Shah Poor The video includes the man being tortured with a cattle prod to his genitals, sand in his mouth and being run over by a Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
SUV. A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down. The official response of the UAE government was that Sheik Issa is the man shown in the video but he did nothing wrong. The incidents depicted in the videotapes were not part of a pattern of behaviour, the Ministry of the Interior said.
1969-1972, Northern Ireland
In 1978 in the European Court of Human RightsEuropean Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
(ECtHR) trial "Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
v. the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
" (Case No. 5310/71) the facts were not in dispute and judges court published the following in their judgement:
These were referred to by the court as the five techniques. The court ruled:
The ECHR case was a ruling on British policy before the "Parker report" which was published on 2 March 1972 and had found the five techniques to be illegal under domestic law:
On the same day (2 March 1972), the United Kingdom Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
, stated in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
that the techniques would not be used in future as an aid to interrogation. As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly prohibiting the use of the techniques, whether singly or in combination, were then issued to the security forces by the government. These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the government.
21st century
On 23 February 2005, British soldiers were found guilty of abuse of Iraqi prisoners arrested for looting at a British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
camp called Bread Basket, in Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
, during May 2003. The judge at the military court, Judge Advocate Michael Hunter, said of photographs and the soldier's behaviour:
At the court martial, the prosecution alleged that in giving the order to "work [the prisoners] hard" Captain Dan Taylor had broken the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
. Neither Taylor, nor his commanding officer Lt-Col Paterson (who was briefed on the operation "Ali Baba" by Taylor), were sanctioned and, indeed, during the period of time between the offence and the trial, both were given promotions. All the leaders of the major British political parties condemned the abuse. Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, British Prime Minister, declared that the pictures were "shocking and appalling". After sentencing, the Chief of the General Staff
Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)
Chief of the General Staff has been the title of the professional head of the British Army since 1964. The CGS is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Board...
, General Sir Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson
General Sir Michael David "Mike" Jackson, is a retired British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the Parachute Regiment, with whom he served two of his three tours of...
, made a statement on television and said that he was "appalled and disappointed" when he first saw photographs of the Iraqi detainees and that
On 7 December 2005 the House of Lords reversed the deportations of Muslims convicted on "evidence procured by torture inflicted by foreign officials," and cited the 1978 case in ruling that centuries of common law and recent international conventions made torture anathema in the country's courts. Lord Bingham said it was "clear that from its very earliest days the common law of England set its face firmly against the use of torture"; Lord Nicholls said "Torture is not acceptable. This is a bedrock moral principle in this country"; Lord Hoffman said "The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it."; Lord Hope said it was "one of most evil practices known to man"; Lord Rodgers said "the unacceptable nature of torture ... has long been unquestioned in this country."; Lord Carswell referred to the "abhorrence felt by civilised nations for the use of torture"; and Lord Brown said that "torture is an unqualified evil. It can never be justified. Rather it must always be punished.".
On 13 March 2007 the six-month court martial of the seven soldiers — including Colonel Jorge Mendonca and Major Michael Peebles — over the detention of Iraqi prisoners in Basra during May 2003 ended with all but one, Corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
Donald Payne, being acquitted. On 30 April 2007 Payne, Britain's first convicted war criminal found guilty under the provisions of the International Criminal Court Act 2001
International Criminal Court Act 2001
The International Criminal Court Act is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act implements into the law of England, Wales and Northern Ireland the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.The principal aims of the Act are:...
, who had pleaded guilty to mistreating prisoners, was jailed for a year and dishonourably discharged from the army.
In March 2008 the Ministry of Defence admitted breaching the human rights of Baha Mousa
Baha Mousa
Baha Mousa was an Iraqi man who was kicked and beaten to death while in British Army custody in Basra, Iraq in September 2003. The inquiry into his death heard that Mousa was hooded for almost 24 hours during his 36 hours of custody by the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that...
, who died in British custody in Basra, and of eight other Iraqi men held at the same facility, opening the way for a multimillion-pound compensation package for the relatives of Baha Mousa and the other men injured during illegal interrogations. On 14 May 2008 Defence Secretary Des Browne
Des Browne
Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 1997 to 2010...
announced in the House of Commons that there would be a public inquiry
Public inquiry
A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...
into the death of Baha Mousa
Baha Mousa
Baha Mousa was an Iraqi man who was kicked and beaten to death while in British Army custody in Basra, Iraq in September 2003. The inquiry into his death heard that Mousa was hooded for almost 24 hours during his 36 hours of custody by the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that...
in which "no stone [will be left] unturned in investigating his tragic death."
On 26 July 2008, the Joint Committee on Human Rights
Joint Committee on Human Rights
The Joint Committee on Human Rights is a select committee of both the House of Commons and House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
accused Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram
Adam Ingram (Labour politician)
Adam Paterson Ingram is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow from 1987 to 2010.-Early life:...
in 2004 and Lieutenant-General Robin Brims
Robin Brims
Lieutenant General Robin Vaughan Brims CB, CBE, DSO is a retired British Army officer. He was Commander of the Field Army at Land Command from 2005 to 2007.- Early life :...
, Commander Field Army, in 2006 of misleading the committee when they declared that conditioning practices (based on the five techniques
Five techniques
The term five techniques refers to certain interrogation practices adopted by the Northern Ireland and British governments during Operation Demetrius in the early 1970s...
, banned since their used in Northern Ireland in the 1970s) were not being used. It has now emerged that such techniques were being used by some troops deployed abroad. The BBC reported that "Labour MP Andrew Dismore, chairman of the committee, said he hoped the public inquiry
Public inquiry
A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...
[into the death of Baha Mousa
Baha Mousa
Baha Mousa was an Iraqi man who was kicked and beaten to death while in British Army custody in Basra, Iraq in September 2003. The inquiry into his death heard that Mousa was hooded for almost 24 hours during his 36 hours of custody by the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that...
] would give some indications as to why they were given 'wrong evidence'. Earlier this month, the MoD agreed to pay almost £3m in compensation to Mr Mousa's family and nine Iraqi men after admitting breaching human rights".
United States
While the United States is a party to international conventions against torture, a proponent of human rights treaties and a critic of torture by other countries, torture has been practiced within its borders and on its government's behalf outside of its bordersExtraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
. Torture has principally been reported or alleged in three main areas:
Criminal justice system - Abusive and torturous practices are regularly reported within prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, and not uncommon in police custody. Police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
in the United States has at times escalated to torture, as in the cases of Abner Louima
Abner Louima
Abner Louima is a Haitian who was assaulted, brutalized and forcibly sodomized with the handle of a bathroom plunger by New York City police officers after being arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub in 1997....
who was sodomized with a broomstick by New York police.
The Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
's Area 2 unit under Commander Jon Burge
Jon Burge
Jon Graham Burge is a convicted felon and former Chicago Police Department detective and commander who gained notoriety for allegedly torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991, in order to force confessions...
repeatedly used electroshock, near-suffocation by plastic bags and excessive beating on suspects in the 1970s and 1980s. The City of Chicago's Office of Professional Standards (OPS) concluded that the physical abuse was systematic and, "The type of abuse described was not limited to the usual beating, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture." The Supermax facility at the Maine State Prison has been the scene of video-taped forcible extractions that Lance Tapley in the Portland Phoenix wrote "look[ed] like torture."
Military detention, internment and interrogation - Torture has allegedly been practiced within prisons, immigration detention facilities and military compounds. American government officials have participated in torture abroad, maintained interrogation facilities where torture is practiced and trained foreign officials in interrogation methods that include practices considered torturous by international standards.
In 2003 and 2004 there was substantial controversy over the "stress and duress
Stress and duress
Stress and duress is a term which has been used by the United States to describe interrogation techniques authorised for use by United States Armed Forces upon detainees who are determined to be a threat the United States...
" methods that were used in the U.S. War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Executive branch of government at Cabinet level. Similar methods in 1978 were ruled by ECHR
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
to be inhuman and degrading treatment -- though explicitly not of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture -- when used by the U.K.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the early 1970s in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
Extensive use of torture techniques was reported after the Second Iraq War (2003–2010), allegedly supported by American military intelligence agents, in Iraqi jails such as Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
. US government legal memoranda from as early as 2002 approve the practice of techniques deemed by many observers as torture. The Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
authorizes the President to hold military tribunals of alleged enemy combatants, to approve testimony obtained through humiliating or degrading treatment, and to suspend habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
by holding such prisoners indefinitely without judicial review. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and numerous commentators have criticized the Act for approving a system that uses torture, destroying the mechanisms for judicial review created by the Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
, and creating a parallel legal system below international standards.
CIA agents have anonymously confirmed to the Washington Post in a 25 December 2002 report that the CIA routinely uses so-called "stress and duress
Stress and duress
Stress and duress is a term which has been used by the United States to describe interrogation techniques authorised for use by United States Armed Forces upon detainees who are determined to be a threat the United States...
" interrogation techniques (e.g. water boarding), which are claimed by human rights organisations to be acts of torture, in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-led War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. These sources state that CIA and military personnel beat up unco-operative suspects, confine them in cramped quarters, duct tape them to stretchers, and use other restraints which maintain the subject in an awkward and painful position for long periods of time. The Washington Post article continues that sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...
, through the use of hoods
Hooding
Hooding is the placing of a hood over the entire head of a prisoner. One legal scholar considers the hooding of prisoners to be a violation of international law, specifically the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, which demand that persons in the power of occupying forces be treated humanely....
and spraypainted goggles, sleep deprivation, and selective use of painkillers for at least one captive who was shot in the groin during his apprehension are also used.
In an interview with the Washington Post, the convening authority
Convening Authority
The term convening authority is used in United States military law to refer to an individual whose job includes appointing officers to play a role in a court-martial, or similar military tribunal or military commission...
of military commissions, Susan J. Crawford
Susan J. Crawford
Susan J. Crawford is an US lawyer, who was appointed the Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commissions, on February 7, 2007.Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Crawford to replace John D...
, a retired Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, who was responsible for reviewing practices at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, said of one Guantanamo Bay detainee, "his treatment met the legal definition of torture, and that is why I did not refer the case" for prosecution, and then went on to describe treatment not meeting the legal definition of torture.
Extraordinary rendition - Media reports, human rights group statements and governmental investigations (including an investigation by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
) conclude that since the 1990s, the U.S. government has handed suspects over to foreign intelligence services for more intensive interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
, often including torture by proxy. There has been a lack of denial in official circles of this practice. A U.S. official is reported to have said "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job." The U.S. Government denies that torture is being conducted in the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
. It is alleged that terror suspects are arbitrarily or illegally arrested, then secretly transferred to other countries without trial and without respect for legal rights, there to be interrogated and often tortured. Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...
(2002) is an example of this practice.
| ... there is also the grotesque and deeply shameful issue that will always be a part of Mr. Rumsfeld's legacy—the manner in which American troops have treated prisoners under their control in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. There is no longer any doubt that large numbers of troops responsible for guarding and interrogating detainees somehow loosed their moorings to humanity, and began behaving as sadists, perverts and criminals. |
| Bob Herbert Bob Herbert Robert “Bob” Herbert is an American journalist op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times. His column was syndicated to other newspapers around the country. Herbert frequently writes on poverty, the Iraq war, racism and American political apathy towards race issues... |
It was reported in June 2008 that, according to human rights lawyers, the USA was "operating floating prisons to house those arrested in its war on terror":
"According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as 'floating prisons' since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed. Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.
... The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. 'One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo.'"
See also:
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...
Bagram torture and prisoner abuse
Bagram torture and prisoner abuse
In 2005, The New York Times obtained a 2,000-page United States Army report concerning the homicides of two unarmed civilian Afghan prisoners by U.S. armed forces in 2002 at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Bagram, Afghanistan. The prisoners, Habibullah and Dilawar, were chained to the...
Criticisms of the War on Terrorism
Extraordinary Rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA is a memoir co-written by former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet with Bill Harlow, former CIA Director of Public Affairs...
In 2009, the Obama administration began the process of reversing the Bush administration policies that had permitted the use of torture by the US government. The Obama administration has consistently made it clear that it did not support the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques', and that it viewed their use as a breach of law.
Uzbekistan
After an investigating visit to Uzbekistan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van BovenTheo van Boven
Theo van Boven is a Dutch jurist and professor emeritus in international law.In 1977 he was appointed director of the United Nations' Division for Human Rights....
concluded:
Forms of torture frequently cited include immersion in boiling water, exposure to extreme heat and cold, "the use of electric shock, temporary suffocation, hanging by the ankles or wrists, removal of fingernails, punctures with sharp objects, rape, the threat of rape, and the threat of murder of family members. (For example, see Muzafar Avazov
Muzafar Avazov
Muzafar Avazov,a 35-year-old father of four, was a Uzbekistan torture victim executed in 2002. Human Rights Watch recorded his death as "suspicious" with evidence of torture, citing Uzbekistan's repression of independent Muslims. Individuals who had seen the body told Human Rights Watch that it...
.)
In 2003, Britain's Ambassador for Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, Craig Murray, said that information was being extracted under extreme torture from dissidents in that country, and that the information was subsequently being used by Britain and other western, democratic countries which disapproved of torture.