Practice of Torture

Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain – either physical or psychological – to punish someone, extract information or a confession, or to break the will of a person or dehumanize a group.  It has been used throughout history, often in the name of religion. 

Five hundred years ago, it was not uncommon for people to be boiled to death for a crime, or torn to pieces, or to suffer a slow death by being suspended in a cage in a public place.  Water punishments, such as being dunked repeatedly while tied to a stool, were often reserved for women, especially those accused of adultery or suspected of witchcraft.   Torture would be used to force people to incriminate themselves by admitting to their guilt (whether they were really guilty or not). 

By the 17^th century, societies began to turn against the use of torture and arbitrary methods of punishment.  In England, the long ordeal of John Lilburne, a Puritan who was repeatedly arrested in the 1630s and 40s and severely beaten for refusing to incriminate himself, focused public attention on the need for fundamental fairness in legal proceedings.  Thanks to his example and lifetime of struggle, people began to demand such rights as the right to remain silent when under arrest, the right to have a copy of written charges in any judicial proceedings, and the right to be assisted by a lawyer in court. 

Prussia abolished torture in 1740; Italy in 1786; France in 1789 and Russia in 1801.  The Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth  Amendments to the US Constitution were  intended to ensure the kind of due process that barred "self-incrimination" and "cruel and unusual punishment."

After the horrors of Second World War, the international community through the United Stations resolved to abolish torture.  It is forbidden by Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (1949).  In 1987 the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment became part of international law.  And in 1994, the US Congress passed a federal Anti-Torture Statute.

These attempts to create a legal framework that would move the world beyond torture received a major setback after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  

Read Human Rights Watch on post 9/11 practices: http://hrw.org/doc/?t=usa_detentions