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Torture, according to Public international law, is "any act by which severe pain and nociception or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity." Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, United Nations, 10 December 1984. In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may inflict torture on others for similar reasons; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of the torturer, as was the case in the Moors Murders.

Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of effecting political re-education. In the 21st century, torture is widely considered to be a violation of human rights, and discouraged by article 5 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In times of war signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention agree not to torture protected persons (Prisoners of Wars and enemy civilians) in armed conflicts.

International legal prohibitions on torture derive from a philosophical consensus that torture and ill-treatment are repugnant, abhorrent, and immoral.Amnesty International Torture and ill-treatment: the arguments: 1. What is torture? What is ill-treatment? What’s the difference? A further moral definition of torture proposes that the sin of torture consists in the disproportionate infliction of pain. These international conventions and philosophical propositions not withstanding, organizations such as Amnesty International that monitor abuses of human rights report a widespread use of torture condoned by states in many regions of the world.Amnesty International Report 2005 Report 2006. See for example in the 2005 report "Americas - regional overview 2004: Respect for human rights remained an illusion for many as governments across the Americas failed to comply with their commitments to uphold fundamental human rights. Widespread torture, unlawful killings by police and arbitrary detention persisted."

Laws against torture On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 5 states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 10 December 1948

Since that time a number of international treaties have been adopted to prevent the use of torture. Two of these are the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions.

United Nations Convention Against Torture The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) came into force in June 1987. The most relevant articles are Articles 1, 2, 3, and the first paragraph of Article 16.

{{quotation|Article 1
1. Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
2. This article is without prejudice to any international instrument or national legislation which does or may contain provisions of wider application.-->

{{quotation|Article 2
1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.-->

{{quotation|Article 3
1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.-->

{{quotation|Article 16
1. Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article I, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture of references to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.-->

Note several points:

Section 1: Torture is "severe pain or suffering", which means there exist levels of pain and suffering which are not severe enough to be called torture. ECHR Ireland v. United Kingdom judgement) pp. 40,41, ¶ 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." The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) influences discussions on this area of international law. See the section #Other conventions for more details on the ECHR ruling.
Section 2: If a state has signed the treaty without reservations, then there are "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever" where a state can use torture and not break its treaty obligations". PDF file of United Nations Committee Against Torture second report on United States of America (CAT/C/48/Add.3/Rev.1) 18 May 2006, Paragraph 14 The applicable sanction is publicity that nonconforming signatories have broken their treaty obligations.Maggie Farley A UN inquiry says the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which at times amounts to torture, violates international law. in The Los Angeles Times
Section 16: Obliges signatories to prevent "acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", in "any territory under its jurisdiction". So a state is not prohibited by the torture treaty from participating the use of coercive techniques short of torture conducted in a territory not under its jurisdiction, and using such information to their advantage.The unanimous House of Lords Judicial Committee judgment on December 8, 2005 ruled that, under English law tradition, "torture and its fruits" could not be used in court ( Torture evidence inadmissible in UK courts, Lords rules by Staff and agencies in The Guardian December 8, 2005). But the information thus obtained could be used by the British police and security services as "it would be ludicrous for them to disregard information about a ticking bomb if it had been procured by torture."( Torture ruling's international impact by Jon Silverman BBC 8 December 2005)

About half of the world's countries have acceded to the UN Convention against Torture.

f=a=g=Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture

The OPCAT (OPCAT) entered into force on 22 June 2006 as an important addition to the UNCAT. As stated in Article 1, the purpose of the protocol is to "establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, United Nations, 18 December 2002. Each state ratifying the OPCAT, according to Article 17, is responsible for creating or maintaining at least one independent national preventive mechanism for torture prevention at the domestic level.

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court establishing the International Criminal Court, limits jurisdiction of the Court to "the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole", which includes torture, in Article 7, "Crimes against humanity", and Article 8, "War Crimes". The Statute describes torture as "the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions" (Article 7.e). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Part 2. Jurisdiction, admissibility and applicable law The ICC began operation on July 1, 2002, and does not apply to offenses which occurred before that date. Cases also may not be brought to the ICC unless national criminal justice institutions of those states party to the Rome Statute are unwilling or unable to act.

Geneva Conventions The four Geneva Conventions provide protection for people who fall into enemy hands. It divides people into two explicit groups: combatants and non-combatants.

The third Geneva Convention (GCIII) and fourth Geneva Convention (GCIV) Geneva Conventions are the two most relevant for the treatment of the victims of conflicts. Both treaties state in Article 3, in similar wording, that in a non-international armed conflict, "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms... shall in all circumstances be treated humanely." The treaty also states that there must not be any "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture" or "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment".s:Third Geneva Convention, 12 August 1949.s:Fourth Geneva Convention, 12 August 1949.

GCIV covers most civilians in an international armed conflict, and says they are usually "Protected Persons" (see exemptions section immediately after this for those who are not). Under Article 32, protected persons have the right to protection from "murder, torture, corporal punishments, mutilation and medical or scientific experiments...but also to any other measures of brutality whether applied by non-combatant or military agents".

GCIII covers the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) in an international armed conflict. In particular, Article 17 says that "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind." POW status under GCIII has far fewer exemptions than "Protected Person" status under GCIV. Captured enemy combatants in an international armed conflict automatically have the protection of GCIII and are POWs under GCIII unless they are determined by a competent tribunal to not be a POW (GCIII Article 5).

Geneva Convention IV exemptions GCIV provides an important exemption:

Also nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention are not protected by it, and nationals of a neutral State in the territory of a combatant State, and nationals of a co-belligerent State, cannot claim the protection of GCIV if their home state has normal diplomatic representation in the State that holds them (Article 4), as their diplomatic representatives can take steps to protect them. Since nearly every state has diplomatic recognition of every other state, most citizens of neutral countries in a war zone are not able to claim any protection from GCIV.

Unlawful combatants have fewer protections under GCIII. If there is a question of whether a person is an unlawful combatant, he (or she) must be treated as a POW "until their status has been determined by a competent tribunal" (GCIII Article 5). If the tribunal decides that he is an unlawful combatant, he is not considered a protected person under GCIII. However, if he is a protected person under GCIV he still has some protection under GCIV, and must be "treated with humanity and, in case of trial, shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed by the present Convention" (GCIV Article 5). "Every person in enemy hands must have some status under international law: he is either a prisoner of war and, as such, covered by the Third Convention, a civilian covered by the Fourth Convention, or again, a member of the medical personnel of the armed forces who is covered by the First Convention. There is no intermediate status; nobody in enemy hands can be outside the law. We feel that this is a satisfactory solution – not only satisfying to the mind, but also, and above all, satisfactory from the humanitarian point of view.", because in the opinion of the ICRC "If civilians directly engage in hostilities, they are considered 'unlawful' or 'unprivileged' combatants or belligerents (the treaties of humanitarian law do not expressly contain these terms). They may be prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action" (Jean Pictet (ed.) – Commentary: IV Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1958) – 1994 reprint edition). Geneva Conventions Protocol I Article 51.3 also covers this interpretation "Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities".

Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions There are two additional protocols to the Geneva Convention: Protocol I (1977), relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts and Protocol II (1977), relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. These clarify and extend the definitions in some areas, but to date many countries, including the United States, have either not signed them or have not ratified them.

Protocol I does not mention torture but it does affect the treatment of POWs and Protected Persons. In Article 5, the protocol explicitly involves "the appointment of Protecting Powers and of their substitute" to monitor that the Parties to the conflict are enforcing the Conventions. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1), Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed Conflicts, 8 June 1977. The protocol also broadens the definition of a lawful combatant in occupied territory to include those who carry arms openly but are not wearing uniforms, so that they are now lawful combatants and protected by the Geneva Conventions. It also defines who is a mercenary, and implicitly an unlawful combatant, and not protected by the same conventions.

Protocol II "develops and supplements Article 3 to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts common to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 without modifying its existing conditions of application" (Article 1). Any person who does not take part in or ceased to take part in hostilities is entitled to humane treatment. Among the acts prohibited against these persons are, "Violence to the life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal punishment" (Article 4.a), "Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault" (Article 4.e), and "Threats to commit any of the foregoing acts" (Article 4.h). Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed Conflicts, 8 June 1977. There are clauses in other articles which implore humane treatment of enemy personnel in an internal conflict, which have a bearing on the use of torture, but there are no other clauses which explicitly mention torture.

Other conventions In accordance with the non-binding UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (1955), "corporal punishment, punishment by placing in a dark cell, and all cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments shall be completely prohibited as punishments for disciplinary offences." Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, United Nations, Geneva, 1955. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (16 December 1966), explicitly prohibits torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" by signatories. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights United Nations, 16 December 1966.

European agreements In 1950 during the Cold War, the participating member states of the Council of Europe signed the European Convention on Human Rights. The treaty was based on the UDHR. It included the provision for a court to interpret the treaty, and Article 3 "Prohibition of torture" stated, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." European Convention on Human Rights,4 November 1950(with later protocols).

In 1978 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the five techniques of "sensory deprivation" were not torture as laid out in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but were "inhuman or degrading treatment" Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1977. (Case No. 5310/71) (see Uses of torture in recent times#United Kingdom for details). This case occurred nine years before the United Nations Convention Against Torture came into force and had an influence on thinking about what constitutes torture ever since.

On 26 November 1987 the member states of the Council of Europe, meeting at Strasbourg, adopted the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (ECPT). Two additional Protocols amended the Convention, which entered into force on 1 March 2002. The Convention set up the Committee for the Prevention of Torture to oversee compliance with its provisions.

Inter-American Convention The Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, currently ratified by 17 nations of the Americas and in force since 28 February 1987, defines torture more expansively than the United Nations Convention Against Torture. "For the purposes of this Convention, torture shall be understood to be any act intentionally performed whereby physical or mental pain or suffering is inflicted on a person for purposes of criminal investigation, as a means of intimidation, as personal punishment, as a preventive measure, as a penalty, or for any other purpose. Torture shall also be understood to be the use of methods upon a person intended to obliterate the personality of the victim or to diminish his physical or mental capacities, even if they do not cause physical pain or mental anguish.

The concept of torture shall not include physical or mental pain or suffering that is inherent in or solely the consequence of lawful measures, provided that they do not include the performance of the acts or use of the methods referred to in this article." Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, Organization of American States, 9 December 1985.

Supervision of anti-torture treaties of Nuremberg.

The Istanbul Protocol, an official UN document, is the first set of international guidelines for documentation of torture and its consequences. It became a United Nations official document in 1999.

Under the provisions of OPCAT that entered into force on 22 June 2006 independent international and national bodies will regularly visit places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Each state that ratified the OPCAT, according to Article 17, is responsible for creating or maintaining at least one independent national preventative mechanism for torture prevention at the domestic level.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, citing Article 1 of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, stipulates, "visits, to examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty with a view to strengthening, if necessary, the protection of such persons from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)

In times of armed conflict between a signatory of the Geneva conventions and another party, delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) monitor the compliance of signatories to the Geneva Conventions, which includes monitoring the use of torture. Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, the World Organization Against Torture, and Association for the Prevention of Torture work actively to stop the use of torture throughout the world and publish reports on any activities they consider to be torture. Association for the Prevention of Torture

Municipal law States that ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture have a treaty obligation to include the provisions into municipal law. The laws of many states therefore formally prohibit torture. However, such de jure legal provisions are by no means a proof that, de facto, the signatory country does not use torture.

To prevent torture, many legal systems have a right against self-incrimination or explicitly prohibit undue force when dealing with suspects.

England abolished torture in about 1640 (except peine forte et dure which England only abolished in 1772), in Scotland in 1708, in Prussia in 1740, in Denmark around 1770, in Russia in 1801. History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073. Chapter VI. Morals And Religion: Page 80:The Torture by Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) Hutchinson's Encyclopaedia: Torture

The France 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, of constitutional value, prohibits submitting suspects to any hardship not necessary to secure his or her person. Statute law explicitly makes torture a crime. In addition, statute law prohibits the police or justice from interrogating suspects under oath.

The United States includes this protection in the United States Constitution/Amendment Five to its United States Constitution, which in turn serves as the basis of the Miranda warning, which law enforcement officers issue to individuals upon their arrest. Additionally, the US Constitution's United States Constitution/Amendment Eight forbids the use of "cruel and unusual punishments", which is widely interpreted as a prohibition of the use of torture. Finally, 18 U.S.C. § 2340 et seq. define and forbid torture outside the United States.

Ethical arguments regarding torture Organizations like Amnesty International argue that the universal legal prohibition is based on a universal philosophical consensus that torture and ill-treatment are repugnant, abhorrent, and immoral.Amnesty International Torture and ill-treatment: the arguments: 1. What is torture? What is ill-treatment? What’s the difference? But since shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks there has been a debate in the United States on whether torture is justified in some circumstances. Some people, such as Alan M. Dershowitz and Mirko Bagaric, have argued that the need for information outweighs the moral and ethical arguments against torture. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: People matter more than holy books Editorial and Opinion (Page 31) in The Independent Monday 23 May 2005. Includes commentary on how some Americans have changed their attitudes to torture.Bagaric, Mirko & Clarke Julie; Not Enough Official Torture in the World? The Circumstances in Which Torture Is Morally Justifiable University of San Francisco Law Review, Volume 39, Spring 2005, Number 3, pp. 581-616. The ticking time bomb scenario, a thought experiment, asks what to do to a captured terrorist who has placed a nuclear time bomb in a populated area. If the terrorist is tortured, he may explain how to defuse the bomb. The scenario asks if it is ethical to torture the terrorist.

A 2006 BBC poll gaged support for each of the following positions: "One third support some torture

Terrorists pose such an extreme threat that governments should now be allowed to use some degree of torture if it may gain information that saves innocent lives.
Clear rules against torture should be maintained because any use of torture is immoral and will weaken international human rights.

An average of 59% of people worldwide rejected torture. However there was a clear divide between those countries with strong rejection of torture (such as Italy, where only 14% supported torture) and nations where rejection was less strong (including Israel, with 43% support).

Within nations there is a clear divide between the positions of members of different ethnic groups, religions, and political affiliations. In one 2006 survey by the Scripps Center at Ohio University, 66% of Americans who identified themselves as strongly Republican supported torture against 24% of those who identified themselves as strongly Democratic. "Support for torture is linked to attitudes on spanking" In a 2005 survey only 26% of Catholics would be against torture in all circumstances compared to 41% of secularists. "Majority of Catholics would support torture."

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll "found that sizable majorities of Americans disagree with tactics ranging from leaving prisoners naked and chained in uncomfortable positions for hours, to trying to make a prisoner think he was being drowned" it did not find that torture was universally disagreed with{{cite news | first = Toni | last = Locy | title = Poll: Most object to extreme interrogation tactics | url = http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-12-poll-interrogation_x.htm | work = USA TODAY | publisher = USA TODAY | date = 2005-01-13 ] were not torture.David Morris and Gary Langer Terror Suspect Treatment: Most Americans Oppose Torture Techniques ABCNEWS.com May 27, 2004 "Americans by nearly 2-to-1 oppose torturing terrorism suspects — but half believe the U.S. government, as a matter of policy, is doing it anyway. And even more think the government is employing physical abuse that falls short of torture in some cases."

History clerics presiding over the torture of a man suspected to be a heretic before his subsequent execution (legal) during the Spanish Inquisition. Circa 1700 AD. According to Herrera Puga the authorities:
"...placed no limits on the means; in this way they used the Rack (torture), the Whip, fire, etc. In some cases...they applied padlocked irons to the flesh which even led to the amputation of a hand..."Many governments and countries used torture in the past. In the Roman Republic, for example, a slave's testimony was admissible only if it had been extracted by torture, on the assumption that slaves could not be trusted to reveal the truth voluntarily. The Romans and others used crucifixion widely. (Officials did not regard crucifixion as torture, as they only authorized it after issuing a death sentence. Torture, by definition, was used only for interrogation before judgment).

In much of Europe, medieval and early modern courts freely inflicted torture, depending on the accused's crime and the social status of the suspect. Torture was deemed a legitimate means for justice to extract confessions or to obtain the names of accomplices or other information about the crime. Often, defendants sentenced to death would be tortured prior to execution, so as to have a last chance to disclose the names of their accomplices. Torture in the Medieval Inquisition began in 1252, although a papal bull in 1816 forbade its use in Catholic countries.

In the Middle Ages especially and up into the 18th century, torture was deemed a legitimate way to obtain testimony and confessions from suspects for use in judicial inquiries and trial (law)s. While, in some instances, the secular courts treated suspects more ferociously than the religious courts, Will Durant and Ariel Durant argued in The Age of Faith that many of the most vicious procedures were inflicted, not upon stubborn prisoners by governments, but upon pious heretics by even more pious friars. For example, the Dominicans gained a reputation as some of the most fearsomely innovative torturers in medieval Spain. Many of the victims of the Spanish Inquisition did not know (and were not informed) that, had they just confessed as required, they might have faced penalties no more severe than mild penance; confiscation of property; and even, perhaps, a few strokes of the whip. They thus ended up exposing themselves to torture. Many conceivably clung to "the principle of the thing", however noble (or foolhardy) that torture victims may face.

One of the most common forms of medieval inquisition torture was strappado. Torturers bound the accused's hands behind the back with a rope, then the torturer suspended the accused by hauling up the hands, painfully dislocating the shoulder joints. The torturer could add weight to the legs, dislocating their joints as well. The prisoner and weights could be hauled up and suddenly dropped. This refined torture (with dropping added) was called squassation. Other torture methods could include the rack (stretching the victim’s joints to breaking point), the thumbscrew, the boot (torture) (some versions of which crushed the calf, ankle, and heel between vertically positioned boards, while others tortured the instep and toes between horizontally oriented plates), water (massive quantities of water forcibly ingested—or even mixed with urine, pepper, feces, etc., for additional persuasiveness), and red-hot pincers (typically applied to fingers, toes, ears, noses, and nipples, although one tubular version "crocodile shears"] was specially devised for application to the penis in cases of regicide), although church policy sometimes forbade bodily mutilation. If the torturer needed stronger methods, or if a death sentence was issued, the person was sent over to the secular authorities, who had no restrictions.

Torturous interrogations were generally conducted in secret, inside underground dungeons. By contrast, torturous executions were typically public, and woodcuts of English prisoners being hanged, drawn, and quartered show large crowds of spectators, as do paintings of Spanish auto-da-fé executions, in which heretics were burned at the stake.

In 1613 Anton Praetorius described the situation of the prisoners in the dungeons in his book Gründlicher Bericht über Zauberei und Zauberer (Thorough Report about Sorcery and Sorcerers). He was one of the first to protest against all means of torture.

In ancient and medieval torture, there was little inhibition on inflicting bodily damage. People generally assumed that no innocent person would be accused, so anybody who appeared in the torture chamber was ultimately destined for execution, typically of a gruesome nature. Any minor mutilations due to rack or thumbscrew would not be noticed after a person had been burned at the stake. Besides, the torturer operated under the full authority of the church, the state, or both.

Torture in recent times Many countries find it expedient from time to time to use torturous techniques; at the same time few wish to be described as doing so, either to their own citizens or international bodies. A variety of devices bridge this gap, 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 judicial jurisdiction, claim of "overriding need", and so on. Many states throughout history, and many states today, view torture as a tool (unofficially and when expedient and desired). As a result, and despite worldwide condemnation and the existence of treaty provisions that forbid it, torture still occurs in two thirds of the world's nations. New York Times, 23 May 2004. This link needs fixing. See the references in this link. This could be one of two articles.

Torture remains a frequent method of repression in Totalitarianism regimes, terrorism, and organized crime. In authoritarian regimes, torture extracts confessions from political dissenters, so that they admit to spy or conspiracy (political), probably manipulated by some foreign country. Most notably, such a dynamic of forced confessions marked the justice system of the Soviet Union during the reign of Stalin (thoroughly described in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago).

Most modern torturers, even when states sanction their interrogation methods, often work outside the law. For this reason, some torturers tend to prefer methods that, while unpleasant, leave victims alive and unmarked. A victim with no visible damage may lack credibility when telling tales of torture, whereas a person missing fingernails or eyes can easily prove claims of torture.

Torture by proxy In 2003, United Kingdom's Ambassador to Uzbekistan, 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 Western, democratic countries which officially disapproved of torture. The envoy silenced after telling undiplomatic truths, The Daily Telegraph 23 October 2004

The accusations did not lead to any investigation by his employer, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and he resigned after disciplinary action was taken against him in 2004. No misconduct by him was proven. The National Audit Office (United Kingdom) is investigating the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because of accusations of victimisation, bullying, and intimidating its own staff. "Foreign Office faces probe into 'manipulation'" by Robert Winnett, The Sunday Times (UK) 20 March 2005

Murray later stated that he felt that he had unwittingly stumbled upon what others called "torture by proxy" Q & A: Torture by Proxy Jane Mayer answers question asked by Amy Davidson The New Yorker on 14 February 2005 and with the euphemism of "extraordinary rendition". He thought that Western countries moved people to regimes and nations knowing that torturers would extract and disclose information. Murray alleged that this practice circumvented and violated international treaties against torture. If it was true that a country participated in torture by proxy and it had signed the #United Nations Convention Against Torture then that country would be in specific breach of Article 3 of that convention.

Rejection of torture A famous example in which the use of torture was rejected was cited by the Argentine National Commission of the Disappearance of Persons in whose report, General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was reputed to have said in connection with the investigation of the disappearance of Aldo Moro, "Italy can survive the loss of Aldo Moro. It would not survive the introduction of torture." Report of Conadep (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons): Prologue - 1984

Aspects of torture The use of torture has been criticized not only on humanitarian and moral grounds, but on the grounds that evidence extracted by torture can be unreliable and that the use of torture corrupts institutions which tolerate it.

It is particularly dangerous to military organizations. The deliberate infliction of pain on a helpless person is fundamentally a cowardly act and its perpetrators must necessarily be of suspect reliability on the battlefield. Cowardice is known to be contagious in deadly combat situations but the acceptable threshold for numbers of combatants who might break and run in any given fight is virtually unknowable. Hence, the deliberate acceptance of any practitioners of torture in a military culture is problematic indeed.

The purpose of torture is often as much to force acquiescence on an enemy, or destroy a person psychologically from within, as it is to gain information, and its effects endure long after the torture itself has ended. In this sense torture is often described by survivors as "never ending". See Psychology of torture to study the psychological effects associated with torture.

Incrimination of innocent people One well documented effect of torture is that with rare exceptions people will say or do anything to escape the situation, including untrue "confessions" and implication of others without genuine knowledge, who may well then be tortured in turn. That information may have been extracted from the Birmingham Six through the use of police beatings was counterproductive because it made the convictions unsound as the confessions were worthless. There are rare exceptions, such as Admiral James Stockdale, Medal of Honor recipient, who refused to provide information under torture.

Secrecy/publicity Depending on the culture, torture has at times been carried on in silence (official denial), semi-silence (known but not spoken about), or openly acknowledged in public (in order to instill fear and obedience).

Since torture was in general not accepted in the late twentieth century, professional torturers in some countries tended to use techniques such as electrical shock, asphyxiation, heat, cold, noise, and sleep deprivation which leave little evidence, although in other contexts torture frequently results in horrific mutilation or death. Evidence of torture also comes from the testimony of witnesses.

Recent torture methods include waterboarding, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse, and the use of war dog#Use against prisoners against prisoners. As far back as the 1990s, stun belts were used to "control" prisoners, even non-violent ones. This has been used on several prisoners in the courtroom itself, while conducting their own defense. In at least one such case to prevent the prisoner interrupting the judge verbally, and so interfere with the defense. See the external link Shocking Discipline and LA Times article Stun Belt Used for First Time on Defendant in L.A. Court dated Thursday, July 9, 1998. However the most common and prevalent form of torture worldwide in both developed and under-developed countries is beating.

Motivation to torture It was long thought that "good" people would not torture and only "bad" ones would, under normal circumstances. Research over the past 50 years suggests a disquieting alternative view, that under the right circumstances and with the appropriate encouragement and setting, most people can be encouraged to actively torture others. Stages of torture mentality include:

Reluctant or peripheral participation
Official encouragement: As the Stanford prison experiment and Milgram experiment show, many people will follow the direction of an authority figure (such as a superior officer) in an official setting (especially if presented as mandatory), even if they have personal uncertainty. The main motivations for this appear to be fear of loss of status or respect, and the desire to be seen as a "good citizen" or "good subordinate".
Peer encouragement: to accept torture as necessary, acceptable or deserved, or to comply from a wish to not reject peer group beliefs. This may potentially lead to torture gangs roaming the streets seeking dominant torture status.
Dehumanization: seeing victims as objects of curiosity and experimentation, where pain becomes just another test to see how it affects the victim.
Disinhibition: socio-cultural and situational pressures may cause torturers to undergo a lessening of moral inhibitions and as a result act in ways not normally countenanced by law, custom and conscience.
Organizationally, like many other procedures, once torture becomes established as part of internally acceptable norms under certain circumstances, its use often becomes institutionalized and self-perpetuating over time, as what was once used exceptionally for perceived necessity finds more reasons claimed to justify wider use.

Medical torture At times, medicine and medical practitioners have been drawn into the ranks of torturers, either to judge what victims can endure, to apply treatments which will enhance torture, or as torturers in their own right. An infamous example of the latter is Josef Mengele, known by inmates of Auschwitz as the "Angel of Death". Also in World War II, another doctor, by the name of Shiro Ishii, committed medical murder on a vastly larger scale than Dr. Mengele in his bio-weapons factory and laboratory, Unit 731.

Torture murder Torture murder is a term given to the commission of torture by an individual or small group, as part of a Sadism and Masochism or murderous agenda. Such murderers are often serial killers, who kill their victims by slowly torturing them to death over a prolonged period of time, and is usually preceded by a kidnapping where the killer will take the victim hostage, and transport him/her to a secluded or isolated location. Some serial killers post their torture of people online and, later, get arrested for it.

's signatures: the one above (a faint, shaky 'Guido') was done immediately after torture; the one below eight days later.The National Archives. “ Confession of Guy Fawkes”. Accessed 22 April 2007.

Effects of torture Organizations like the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture try to help survivors of torture obtain medical treatment and to gain forensic medical Evidence (law) to obtain refugee in a safe country and/or to prosecute the perpetrators.

Torture is often difficult to prove, particularly when some time has passed between the event and a medical examination. Many torturers around the world use methods designed to have a maximum psychological impact while leaving only minimal physical traces. Medical and Human Rights Organizations worldwide have collaborated to produce the Istanbul Protocol, a document designed to outline common torture methods, consequences of torture, and medico-legal examination techniques. Typically deaths due to torture are shown in an autopsy as being due to "natural causes" like heart attack, inflammation, or embolism due to extreme Stress (medicine).{{cite web| url = http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/| title = Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody| publisher = ACLU-->

For survivors, torture often leads to lasting mental health and physical health problems.

Physical problems can be wide-ranging, e.g. sexually transmitted diseases, musculo-skeletal problems, brain injury, post-traumatic epilepsy and dementia or chronic pain syndromes.

Mental health problems are equally wide-ranging; common are post-traumatic stress disorder, clinical depression and anxiety disorder.Psychic deadness, erasure of intersubjectivity, refusal of meaning-making, perversion of Agency (philosophy), and an inability to bear desire constitute the core features of the post-traumatic psychic landscape of torture.

On August 19, 2007, the American Psychological Association (APA) voted to bar participation, to intervene to stop, and to report involvement in a wide variety of interrogation techniques as torture, including "using mock executions, simulated drowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleep deprivation", as well as "the exploitation of prisoners' phobias, the use of mind-altering drugs, hooding, forced nakedness, the use of dogs to frighten detainees, exposing prisoners to extreme heat and cold, physical assault and threatening the use of such techniques against a prisoner or a prisoner's family." APA Rules on Interrogation Abuse

However, the APA rejected a stronger resolution that sought to prohibit “all psychologist involvement, either direct or indirect, in any interrogations at U.S. detention centers for foreign detainees or citizens detained outside normal legal channels.” That resolution would have placed the APA alongside the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association in limiting professional involvement in such settings to direct patient care. The APA echoed the Bush administration by condemning isolation, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation or over-stimulation only when they are likely to cause lasting harm.

Treatment of torture-related medical problems might require a wide range of expertise and often specialized experience. Common treatments are psychotropic medication, e.g. selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants, counseling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, family systems therapy and physiotherapy.

See Psychology of torture for psychological impact, and aftermath, of torture.

Torture methods and devices in the Tower of London

List of torture methods and devices#Physical torture methods have been used from time immemorial and can range from a beating with nothing more than fist and boot, through to the use of sophisticated List of torture methods and devices#Torture devices such as the rack (torture).

List of torture methods and devices#Psychological torture methods, uses psychological means to inflict torment and is less well known because its effects are often invisible to others. It uses non-physical methods to induce suffering in the subject's mental, emotional, and psychological states (e.g. akathisia). Since there is no international political consensus on what constitutes psychological torture, it is often overlooked, denied, and referred to in different names.

Medical torture uses psychotropic and/or other chemicals to induce pain or suffering and cause compliance with the torturer's goals. May include the forced ingestion or injection of psychotropic drugs such as neuroleptic antipsychotics to produce the agonizing condition called akathisia, (eg., phenothiazines (such as perphenazine and chlorpromazine), thioxanthenes (such as flupenthixol and zuclopenthixol) and butyrophenones (such as haloperidol (Haldol)), newer atypical antipsychotics, dimenhydrinate, R015-4513), or being forced to ingest (or be injected with) chemicals or other products (such as broken glass, heated water, or soaps) that cause pain and internal damage. Irritating chemicals or products may be inserted into the rectum or vagina, or applied on the external genitalia.

Sexually abusive torture uses rape and other forms of sexual abuse for interrogative or punitive purposes.Nooria Mehraby. Refugee Women: The Authentic Heroines

Methods of execution and capital punishment Any method of execution (legal) which involves, or has the potential to involve, a great deal of pain or mutilation is considered to be torture and unacceptable to many who support capital punishment. Some of these, if halted soon enough, may not have fatal effects.

Torture was often used as an aspect of execution with the aim of making the victim suffer mentally and physically before death and when publicized can Torture, according to Public international law, is "any act by which severe pain and nociception or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity." Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, United Nations, 10 December 1984. In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may inflict torture on others for similar reasons; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of the torturer, as was the case in the Moors Murders.

Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of effecting political re-education. In the 21st century, torture is widely considered to be a violation of human rights, and discouraged by article 5 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In times of war signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention agree not to torture protected persons (Prisoners of Wars and enemy civilians) in armed conflicts.

International legal prohibitions on torture derive from a philosophical consensus that torture and ill-treatment are repugnant, abhorrent, and immoral.Amnesty International Torture and ill-treatment: the arguments: 1. What is torture? What is ill-treatment? What’s the difference? A further moral definition of torture proposes that the sin of torture consists in the disproportionate infliction of pain. These international conventions and philosophical propositions not withstanding, organizations such as Amnesty International that monitor abuses of human rights report a widespread use of torture condoned by states in many regions of the world.Amnesty International Report 2005 Report 2006. See for example in the 2005 report "Americas - regional overview 2004: Respect for human rights remained an illusion for many as governments across the Americas failed to comply with their commitments to uphold fundamental human rights. Widespread torture, unlawful killings by police and arbitrary detention persisted."

Laws against torture On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 5 states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 10 December 1948

Since that time a number of international treaties have been adopted to prevent the use of torture. Two of these are the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions.

United Nations Convention Against Torture The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) came into force in June 1987. The most relevant articles are Articles 1, 2, 3, and the first paragraph of Article 16.

{{quotation|Article 1
1. Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
2. This article is without prejudice to any international instrument or national legislation which does or may contain provisions of wider application.-->

{{quotation|Article 2
1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.-->

{{quotation|Article 3
1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.-->

{{quotation|Article 16
1. Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article I, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture of references to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.-->

Note several points:

Section 1: Torture is "severe pain or suffering", which means there exist levels of pain and suffering which are not severe enough to be called torture. ECHR Ireland v. United Kingdom judgement) pp. 40,41, ¶ 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." The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) influences discussions on this area of international law. See the section #Other conventions for more details on the ECHR ruling.
Section 2: If a state has signed the treaty without reservations, then there are "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever" where a state can use torture and not break its treaty obligations". PDF file of United Nations Committee Against Torture second report on United States of America (CAT/C/48/Add.3/Rev.1) 18 May 2006, Paragraph 14 The applicable sanction is publicity that nonconforming signatories have broken their treaty obligations.Maggie Farley A UN inquiry says the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which at times amounts to torture, violates international law. in The Los Angeles Times
Section 16: Obliges signatories to prevent "acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", in "any territory under its jurisdiction". So a state is not prohibited by the torture treaty from participating the use of coercive techniques short of torture conducted in a territory not under its jurisdiction, and using such information to their advantage.The unanimous House of Lords Judicial Committee judgment on December 8, 2005 ruled that, under English law tradition, "torture and its fruits" could not be used in court ( Torture evidence inadmissible in UK courts, Lords rules by Staff and agencies in The Guardian December 8, 2005). But the information thus obtained could be used by the British police and security services as "it would be ludicrous for them to disregard information about a ticking bomb if it had been procured by torture."( Torture ruling's international impact by Jon Silverman BBC 8 December 2005)

About half of the world's countries have acceded to the UN Convention against Torture.

f=a=g=Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture

Terrorists pose such an extreme threat that governments should now be allowed to use some degree of torture if it may gain information that saves innocent lives.
Clear rules against torture should be maintained because any use of torture is immoral and will weaken international human rights.

Reluctant or peripheral participation
Official encouragement: As the Stanford prison experiment and Milgram experiment show, many people will follow the direction of an authority figure (such as a superior officer) in an official setting (especially if presented as mandatory), even if they have personal uncertainty. The main motivations for this appear to be fear of loss of status or respect, and the desire to be seen as a "good citizen" or "good subordinate".
Peer encouragement: to accept torture as necessary, acceptable or deserved, or to comply from a wish to not reject peer group beliefs. This may potentially lead to torture gangs roaming the streets seeking dominant torture status.
Dehumanization: seeing victims as objects of curiosity and experimentation, where pain becomes just another test to see how it affects the victim.
Disinhibition: socio-cultural and situational pressures may cause torturers to undergo a lessening of moral inhibitions and as a result act in ways not normally countenanced by law, custom and conscience.
Organizationally, like many other procedures, once torture becomes established as part of internally acceptable norms under certain circumstances, its use often becomes institutionalized and self-perpetuating over time, as what was once used exceptionally for perceived necessity finds more reasons claimed to justify wider use.

Channel 4 - Torture
Torture ... Suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area under the surveillence of US military police at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo ...

BBC - Religion and Ethics - Torture
Torture involves deliberately inflicting physical or mental pain on a person without legal cause.

The Torture Reporting Handbook
A reference guide for anyone who wishes to know how to take action in response to allegations of torture or ill-treatment.

AIUK : Stop Torture
Stop torture. Amnesty international's campaign against torture in the 'war on terror' was launched on 26 June 2005. The campaign addresses the fact that some governments are using ...

BBC NEWS | Americas | US rewrites definition of torture
The United States widens its legal definition of torture to encompass mental suffering as well as pain.

Torture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a ...

Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
Organisation that provides care and rehabilitation for individuals and their families who have been subjected to torture and other forms of organised violence.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq torture 'worse after Saddam'
Torture may be worse now in Iraq than under Saddam Hussein, the UN's chief anti-torture expert says.

Channel 4 - Torture
Torture ... Scene from Channel 4's reconstruction, The Guantanamo Guidebook.

The Torture Reporting Handbook: download in English
The Torture Reporting Handbook. How to document and respond to allegations of torture within the international system for the protection of human rights