Uses of torture in recent times

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Torture, the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain upon an individual to extract information, a confession or as a punishment, is prohibited by international law and illegal in most countries. However, it is still used unofficially by modern 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.

Contents

[edit] Torture in modern society

Torture is still common in many countries, particularly those with despotic or totalitarian regimes. In fact, many countries find it expedient from time to time to use torture; at the same time, few wish to be described as doing so, either to their own citizens or international bodies. So a variety of strategies are used to circumvent their legal and humanitarian duties, including state plausible deniability, secret police, "need to know", denial that given treatments are torturous in nature, appeal to various laws (national or international), use of jurisdictional argument, claim of "overriding need", the use of torture by proxy and so on.

State torture has been extensively documented and studied, often as part of efforts at documentation 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."[1] When applied indiscriminately, torture is used as a tool of repression and deterrence against dissent and community empowerment.

While states, particularly their prisons, law enforcement and intelligence apparatus, are major sources of torture, many non-state actors engage in torture. These include paramiltaries, 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.

[edit] 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.[2] One is the use of Tasers and electro-shock devices now widely sold to prison authorities around the world.

[edit] Inter-state collaboration

Substantial cooperation between states in the methods and coordination of torture has been documented. Through Operation Phoenix, the United States helped South Vietnam coordinate a system of detention, torture and assassination of suspected members of the National Liberation Movement or Viet Cong. During the 1980s wars in Central America, the U.S. government provided manuals and trainings on interrogation that extended to the use of torture.

The southern cone governments of South America--Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil--involved in Operation Condor coordinated 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.[3]

The United States government has, at least since the Clinton Administration, used the tactic of extraordinary rendition in which suspected terrorists were extradicted to countries where they were to be prosecuted. In the war on terror this has evolved into the delivery of prisoners or others recently captured, including terrorism suspects, to foreign governments known to practice torture including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Afghanistan. Human rights activists have alleged the practice amounts to kidnapping for the purpose of torture, 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.[4] Human Rights Watch reports that planes associated with rendition have landed repeatedly in Poland and Romania.[5]

[edit] Recent instances of torture in selected countries

The use of torture is geographically widespread. A review by Amnesty International, which did not use the United Nations Convention Against Torture as its defintion 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.[6]

The following list greatly over-represents countries where information on and evidence of such instances is more readily publicized. In fact, the phenomenon of torture is a characteristic feature of those societies that have no free press or independent courts or in areas prone to anarchy or civil war.

[edit] Afghanistan

Torture has been an issue in Afghanistan under each of its recent governments. Under Najibullah's Soviet-backed regime, beating and electrical shocks were widely reported[7]. After the mujahidin's 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" [8]. The Taliban are likewise reported to have engaged in torture[9]. Since the US's overthrow of the Taliban, torture has been reported on several occasions, both by Afghan groups and by US troops. In the Herat region, dominated by the warlord Ismail Khan, Human Rights Watch reported extensive torture in 2002[10]. Torture by US troops has been reported in the New York Times[11].

[edit] Albania

Under Enver Hoxha's Communist dictatorship, torture was widely used. Since its fall, Amnesty International has reported police abuses amounting to torture[12]; the government says it has "made efforts to punish all acts of torture under the Albanian criminal justice system"[13].

[edit] Angola

In Angola's 27-year civil war, according to Amnesty International, "many were tortured" by both sides [14] [15]. Since that time, AI has also reported that "unarmed civilians are being extrajudicially executed and tortured" [16] in Angola's war against Cabindan separatists.

[edit] Chile

The regime of Augusto Pinochet 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 fify years.[17] Among those tortured were future president Michelle Bachelet, who has held along with her mother at the notorious Villa Grimaldi detention center in Santiago.

[edit] France

During the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), the French military used torture against the National Liberation Front, which struggled for the independence of Algeria using force (bombings etc.). The French interrogators were notorious for the use of man-powered electrical generators 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."

[edit] Germany

In 2002, in Cologne, Germany, a history of physical torture at Eigelstein police station only came to light because the victim died, and a post-mortem examination unearthed the facts. Further investigation revealed that the police officers obviously had resorted to physical mistreatment of suspects for quite some time, and none of them reported the mistreatment.

[edit] Iraq

The government headed by Baathist 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,

Methods of torture or ill-treatment cited included routine beatings to the body using a variety of implements such as cables, hosepipes and metal rods. Detainees reported kicking, slapping and punching; prolonged suspension from the wrists with the hands tied behind the back; electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, including the earlobes and genitals; and being kept blindfolded and/or handcuffed continuously for several days. In several cases, the detainees suffered what may be permanent physical disability.

—Human Rights Watch, [18]

[edit] Israel

Israel has used "moderate physical pressure" on terrorist suspects defined as "ticking bombs" for their knowledge of imminent terrorist attacks against civilians which the information they possessed had the power to prevent, at least since the 1970s. This comprised mainly of sleep prevention, extended periods of standing etc. In 1987 the Israeli Supreme Court formed a special commission headed by retired Justice Moshe Landau, to review the whole question of physical pressure during investigations of this kind. In their report they reinforced the criteria for the use of "moderate physical pressure".

After investigation of continued allegations of torture, there was a 1999 Supreme Court ruling[19] 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 International 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 Israeli HCJ in September 1999 banned a number of interrogation methods ...However the judgment left ... loopholes by which methods amounting to torture or other ill-treatment in detention may continue.

—Amnesty International, [20]

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; 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.

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.[21][22] Such methods of torture have not been documented in Israel-proper or in the occupied Palestinian territories.

An unofficial facility called Unit 1391 is often claimed to be the place where suspected terrorists with "ticking bomb" knowledge are tortured, physically and psychologically. [23]

[edit] Nigeria

In 2005, Human Rights Watch documented that Nigerian police in the cities of Enugu, 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.[24]

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.[25]

[edit] Russia

Russian police is regularly observed practicing torture - including beatings, electric shocks, rape, asphyxiation - in interrogating arrested suspects.[26]

Russian army is believed to use torture extensively in Chechnya and the surrounding districts, as investigative tool, and as a deterrant/punishment for captured fighters.

[edit] Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia 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."[1] 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", [2] According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 "Torture under interrogation of political prisoners and criminal suspects continued," [3] 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."[4]

[edit] Singapore

Singapore prescribes punishments such as rattan caning for certain crimes, especially lesser offences, and offences such as drug possession, violence, or vandalism.

Proponents point to its effectiveness in terms of quick punishment and high deterrent value (Singapore is a relatively low crime country), as opposed to prolonged incarceration (which in other countries has lead to extreme prison population problems, concern over extreme sentencing, disproportionate harm to peoples lives and innocent family members, and reduction in prospects for future combined with encouragement to a criminal future). But others consider it to be a form of torture because of the permanent scarring and severe pain it causes for its victims.

Caning in this context is highly supervised - it is administered only by trained officials, and administered to the buttocks, with full protective padding of the victim elsewhere to protect other vulnerable parts of the body such as the back from mis-strikes. A typical punishment might be between 3 and 12 strokes, delivered in one session. A medical officer is present to ensure that the recipient is able to withstand the effects, which can be severe.

A high profile case in the West was the sentencing of the American visitor Michael P. Fay following a guilty verdict for multiple counts of vandalism. Opinions of this sentence were divided in the United States. The U.S. State Department called the punishment too severe. But a call-in survey of 23,000 people by National Polling Network Tuesday found 53% favor whipping and other harsh sentences as an acceptable deterrent to crime in the USA. "Some said if we treated vandals in this country as they do in Singapore, maybe we wouldn't have so many problems."[27]

[edit] Soviet Union

Torture was widely practiced in the Soviet Union prior to its transformation to a federation in the 1980s, to extract confessions from suspects, especially in case of alleged plots against the security of the state or alleged collaboration with "imperialist powers".

[edit] Spain

Although officially illegal, torture in Spain continues to be used by police forces at various levels as a means to extract confessions or as punishment. Reported occurrences of torture usually involve people detained under anti-terrorist legislation, victims of the GAL, and immigrants, both asylum seekers and resident immigrants accused of common crimes or immigration offences.

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).

References:[28]

[edit] United Kingdom

In 1978 in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) trial "Ireland v. the United Kingdom" (Case No. 5310/71) the facts were not in dispute and the judges court published the following in their judgement:

These methods, sometimes termed "disorientation" or "sensory deprivation" techniques, were not used in any cases other than the fourteen so indicated above. It emerges from the Commission's establishment of the facts that the techniques consisted of ...wall-standing; hooding; subjection to noise; deprivation of sleep; deprivation of food and drink.

—European Court of Human Rights

These were referred to by the court as the five techniques. The court ruled:

167. ... Although the five techniques, as applied in combination, undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, although their object was the extraction of confessions, the naming of others and/or information and although they were used systematically, they did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture as so understood. ...

168. The Court concludes that recourse to the five techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, which practice was in breach of [the European Convention on Human Rights] Article 3 (art. 3).

—European Court of Human Rights

The ECHR case was a ruling on British policy before the "Parker report" which was published on March 2, 1972 and had found the five techniques to be illegal under domestic law:

10. Domestic Law ...(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. ... (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.

—Parker report

On the same day (March 2, 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.

The Guildford Four and Birmingham Six claimed they were tortured by anti-terrorism police into confessing to IRA bombings. If they were, it appears not to have been authorised by the British government and the resulting convictions would be a good demonstration of the problems related to information extracted by torture.

On February 23 2005, British soldiers were found guilty of abuse of Iraqi prisoners arrested for looting at a British Army 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:

Anyone with a shred of human decency would be revolted by what is contained in those pictures. The actions of you and those responsible for these acts have undoubtedly tarnished the international reputation of the British Army and, to some extent, the British nation too, and it will no doubt hamper the efforts of those who are now risking their lives striving to achieve stability in the Gulf region, and it will probably be used by those who are working against such ends.

—Judge Advocate Michael Hunter

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, or 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 and leader of the Labour Party 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

The incidents depicted are in direct contradiction to the core values and standards of the British Army ... Nevertheless, in the light of the evidence from this trial I do apologize on behalf of the army to those Iraqis who were abused and to the people of Iraq as a whole.

—General Sir Mike Jackson

References:[29]

[edit] United States

Main article: Torture and the United States

[edit] Domestic police and prisons

Police brutality in the United States has at times escalated to torture, as in the cases of Abner Louima who was sodomized with a broom by New York police.[30] 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."[31] In September 1997, two former officers from the Adelanto Police Department, San Bernardino County, California, were jailed for two years on federal charges, after pleading guilty to beating a suspect during questioning and forcing another man to lick blood off the floor in 1994[32].

Police officials have generally described these cases as aberrations or the actions of criminals in police uniform, as New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir described the attack on Louima.[33] Police brutality critics, such as law professor Susan Bandes has argued that such a view is erroneous and, "allows police brutality to flourish in a number of ways, including making it easier to discount individual stories of police brutality, and weakening the case for any kind of systemic reform."[34]

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"[35].

Additionally, audio recordings were made of the torture of Lester Siler in Campbell County, Tennessee.

[edit] US torture manuals

Main article: Torture manuals

The Torture manuals was a nickname for seven training manuals which had excerpts declassified to the public on September 20, 1996 by the Pentagon.

These manuals were prepared by the U.S. military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). 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. Both manuals have an entire chapter devoted to "coercive techniques."

[edit] The Legalization of Torture in the United States against terror suspects
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

The US Congress recently passed a pro-torture legislation which for the first time legalizes certain methods of torture and allows the Bush administration to intepret the Third Article of the Geneva Convention [36]. The United States is a party to many treaties that forbid torture and the ill treatment of prisoners of war and other detainees so this legalization of torture is a violation of these treaties (Charney lecture). The passing of this legislation has been criticized by many human rights organizations and activists including Amnesty International [37]. The political commentato, Michael Slate has noted that the United States is the first nation to openly legalize torture.

[edit] Interrogation and prisons in the War on Terror

Main articles: Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse, Bagram torture and prisoner abuse, and Criticisms of the War on Terrorism

In 2003 and 2004 there was substantial controversy over the "stress and duress" methods that were used in the U.S.'s War on Terrorism, that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Executive branch of government at Cabinet level [38]. Similar methods in 1978 were ruled by ECHR to be inhuman and degrading treatment, but not torture, when used by the U.K. in the early 1970s in Northern Ireland.

CIA agents have anonymously confirmed to the Washington Post in a December 26, 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 uncooperative 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 phrase 'torture light' has been reported in the media and has been taken to mean acts that would not be legally defined as torture. Techniques similar to "stress and duress" were used by the UK in the early 1970s and were ruled to be "inhuman and degrading treatment" but not torture by the European Court of Human Rights. While this is in no way binding on the United States, it is seen as indicative of the state of international law on what constitutes torture.

The 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. The agents also indicate in the report that the CIA as a matter of course hands suspects over to foreign intelligence services with far fewer qualms about torture for more intensive interrogation. (The act of handing a suspect to another organization or country, where it is foreseeable that torture would occur, is a violation of the Convention against torture; see torture by proxy.) The Post reported that one US official said, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job." The US Government denies that torture is being conducted in the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay.

Allegations emerged that in the Coalition occupation of Iraq after the second Gulf war, there was extensive use of torture techniques, allegedly supported by American military intelligence agents, in Iraqi jails such as Abu Ghraib and others.

In June 2004, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times obtained copies of legal analyses prepared for the CIA and the Justice Department in 2002 which developed a legal basis for the use of torture by US interrogators if acting under the directive of the President of the United States. The legal definition of torture by the Justice Department tightly narrowed to define as torture only actions which "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death", and argued that actions that inflict any lesser pain, including moderate or fleeting pain, do not necessarily constitute torture. Based on these legal analyses, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later approved in 2003 the use of 24 classified interrogation techniques for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay which after use on one prisoner were withdrawn.

It is the position of the United States government that the legal memoranda constituted only permissible legal research, and did not signify the intent of the United States to use torture which it opposes. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has complained about this prominent newspaper coverage and its implications[39]. However, many influential U.S. thinkers also believe that Rumsfeld himself is a major part of the problem, quote the New York Times columnist Bob Herbert:

... 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, [40]

[edit] Torture in extraordinary rendition

Main article: Extraordinary Rendition

There has been a lack of denial in official circles that America uses third party states to carry out Torture by proxy to obtain intelligence: it is alleged that terror suspects are arbitrarily and illegally arrested, then transferred to other countries to be interrogated and often tortured.

In 2002, Canadian citizen Maher Arar was arrested and deported to Syria, where he claims he was tortured. As of October 2004, Congress is considering "the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act" which would empower the Secretary for Homeland Security to deport non-US citizens without review.

References:[41]

[edit] Uzbekistan

After an investigating visit to Uzbekistan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van Boven concluded in a formal report:

Even though only a small number of torture cases can be proved with absolute certainty, the copious testimonies gathered ... are so consistent in their description of torture techniques and the places and circumstances in which torture is perpetrated that the pervasive and persistent nature of torture throughout the investigative process cannot be denied.

—Theo van Boven

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.[42]

In 2003, Britain's Ambassador for Uzbekistan, Mr. Craig Murray made accusations 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.[43]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • No More Torture - a 5 minute slideshow set to music with information on extraordinary rendition and torture used at Guantanamo Bay

[edit] Footnotes

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since October 2006.
  1. ^ AI Report 2003: Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International, 2003.
  2. ^ Saudi Arabia: New Evidence Of Torture, Human Rights News, Human Rights Watch, February 5, 2002.
  3. ^ Human Rights Watch World Report 2003: Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, 2003.
  4. ^ Human Rights Watch World Report 2006: Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, 2006.
  1. ↑  Orlando Tizon, Torture: State terrorism vs. Democracy, CovertAction Quarterly, Summer 2002. Tizon is assistant director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) in Washington, D.C.
  2. ↑  Dana Priest, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons, Washington Post, November 2, 2005.
  3. ↑  Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, 1990: 62-63.
  4. ↑  J. Patrice McSherry, "Operation Condor: Clandestine Inter-American System" Social Justice, Winter 1999 v26 i4
  5. ↑  Human Rights Watch, Statement on U.S. Secret Detention Facilities in Europe, November 7, 2005.
  6. ↑ Denounce Torture Amnesty International USA
  7. ↑  Psychiatric center treats victims of Afghanistan torture By Richard S. Ehrlich Washington Times April 11, 1988 This site is not the official Washington Times site so the information can not be verified.
  8. ↑ International responsibility for a human rights disaster on Amnesty International Web site "Extracted from International responsibility for a human rights disaster, Amnesty International, November 1995. ISBN 0-86210-250-2; AI Index: ASA/11/09/95"
  9. ↑  I was one of the Taliban's torturers: I crucified people by Christina Lamb, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2005
  10. ↑  Afghanistan: Torture and Political Repression in Herat by Human Rights Watch 5 November 2002
  11. ↑ In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths interview by Tim Golden, New York Times, 20 May 2005. Syndicated in The Scotsman 21 May 2005
  12. ↑  Obligations under the UN Convention against Torture - a gap between law and practice by Amnesty International USA.
  13. ↑ Committee against Torture hears response of Albania Reported by "agencia internacional de noticias" a Spanish (?) web site. The site says that the reprt comes from "Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR)." This needs verifying.
  14. ↑ Angola: A new cease-fire - a new opportunity for human rights Amnesty International USA AI Index AFR 12/002/2002 - News Service Nr.60 5 April 2002
  15. ↑ U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment On the web site of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library.
  16. ↑ (ANGOLA Extrajudicial executions and torture in Cabinda Amnesty International Index: AFR 12/002/1998 1 April 1998
  17. ↑  Human Rights Watch, "Chile", Human Rights Watch World Report 2005. Human Rights Watch, "Chile", Human Rights Watch World Report 2006.
  18. ↑  Human Rights Watch, The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody, January 2005.
  19. ↑ Supreme Court ruling The host 62.90.71.124 does not seem to be available. This needs verifying.
  20. ↑  ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES Mass detention in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions Amnesty International Index: MDE 15/074/2002 23 May 2002
  21. ↑  TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT Israel's Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories by Human Rights Watch June 1994
  22. ↑ Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture : Israel. 18/05/98 by UNHCR COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE Twentieth session 4 - 22 May 1998 A/53/44,paras.232-242. (Concluding Observations/Comments)
  23. ↑  Secrets Of Unit 1391 Uncovering an Israeli jail that specializes in nightmares by Dan Ephron News Week 28 June 2004 Archive Site
  24. ↑ Human Rights Watch, “Rest in Pieces”: Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria, July 2005.
  25. ↑ World Council of Churches [Deborah Robinson], Ogoni: The Struggle Continues. [44]
  26. ↑ Amnesty International report
  27. ↑  Singapore sentences American to caning by David Watts in The Times 4 March 1994 also "A Flogging Sentence Brings a Cry of Pain", by Philip Shenon in the New York Times 16 March 1994; 2 articles by Charles P. Wallace in The Los Angeles Times and an editorial in the same newspaper; and a couple of other news paper articles. This link is to a website called "World Corporal Punishment Research". A second better known (and therefore trusted) source is needed for conformation of these articles.
  28. ↑  Spanish References
  29. ↑  UK References
  30. ↑  Volpe plead guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. "Policeman in torture case changes plea to guilty," CNN, May 25, 1999. "Volpe receives 30-year sentence for sodomy in Louima brutality case," Court TV, December 13, 1999.
  31. ↑ Paige Bierma, Torture behind bars: right here in the United States of America, The Progressive, July 1994.
  32. ↑  Amnesty International, Rights for All, 1 October 1998.
  33. ↑  Safir on ABC Good Morning America, August 18, 1997; quoted in Human Rights Watch, "New York", Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States, 1998.
  34. ↑ Susan Bandes, Tracing the Pattern of No Pattern: Stories of Police Brutality, 34 Loyola Law Review, 2001.
  35. ↑  Lance Tapley, Torture in Maine’s prison, Portland Phoenix, November 11 - 17, 2005.
  36. ↑ Torture Policy (cont'd) Editorial in the Washington Post 21 June 2004
  37. ↑ Torture Policy (cont'd) Editorial in the Washington Post 21 June 2004
  38. ↑ Much of what has happened to the military on Donald Rumsfeld's watch has been catastrophic by Bob Herbert New York Times 23 May 2005 article syndicated
  39. ↑  USA References
  40. ↑  The envoy silenced after telling undiplomatic truths, The Daily Telegraph October 23, 2004.
  41. ↑  Human Rights Watch, "Uzbekistan", Human Rights Watch World Report 2001.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../u/s/e/Uses_of_torture_in_recent_times.html"