Torture

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Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Adopted by General Assembly resolution 3452 (XXX) of 9 December 1975. Torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official
U.N. Dismayed by Widespread Use of Torture
By Thalif Deen, InterPress Service, 26 June 1998. More and more countries are torturing prisoners. Torture has become an instrument of power used to break, terrify and devastate people. He pointed out that torturers were becoming more sophisticated in their methods, and that many forms of torture left no physical marks.
The torture trade spreads while governments fail to act
News release from Amnesty International, 26 February 2001. The trade in torture is growing. The equipment includes high voltage electric shock stun weapons and chemical crowd control devices, while torturers continue to abuse old-style equipment such as restraint devices.
Former Beirut hostage speaks out on the Guantanamo prisoners
By Terry Waite, Counterpunch, 23 January 2002. Writer is appalled at the way we—countries that call ourselves civilised—are treating captives. Suggest that in certain circumstances the limited use of torture might be justified. If the US is making up the rules, it will have no moral authority should other countries try, convict and perhaps execute American and European suspects.
Truth Serums & Torture
By Martin A. Lee, Consortium News, 4 June 2002. The application of drugs during interrogations often has become a form of torture. Once you've used for national security cases, then it becomes a standard, and it is a slippery slope to drug torture.
US Loses Battle Against UN Anti-Torture Treaty
By Rory Mungoven, Human Rights Watch, AFP, Friday 8 November 2002. The United States lost its battle against a new international treaty aimed at eliminating torture and improving prison conditions as a UN committee overwhelmingly approved the pact. The U.S. positions itself alongside some of the world's worst violators.
U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations; 'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities
By Dana Priest and Barton Gellman, Washington Post 26 December 2002. Some who do not cooperate under duress are turned over to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human rights organizations.
Anti-Torture Group Publishes 18 Country Reports on Child Rights
World Organisation Against Torture (Geneva), press release, 27 June 2003. The practice of torture and other ill treatment against children, often in police stations or detention centres, remains all too frequent.
A systematic process learned from Cold War
By Paul Vallely, Independent (London), 14 May 2004. Rather than a few bad apples, a systematic policy. Psychologists make the techniques culturally relative to a Muslim population. The techniques rest on principles of psychological disorientation rather than inflicting physical pain.
Torture is wrong and must stay outlawed if civil decency is to prevail: An argument that fails the test of civilised society
By Malcolm Fraser, The Age (Melbourne), 19 May 2005. The test of any civilised society is the respect that society shows for the wellbeing of individual citizens. As the Torture Papers recently published by the New York University Centre on Law and Security reveal, some senior members of the FBI and the CIA believe that torture is the most inefficient and misguided way of gaining evidence.
Torture's Dirty Secret: It Works
By Naomi Klein, The Nation, 30 May 2005. As an interrogation tool, torture is a bust. But when it comes to social control, nothing works quite like torture.