Use of torture since 1948

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use dmy dates This article describes the use of torture since the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which prohibited it. Torture is prohibited by international law and is illegal in most countries. However, it is still used by many governments.

Torture is widely practiced worldwide: Amnesty International received reports of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in more than 150 countries during the four-year period from 1997 to 2001. These accusations concerned acts against political prisoners in 70 countries and other prisoners and detainees in more than 130 countries.<ref>Amnesty International, Combating torture – a manual for action Template:Webarchive, October 2002, p. 2.</ref> State torture has been extensively documented and studied, often as part of efforts at collective memory and reconciliation in societies that have experienced a change in government. Surveys of torture survivors reveal that torture "is not aimed primarily at the extraction of information ... Its real aim is to break down the victim's personality and identity."<ref name=Tizon2002>Orlando Tizon, CovertAction Quarterly, Summer 2002. Tizon is assistant director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) in Washington, D.C.</ref> When applied indiscriminately, torture is used as a tool of repression and deterrence against dissent and community empowerment.

While many states use torture, few wish to be described as doing so, either to their own citizens or to international bodies. So a variety of strategies are used to circumvent their legal and humanitarian duties, including plausible deniability, secret police, "need to know", denial that certain activities constitute torture, appeal to various laws (national or international), use of a jurisdictional argument, claim of "overriding need", the use of torture by proxy, and so on.<ref name=AIImpunity>Amnesty International, End impunity: Justice for the victims of torture Template:Webarchive, 2001.</ref> Almost all regimes and governments engaging in torture (and other crimes against humanity) consistently deny engaging in it, in spite of overwhelming hearsay and physical evidence from the citizens they tortured. Through both denial and avoidance of prosecution, most people ordering or carrying out acts of torture do not face legal consequences for their actions.<ref name=AIImpunity /> UN Special Rapporteur for the Commission on Human Rights, Sir Nigel Rodley, believes that "impunity continues to be the principal cause of the perpetuation and encouragement of human rights violations and, in particular, torture."<ref>Nigel Rodley, "Report on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," UN Document A/54/426, 1 October 1999.</ref>

While states, particularly their prisons, law enforcement, military and intelligence apparatus, are major perpetrators of torture, many non-state actors also engage in it. These include paramilitaries and guerrillas, criminal actors such as organized crime syndicates and kidnappers.

A recent approach to interrogations has been to use techniques such as waterboarding, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse, and dogs to intimidate or pressure prisoners in a manner claimed to be legal under national or international law. Electric shock techniques such as the use of stun belts and tasers have been considered appropriate provided that they are used to "control" prisoners or suspects, even non-violent ones, rather than to extract information. These techniques have been widely criticized as torture.

Technology

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 right-wing Latin American countries in their techniques.<ref name=Weschler1990a>Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, 1990: 62–63.</ref>

Inter-state collaboration

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File:Thuong Duc, Vietnam - A Viet Cong prisoner awaits interrogation at the A-109 Special Forces Detachment in Thuong - NARA - 531447.jpg

A Viet Cong prisoner captured in 1967 by the U.S. Army awaits interrogation. He has been placed in a stress position by tying a board between his arms.

Substantial cooperation between states in the methods and coordination of torture has been documented. Through the Phoenix Program, the United States helped South Vietnam co-ordinate a system of detention, torture and assassination of suspected members of the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong. During the 1980s wars in Central America, the U.S. government provided manuals and training on interrogation that extended to the use of torture (see U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals). The manuals were also distributed by Special Forces Mobile Training teams to military personnel and intelligence schools in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. The manuals have a chapter devoted to "coercive techniques".

The southern cone governments of South America – Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil – involved in Operation Condor co-ordinated the disappearance, torture and execution of dissidents in the 1970s. Hundreds were killed in coordinated operations, and the bodies of those recovered were often mutilated and showed signs of torture. This system operated with the knowledge and support of the United States government through the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department.<ref name=JPMcSherry>J. Patrice McSherry, "Operation Condor: Clandestine Inter-American System", Social Justice, Winter 1999 v26 i4.</ref>

The United States government has, at least since the Bush administration, used the tactic of legal rendition in which suspected terrorists were extradited to countries where they were to be prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed. In the "war on terror" this has evolved into extraordinary rendition, the delivery of prisoners or others recently captured, including terrorism suspects, to foreign governments known to practice torture are South Africa,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Afghanistan. Human rights activists have alleged that the practice amounts to kidnapping for the purpose of torture, or torture by proxy. A related practice is the operation of facilities for imprisonment, and it is widely believed torture, in foreign countries. In November 2005, the Washington Post reported — citing administration sources — that such facilities are operated by the CIA in Thailand (until 2004), Afghanistan, and several unnamed Eastern European countries.<ref name=WPost2005>Dana Priest, "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons", The Washington Post, 2 November 2005.</ref> Human Rights Watch reports that planes associated with rendition have landed repeatedly in Poland and Romania.<ref name=HumanRightsWatch>"Statement on U.S. Secret Detention Facilities in Europe", Human Rights Watch, 7 November 2005.</ref>

Recent instances of torture in selected countries

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File:Map of Countries involved in US Extrordinary Rendition.svg

Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Sources: Amnesty International<ref name=AmnestyInternational060101>[[:Template:"']Rendition' and secret detention: A global system of human rights violations"], Amnesty International, 1 January 2006</ref> Human Rights Watch

The use of torture is geographically widespread. A review by Amnesty International, which did not use the United Nations Convention Against Torture as its definition of torture, of its case files found "reports of torture or ill-treatment by state officials in more than 150 countries from 1997 to 2000". These reports described widespread or persistent patterns of abuse in more than 70 countries and torture-related deaths in more than 80.<ref name=stoptorture>"Denounce Torture" Template:Webarchive, Amnesty International.</ref>

Afghanistan

Template:See also Torture has been reported in Afghanistan under each of its recent governments. Under Najibullah's Soviet-backed regime, beating and electric shocks were widely reported.<ref name=WT1988>Richard S. Ehrlich, "Psychiatric center treats victims of Afghanistan torture", The Washington Times, 11 April 1988.</ref> After the mujahidin victory, Afghanistan fell into a state of chaos, and, according to Amnesty International, "Torture of civilians in their homes has become endemic ... In almost every jail run by the armed political groups, torture is reported to be a part of the daily routine".<ref name="everyjail">"International responsibility for a human rights disaster" Template:Webarchive, Amnesty International, November 1995. Template:ISBN> AI Index: ASA/11/09/95.</ref> The Taliban are likewise reported to have engaged in torture.<ref name=Telegraph2005>Christina Lamb, "I was one of the Taliban's torturers: I crucified people", The Daily Telegraph, London, 30 September 2005.</ref> Since the U.S. overthrow of the Taliban, torture has been reported on several occasions, both by Afghan groups and by U.S. troops. In the Herat region, dominated by the warlord Ismail Khan, Human Rights Watch reported extensive torture in 2002.<ref name=HRW2002>"Afghanistan: Torture and Political Repression in Herat", Human Rights Watch, 5 November 2002.</ref> Torture by US troops has been alleged in news reports by the New York Times.<ref name=NYT2005_05_20>Tim Golden, "In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths", The New York Times, 20 May 2005.</ref> In March 2008 the UK Ministry of Defence claimed that they and the Afghan army had uncovered a Taliban torture chamber where two individuals were believed to have been beaten.<ref>"Coldstream Guards Find torture Chamber" Template:Webarchive, Ministry of Defence, 11 March 2008.</ref>

Albania

Under Enver Hoxha's People's Socialist Republic of Albania, torture was widely used by police and prison camp guards.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since the fall of communism, Amnesty International has reported police abuses amounting to torture;^{{{#if:|{{{2}}}|[1]}}} the government says it has "made efforts to punish all acts of torture under the Albanian criminal justice system".^{{{#if:|{{{2}}}|[2]}}} In 2020 more than 3000 Albanians signed a petition accusing the government of Edi Rama of torture against the Muslim cleric Genci Balla who was isolated under the article 41-bis prison regime in solitary confinement and deprived of halal food.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Algeria

According to Pierre Vidal-Naquet in "Torture; Cancer of Democracy" and "Les Damnees de la Terre" by Franz Fanon, torture was practiced endemically by the French forces, commanded by General Jacques Massu, bringing together the experience of "Les Paras" in the Indo-China War and German troops in the French Foreign Legion. One of the most notorious methods was the gegène, or generator, in which victims were tied down and electrocuted with a primitive device that delivered electric shocks to the genitalia.

Angola

In Angola's 27-year civil war, according to Amnesty International, "many were tortured" by both sides.<ref name="E/CN.4/1994/31">"Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", U.N. Commission on Human Rights.</ref><ref name=AIUSA_Angola>"Angola: A new cease-fire – a new opportunity for human rights" Template:Webarchive, Amnesty International USA, AI Index AFR 12/002/2002 – News Service Nr.60, 5 April 2002.</ref> Since that time, AI has also reported that "unarmed civilians are being extrajudicially executed and tortured"<ref name=AI_Angola>"Angola: Extrajudicial executions and torture in Cabinda", Amnesty International Index: AFR 12/002/1998, 1 April 1998.</ref> in Angola's war against Cabindan separatists.

Argentina

During the so-called "Dirty War" carried out in the 1970s, in particular, but not only, by the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, tens of thousands of Argentines were "disappeared" by the junta, many never to be seen again. The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons concluded:

In nearly all the cases brought to the attention of the Commission, the victims speak of acts of torture. Torture was an important element in the methodology of repression. Secret torture centres were set up, among other reasons, to enable the carrying out of torture to be carried out undisturbed.<ref name=CONADEP>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Bahrain

Torture has been used frequently by the Bahraini government in the 20th century. Notable cases include that of Ian Henderson, a former colonial officer employed in Bahrain who was accused by multiple witnesses of torturing prisoners.<ref name="BBC 16.4.2003">Template:Cite news</ref> Adel Flaifel, a notorious security officer identified by many detainees as having overseen torture,<ref name="HRW 16.12.2002">Template:Cite news</ref> was given immunity under Royal Decree 56 of 2002. Between 1980 and 1998, nine people died in detention as a result of torture, with five more dying shortly after being released as a result of injuries sustained from torture. Reports released by Amnesty International<ref name="Amnesty 27.9.1995">Template:Cite news</ref> and Human Rights Watch<ref name="HRW 1.6.1997">Template:Cite news</ref> in the 1990s point to the widespread use of torture in Bahraini prisons.<ref name="Local report"/>Template:Rp

During the Bahraini uprising, torture was described by many human rights reports as widespread and systematic. Up to 1866 who make up 64%<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> of detainees reported cases of torture.<ref name="Local report">Template:Cite report</ref>Template:Rp Three government agencies, namely the Ministry of Interior, the National Security Agency and the Bahrain Defence Force, were involved in interrogating detainees in relation to the events of the uprising. The NSA and MoI followed a systematic practice of physical and psychological mistreatment, which in many cases amounted to torture.<ref name="bici"/>Template:Rp Only four of the individuals who alleged torture were arrested by the BDF.<ref name="bici"/>Template:Rp The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry have attributed the deaths of five individuals to torture.<ref name="bici">Template:Cite report</ref>Template:Rp

Brazil

Torture was used regularly by the Brazilian dictatorship regime from 1964 to 1977 against dissidents. It included torturing their children, some of whom were less than 2 years old at the time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cambodia

Torture was used by the Khmer Rouge at the S-21 Prison.

Cameroon

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Chile

Template:Further 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 fifty years.<ref name=HRWChile>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>"Chile", Human Rights Watch World Report 2006.</ref> Among those tortured were future president Michelle Bachelet, who was held along with her mother at the notorious Villa Grimaldi detention center in the capital Santiago.

China

Template:Further Although torture was outlawed in China in 1996, a UN investigator found torture to still be widespread in 2005, particularly because the narrow definition of the law, leaving a mark, does not comply with the UN definition.<ref>Jonathan Watts, "Torture still widespread in China, says UN investigator", The Guardian, London, 3 December 2005.</ref>

Torture is reportedly used as part of the indoctrination process at the Xinjiang internment camps.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cuba

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} People imprisoned by the communist regime are reportedly tortured.<ref name="torture of women">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

East Germany

In the socialist German Democratic Republic of divided Germany, torture and inhumane and degrading treatment were systematically used by security forces, including the Stasi secret police, against suspected opponents of the regime.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

France

Template:Further During the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), the French military used torture against the National Liberation Front and the civilian population. The French interrogators were notorious for the use of man-powered electrical generators on suspects: this form of torture was called (la) gégène.Template:Citation needed

That France has provided a pivotal role in the evolution of western torture practices is the central thesis of the French film Death Squadrons: The French School by Monique Robin. The French had themselves developed practices in defence of its declining empire through the 20th century, setting up torture "universities" at Poulo Condor (now Côn Sơn) – an island off Vietnam (then French Indo-China, subsequently taken over by the United States) and at Philippeville (now Skikda) in Algeria.Template:Citation needed

Police abuse remains a reality in France today, while France has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the conditions of detention in prisons, including the use of torture on detainees.Template:Citation needed Although the law and the Constitution prohibits any kind of torture, such practices happen. In 2004, the Inspector General of the National Police received 469 registered complaints about illegitimate police violence during the first 11 months of the year, down from 500 during the same period in 2003. There were 59 confirmed cases of police violence, compared to 65 in the previous year. In April 2004, the ECHR condemned the government for "inhumane and degrading treatments" in the 1997 case of a teenager beaten while in police custody. The court ordered the government to pay Giovanni Rivas $20,500 (15,000 euros) in damages and $13,500 (10,000 euros) in court costs.<ref>"2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in France", US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.</ref> The head of the police station in Saint-Denis, near Paris, has been forced to resign after allegations of rape and other violence committed by the police force under his orders. Nine investigations concerning police abuse in this police station were carried out in 2005 by the IGS inspection of police.<ref>"Viols, vols, violences: neuf enquêtes visent des policiers du commissariat de Saint-Denis", Le Monde, Paris, 9 September 2005. Template:In lang</ref><ref>"Mais que fait la Police?" (What are the police up to?), Marianne en ligne, Paris, 14 September 2005. Template:In lang</ref> These repeated abuses are said to be one of the causes of the 2005 civil unrest.<ref>"Vies gâchées dans les cités", La Croix, Paris, 30 October 2005. Template:In lang</ref> Conditions in detention centers for illegal aliens have also been widely criticized by human rights NGOs. In 2006 a 20-year-old Serbian woman accused a policeman of attempting to rape her in such a centre in Bobigny, in the suburbs of Paris, the year before.<ref>"Anita, expulsable, accuse un policier de tentative de viol", Libération, Paris, 9 August 2006. Template:In lang</ref>

Guatemala

During the Guatemalan civil war and the repression by the army against civilians and suspected opponents of the military dictatorship, murder (even genocide), torture, rape and inhumane and degrading treatment was systematically used by the Guatemalan armed forces and police. There is evidence that the CIA, in anticommunist campaigns during the 1980s, was involved in these tortures (in Latin America the threat of communism was often used as justification for dictatorship during the Cold War). Thousands of victims were tortured and murdered. For example, Dianna Ortiz, an American nun who was teaching poor Mayan children in the Guatemala highlands, claims that U.S. personnel were present in interrogation and torture rooms in Guatemala City in 1989 when she was kidnapped, taken to a secret prison and repeatedly raped and tortured by Guatemalan right-wing forces. Ortiz survived because of her American citizenship. Sister Ortiz chronicled her experiences and recovery in a book, The Blindfold's Eyes.<ref>Dianna Ortiz and Patricia Davis, The Blindfold's eyes: My journey from torture to truth, Maryknoll, New York, 2002. Template:ISBN</ref> "There were other people in the clandestine cell, the clandestine prison, as well, and I could hear terrible screams. Many were killed. I saw some bodies. There were children, as well", wrote Dianna Ortiz.

India

India has not ratified the UN Convention against Torture. Custodial deaths and extrajudicial killings are on the rise. The Asian Centre for Human Rights released its report, Torture in India 2010, at a press conference in New Delhi. The report stated that, taking 2000 as the base year, custodial deaths have decreased by 41.66%<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> government between 2004–2005 to 2007–2008. This includes 70.72% increase of deaths in prison and 12.60% increase while in police custody. The government has stated that it intends to pass the Anti Torture Act 2010 so it can ratify the UN convention against torture. The bill provides up to a 10-year sentence for physical or mental torture by the police.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Iran

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Article 38 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids "all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information" and the "compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath." It also states that "any testimony, confession, or oath obtained under duress is devoid of value and credence."<ref name=autogenerated1>Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Islamic Republic itself vehemently denies the existence of torture by the government.

Nonetheless, human rights groups and observers, such as Amnesty International, the United Nations, and Human Rights Watch, have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran.<ref>Amnesty International, Iran (London 1987)</ref><ref>Amnesty International, Iran: Imprisonment, Torture, and Execution of Political Prisoners (New York, 1992)</ref><ref>United Nations (Economic and Social Council), Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran (New York, February 1990)</ref><ref>United Nations (Economic and Social Council), Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran (New York, January 1994)</ref><ref>Human Rights Watch, World Report: 1990 (New York, 1991)</ref>

A substantial number of Iranians have been tortured and imprisoned by the religious police. Arya Aramnejad, a singer, was jailed for his song "Ali Barkhiz" where he denounces the Islamic regime's crimes during the 2009 Ashura protests. During his time in prison, he was reportedly tortured (sexually humiliated – photographed naked, laughed at, obliged to walk barefooted on aids' patients blood).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Farzad Kamangar was repeatedly tortured in prison. Amnesty International reports that Kamangar was repeatedly beaten, flogged, and electrocuted, and that he now suffers from spasms in his arms and legs as a result of the torture.<ref name="AI">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After she died in the custody of Iranian officials, Zahra "Ziba" Kazemi-Ahmadabadi, an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, was found to show obvious signs of torture, including a skull fracture, broken nose, signs of rape and severe abdominal bruising.<ref name="cbcZAHRA">Indepth: Zahra Kazemi "Iran's changing story" CBC News Online | Updated 16 November 2005. Retrieved 05/05/12 Template:Full citation needed</ref> Ehsan Fatahian, an Iranian Kurdish activist, was tortured for confession before being executed.<ref name="Mideast">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Zeynab Jalalian, also a Kurdish activist, is currently ill due to prison conditions and torture. She has been sentenced to death.<ref name="canadafreepress.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other notable victims include Behrouz Javid Tehrani,<ref name="upi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Habibollah Latifi,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Houshang Asadi,<ref name="rferl1">Iranian Journalist Recalls Torture, Sharing Cell With Supreme Leader (To Be) Radio Free Europe 3 August 2010 </ref> Saeed Malekpour,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Shirkoh (Bahman) Moarefi,<ref name="canadafreepress.com"/> Hossein Khezri,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Akbar Mohammadi.<ref>"Iran: Student Leader Dies in Jail" Template:Webarchive Rah/Aki 31 July 2006</ref><ref>"In Memory of Akbar Mohammadi" Template:Webarchive Iranian News 31 July 2006</ref>

In a study of torture in Iran published in 1999, Iranian-born political historian Ervand Abrahamian included Iran along with "Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and early modern Europe" of the Inquisition and witch hunts, as societies that "can be considered to be in a league of their own" in the systematic use of torture.<ref>Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions 1999, p.5</ref>

Torture techniques used in the Islamic Republic include:

whipping, sometimes of the back but most often of the feet with the body tied on an iron bed; the qapani; deprivation of sleep; suspension from ceiling and high walls; twisting of forearms until they broke; crushing of hands and fingers between metal presses; insertion of sharp instruments under the fingernails; cigarette burns; submersion under water; standing in one place for hours on end; mock executions; and physical threats against family members. Of these, the most prevalent was the whipping of soles, obviously because it was explicitly sanctioned by the sharia.<ref>Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, 1999, p.139</ref>

Chronicle of Higher Education International, reports that the widespread practice of raping women imprisoned for engaging in political protest has been effective in keeping female college students "less outspoken and less likely to take part" in political demonstrations. The journal quotes an Iranian college student as saying, "most of the girls arrested are raped in jail. Families can't cope with that."<ref>1 August 2008, "Among Scholars, Resistance and Resilience in Iran, Tradition of dissent survives despite government pressure" By AISHA LABI, Chronicle of Higher Education International</ref>

Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in 2003 when reformists controlled Parliament, but were rejected by the Guardian Council.<ref name=PayvandGuarCou>Iran: Guardian Council turns down Majlis bills on women's rights, torture ban, Payvand's Iran News, 13 August 2003</ref><ref name="NYT_2003-01-10">Iran: Ban on Torture Rejected, The New York Times, 10 January 2003</ref>

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.{{#if:Human Rights Watch<ref name=HRWIraq2005>Human Rights Watch, "The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody", January 2005.</ref>|{{#if:|}}

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Despite apparently credible claims that people were fed into Saddam Hussein's plastic shredder (most likely within Abu Ghraib) prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, no such device was found after the war. In October 1990, it was alleged that Iraqi soldiers had "thrown babies from incubators" during the invasion of Kuwait. This story was supposed to have come from the 'eyewitness testimony' of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, Nurse Nayirah. Years later it emerged that she was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, and that the story was the creation of the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm employed by the Kuwaitis.<ref>Template:Aut (1995) Toxic Sludge Is Good for You . Common Courage Press, Template:ISBN, ch. 10</ref>

Israel

In 1987, Israel became the only country in the world where torture was considered legal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After investigation of continued allegations of torture, the Supreme Court made another ruling in 1999 that curtailed the use of torture,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> but controversially allowed a necessity defense for agents of the state accused of torture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This decision was praised by human-rights organizations. Despite this reform of the law, Amnesty International continued to express concerns to Israel about treatment which amounts to torture, and remained 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.{{#if:Amnesty International<ref name=AI_Israel>"Israel and the Occupied Territories: Mass detention in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions", Amnesty International Index: MDE 15/074/2002, 23 May 2002.</ref>|{{#if:|}}

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In 2018 another decision loosened the criteria for torture being excused and further enabled the institutionalization of torture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The human rights group B'Tselem estimated that 85% of all Palestinian detainees suspected of terrorism were subject to prolonged sleep deprivation; prolonged sight deprivation or sensory deprivation; forced, prolonged maintenance of body positions that grow increasingly painful; confinement in tiny, closet-like spaces; exposure to temperature extremes, such as in deliberately overcooled rooms; prolonged toilet and hygiene deprivation; and degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to eat and use the toilet at the same time. Allegations have been made of frequent beatings. Such acts violate Article 16 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. In January 2000, B'Tselem claimed that the Israeli General Security Service's (GSS) methods of interrogation amounted to the five techniques: "[The] GSS used methods comparable to those used by the British in 1971, viz. sleep deprivation, infliction of physical suffering, and sensory isolation. But the GSS used them for much longer periods, so the resulting pain and suffering were substantially greater. In addition, the GSS used direct violence... Thus,... in practice, the GSS methods were substantially more severe than those used by the British in 1971..."<ref name=BTselem2000>B'Tselem, Legislation allowing for the use of physical force, January 2000, pp.32,48.</ref>

Italy

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Kenya

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Mau Mau inflicted torture and death on 1,819 Kikuyu during their uprising in the 1950s, along with 58 people of European and Asian descent.

Lebanon

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.<ref name=HRW_Israel>"Torture and ill-treatment: Israel's Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories", Human Rights Watch, June 1994.</ref><ref name=unhchr_Israel>"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.</ref>

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.<ref name=HRWNigeria2005>"Rest in Pieces: Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria", Human Rights Watch, July 2005.</ref>

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.<ref name=WCC1997>Deborah Robinson, "Ogoni: The Struggle Continues", World Council of Churches.</ref>

Christian pastors in Nigeria have been involved in the torturing and killing of children accused of witchcraft. Church pastors, in an effort to distinguish from the competition, establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft. When repeatedly asked to comment about the matter, the Church has refused to comment.<ref>Katharine Houreld, "Church burns 'witchcraft' children", The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 20 October 2009.</ref>

North Korea

Torture is widespread and used with impunity in North Korea's system of prisons and forced labor camps. Guards have the power to inflict severe beatings, simulated drownings, stress positions, starvation, confinement in small spaces, hanging by the wrists or ankles, electric shocks, and sexual abuse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

North Vietnam

From 1961 to 1973, the North Vietnamese and Vietcong held hundreds of Americans captive. Hanoi's Ministry of Public Security's Medical Office (MPSMO) was responsible for "preparing studies and performing research on the most effective Soviet, French, Communist Chinese and other ...techniques..." of extracting information from POWs. The MPSMO "...supervised the use of torture and the use of drugs to induce [American] prisoners to cooperate." Its functions also "...included working with Soviet and Communist Chinese intelligence advisors who were qualified in the use of medical techniques for intelligence purposes."<ref>"War Crimes: The Cuban-Vietnam Connection" Template:Webarchive, National Alliance of Families.</ref>

See Con Son Island for accounts of US torture practices.

Palestinian Territories

Template:See also The Palestinian Authority has reportedly practiced torture in the Palestinian territories over the years. Amnesty International found: "Torture [by the Palestine Authority] of detainees remained widespread. Seven detainees died in custody. Unlawful killings, including possible extrajudicial executions, continued to be reported."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1995, Azzam Rahim, a naturalized American citizen, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. He was subsequently taken to a prison in Jericho where he was tortured and killed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Rahim's family attempted to sue the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against them.<ref>"Justices Say Palestinian Authority Can't Be Sued Over Torture." Allvoices. Web. 5 May 2012. > <http://www.allvoices.com/news/11964270-justices-say-palestinian-authority-cant-be-sued-over-torture>Template:Dead link.</ref>

More than 100 cases of torture by Palestinian security services were reported in 2010. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: "The reports of torture by Palestinian security services keep rolling in. President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad are well aware of the situation. They need to reverse this rampant impunity and make sure that those responsible are prosecuted."<ref>"West Bank: Reports of Torture in Palestinian Detention." UNHCR. 20 October 2010. Web. 5 May 2012. > <http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4cc51c7fc.html>.</ref>

At least six Palestinians died under torture in PA prisons. According to a report by the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain, the PA has used torture on a systematic basis for years. Methods include beatings with cables, pulling out nails, suspension from the ceiling, flogging, kicking, cursing, electric shocks, sexual harassment and the threat of rape. The report went on to say "Every one of those detainees has been subject to humiliating and degrading treatment and stayed in cells for more than 10 days. The analysis shows that an astonishing 95 percent of the detainees were subjected to severe torture, others feeling the detrimental effects on their health for varying periods."<ref>Abu Toameh, Khaled. "PA Has Been Torturing Prisoners for Years, UK Group Says." JPost.com. 22 January 2011. Web. 5 May 2012.</ref> The shabeh, which involves detainees being handcuffed and bound in stress positions for longs stretches of time, is the most widely used form of torture.<ref>"Allegations of West Bank Torture Increase." Financial Times. 21 November 2010. Web. 5 May 2012. <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5ceda42-f58b-11df-99d6-00144feab49a.html>.</ref>

In 2012, after allegedly selling a house in Hebron to a Jewish family, Muhammad Abu Shahala was arrested by the Palestinian Authority, tortured into a confession, and sentenced to death.<ref>"Official Sentenced to Death for Home Sale to Jews." CBN.com. The Christian Broadcasting Network, 30 April 2012. Web. 1 May 2012.</ref>

Human Rights Watch reported 147 cases of torture by Hamas in the West Bank during 2011 and that none of the perpetrators had been prosecuted "despite consistent allegations of severe abuse." It further stated that "Some men said they had needed medical care due to torture and sought to obtain medical records as evidence that they had been tortured, but that hospital officials refused to provide them. Hamas's rival in the West Bank, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, arrests and detains Palestinians arbitrarily, including Hamas members or sympathizers, and similarly subjects detainees to torture and abuse."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In another report, Human Rights Watch "documents cases in which [Palestinian] security forces tortured, beat, and arbitrarily detained journalists, confiscated their equipment, and barred them from leaving the West Bank and Gaza." HRW also reported an incident in which "the Hamas Ministry of Interior summoned a journalist who published an article on torture by Hamas authorities in secret detention facilities, threatened to take legal action against him if he did not publish an apology for the article, and warned him to correct his 'biased' reporting."<ref>Human Rights Watch (6 April 2011). West Bank/Gaza: Stop Harassing Journalists. Retrieved 27 January 2013.</ref>

Papua New Guinea

Despite international and national exposure, torture in Papua remains widespread and systematic; it is also surrounded by virtually complete impunity and denial. A study by the International Journal of Conflict and Violence found 431 cases of torture in Papua New Guinea.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Philippines

During the rule of Ferdinand Marcos, torture and degrading treatment were routine in police custody. Political prisoners were often beaten, burned with irons, placed in stress positions, sexually abused, and subjected to electric shock, among other severe methods.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Portugal

During the Estado Novo in Portugal, the secret police is known to have used torture on political prisoners. Detainees were forced to remain standing for hours on end in a method called the "statue" (Portuguese: estátua), were kept in cramped, wet cells with no natural light, were beaten during trials, faced threats against themselves and their family members, or were forced to listen to the same music or sounds for extended periods of time. These practices were revealed in an inquiry and subsequent investigation and trial of secret police practices in 1957.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Romania

Template:Further Under the communist regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and later that of Nicolae Ceaușescu, torture was often used against political and religious prisoners, including those incarcerated during the notorious Pitești Experiment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Torture as a penalty was abolished after the fall of the communist regime.

From 2003 through 2005, during the War on Terror, Romania hosted a secret CIA black site where prisoners were tortured.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Russia

Template:Further The Constitution of Russia forbids arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment. Part 2 of Article 21 of the Constitution states that "no one may be subjected to torture, violence or any other harsh or humiliating treatment or punishment...".<ref name="brief"/> However Russian police are regularly observed practicing tortureTemplate:Sndincluding beatings, electric shocks, rape, asphyxiationTemplate:Sndin interrogating arrested suspects.<ref name=AI_Russia>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="rights">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="hrw4">"UN Committee against Torture Must Get Commitments From Russia to Stop Torture", Human Rights Watch, 13 November 2006.</ref>

Torture and humiliation, or dedovshchina, are also widespread in Russian's military, according to Human Rights Watch.<ref name="dedov">"The Consequences of Dedovshchina", Human Rights Watch, 2004.</ref> This is essentially the Russian version of bullying or hazing that is practiced in the American military, however it is often much more brutal. Many young men are killed or commit suicide every year because of it.<ref name="Ismailov">Vjacheslav Ismailov, "Terrible dedovshchina in General Staff" Template:Webarchive, Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, 10 July 2006. Template:In lang</ref> Amnesty International reported on allegations of Chechen locals, that Russian military forces in Chechnya rape and torture local women with electric shocks, when electric wires are connected to the straps of their bra on their chest.<ref name="brief">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the most extreme cases, hundreds of innocent people from the street were arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured, and raped by special police forces ("Red Terror"). Such incidents took place not only in Chechnya, but also in the Russian towns of Blagoveshensk, Bezetsk, and Nefteyugansk.<ref name="Marat1">Marat Hayrullin, "The entire city was beaten", Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, 10 January 2005. Template:In lang</ref><ref name="Marat2">Marat Hayrullin, "A profession: to mop up the Motherland", Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, 17 March 2005. Template:In lang</ref><ref name="Marat3">Marat Hayrullin, "Welcome to Fairytale", Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, 25 April 2005. Template:In lang</ref>

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."<ref>"AI Report 2003: Saudi Arabia" Template:Webarchive, Amnesty International, 2003.</ref> 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",<ref> "Saudi Arabia: New Evidence Of Torture", Human Rights Watch 5 February 2002.</ref> According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2003, "Torture under interrogation of political prisoners and criminal suspects continued",<ref>"Human Rights Watch World Report 2003: Saudi Arabia", Human Rights Watch, 2003.</ref> 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".<ref>"World Report 2006: Saudi Arabia", Human Rights Watch, 2006.</ref>

South Africa

According to Amnesty International, torture takes place in police stations, prisons, detention centres and beyond. During 2014/2015, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) investigated 145 new reported cases it described as torture, 34 cases listed as rape and 3,711 cases listed as assault by police officers. Of the 145 cases described as torture, only four were referred to the National Prosecuting Authority by IPID for criminal charges during that same time period. This reflects serious problems with accountability.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Soviet Union

Torture was widely practiced by the brutal Cheka during the early days of the Red Army, followed by the Soviet NKVD during the early Stalinist era to extract (often false) confessions from suspects often called enemies of the people. One of the most prevalent and effective types of torture was sleep deprivation, nicknamed "conveyor" due to interrogators replacing one another to keep the inmate from sleeping.<ref>Alexander Solzhenitsyn. "The Gulag Archipelago"</ref> The use of torture was authorized by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and personally by Joseph Stalin. During the Doctor's Plot, Stalin ordered falsely accused physicians to be tortured "to death".<ref>"Stalin's torture: 'Beat them to death'" Template:Webarchive, Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, 16 October 2008. Template:In lang</ref> Torture was still used after Stalin by the KGB but not on the same extent and level.

Spain

Torture was widespread against dissidents and those associated with them in the years that Francisco Franco ruled Spain.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Such abuses continued into the 1970s and included severe beatings and waterboarding.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Spanish kingdom today categorically denies the existence of torture.<ref>Amnesty International, AI Report 2004 Template:Webarchive.</ref> However, the Spanish authorities consistently fail to implement recommendations by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the UN Committee Against Torture to combat the use of torture in detention. The UN committee expressed its concern "about the length of judicial procedures and made reference to reports that indicated that five years had sometimes passed between crime and sentence. The Committee warned that this problem reduces the effect of penal action and discourages people to file complaints." It further indicated that "all members of the Committee were also deeply concerned about the legal practice of five days incommunicado detention" (since October 2003, a reform of the Criminal Procedure Code has extended that period to a maximum of 13 days).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Committee for the Prevention of Torture, "Spain", Council of Europe.</ref>

Syria

Torture has reportedly been used in the Adra Prison near Damascus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2010, the prison held 7,000 prisoners.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Tadmor Prison in Palmyra was known for harsh conditions, extensive human rights abuse, torture and summary executions. It was closed in 2001 and all remaining political detainees were transferred to other prisons in Syria. However, Tadmor Prison was reopened on 15 June 2011 and 350 individuals arrested for participation in anti-regime demonstrations were transferred there for interrogation and detainment.<ref name="reopen">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A number of captured Israelis have been tortured in Syria. This includes Eli Cohen, who was executed in 1965.<ref name=katz>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1955, five Israeli soldiers were captured in a covert operation on the Golan Heights and brutally tortured in a Syrian prison.<ref>Syria returns the body of a soldier captured in Damascus Template:Webarchive, Israel Defense Forces</ref> One of the soldiers, Uri Ilan, committed suicide when falsely informed by his captors that his comrades had been killed.<ref name="dover.idf.il">Syria returns the body of a soldier captured in Damascus Template:Webarchive, IDF</ref> Ilan became a symbol of courage and patriotism in Israel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During the Yom Kippur War, many Israeli prisoners said that they had been tortured by Syrians,<ref name="times100774">"Golan's capital turns into heap of stones". The Times, 10 July 1974, p. 8</ref> and one POW, Avraham Lanir, was tortured to death after he refused to disclose information about the Israeli nuclear arsenal.<ref>Abraham Rabinovich, The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East, Random House/Schocken Books (2004) p.115</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

During the Syrian Civil War, reports have been made of widespread and systematic torture used by Syrian security forces.<ref>"News." Syria: New Report Finds Systemic and Widespread Torture and Ill-treatment in Detention. Web. 6 May 2012. <https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/syria-new-report-finds-systemic-and-widespread-torture-and-ill-treatment-detention-2012-03-13>.</ref> This includes electrocution, brutal beatings and sexual assault. Amnesty said of the situation : "Torture and other ill-treatment in Syria form part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, carried out in an organized manner and as part of state policy and therefore amount to crimes against humanity."<ref>""Widespread and Systematic" Torture in Syria." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 14 March 2012. Web. 6 May 2012. <[3]>.</ref> In February 2019, two Syrians were arrested in Germany on suspicion of having conducted or abetted torture for the regime of Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

United Arab Emirates

In April 2009, a video emerged of a United Arab Emirates Royal Sheik, Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (a son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) directing the torture of Afghan grain dealer Mohammed Shah Poor. The video includes the man being tortured with a cattle prod to his genitals, sand in his mouth and being run over by a Mercedes SUV. A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down. The official response of the UAE government was that Sheik Issa is the man shown in the video but he did nothing wrong. The incidents depicted in the videotapes were not part of a pattern of behaviour, the Ministry of the Interior said.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

United Kingdom

Kenya

During the 1950's, a rebellion against British rule in Kenya known as the Mau Mau rebellion broke out, spearheaded by the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (better known as the "Mau Mau"). During their suppression of the rebellion, British security forces routinely used torture on suspected Mau Mau insurgents. Upon discovering that nearly the entire Kikiyu populationTemplate:Snd numbering over a millionTemplate:Snd had taken an oath to support the Mau Mau in their struggle, the British colonial authorities imprisoned suspected insurgents in concentration camps in order to try and coerce them into repudiating the Mau Mau oath; hundreds of thousands of Kikuyus were imprisoned in the camps during the rebellion. In these camps, detainees were frequently subject to brutal mistreatment, including torture, by camp wardens and prison guard. These included methods such as rape, mutilation, and stuffing a detainee's mouth with mud and stamping on their throat. Instances of the wardens and guards intentionally denying medical aid to detainees were widespread, which compounded the effects of torture at the camps. A former British prison official in Kenya described a detention camp there in 1954: "Short rations, overwork, brutality, humiliating and disgusting treatment, flogging – all in violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights." According to Canon Bewes, a British missionary in Kenya, there was a "constant stream of reports of brutalities by police, military and home guards. Some of the people had been using castration instruments and two men had died under castration."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

One of the detainees who was tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion was Hussein Onyango Obama, the grandfather of U.S. President Barack Obama. According to his widow, "British soldiers forced pins into his fingernails and buttocks and squeezed his testicles between metal rods" at the Kamiti Prison.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> One British settler described an interrogation by the colonial police force:

We knew the slow method of torture [at the Mau Mau Investigation Center] was worse than anything we could do. Special Branch there had a way of slowly electrocuting a Kuke—they'd rough up one for days. Once I went personally to drop off one gang member who needed special treatment. I stayed for a few hours to help the boys out, softening him up. Things got a little out of hand. By the time I cut his balls off, he had no ears, and his eyeball, the right one, I think, was hanging out of its socket. Too bad, he died before we got much out of him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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On 22 November 1954, Colonel Arthur Young sent a letter to Governor Evelyn Baring about the "inhumanity" of various parts of the security forces amid his investigations of wrongdoing:

The other lamentable aspect of this case [i.e. Judgment of the East Africa Court of Appeal, Criminal Appeals 891 and 892 of 1954] is the horror of some of the so called Screening Camps which, in my judgment, now present a state of affairs so deplorable that they should be investigated without delay so that the ever increasing allegations of inhumanity and disregard of the rights of the African citizen are dealt with and so that Government will have no reason either to be embarrassed or ashamed of the acts which are done in its name by its own servants. As things are at present there is no one who can investigate such allegations and no independent authority who is responsible for the conduct at these camps. An African who is unfortunate enough to suffer from the brutalities which are clearly evident has no one to whom he can complain and no one to regard his interests since the local Administrative Officer is, himself, the authority for the camps. Moreover, the injured person is unlikely to appeal to the police for redress if they are to be regarded as subordinate to the Executive...I do not consider that in the present circumstances Government have taken all the necessary steps to ensure that in its Screening Camps the elementary principles of justice and humanity are observed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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In January 1955, Baring sent a telegram to Alan Lennox-Boyd, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and a cabinet minister, and told them that eight white European officers who had been accused of serious crimes, including accessory to murder, would be given immunity from prosecution. One district officer was accused of the "beating up and roasting alive of one African". A Kenyan Regiment Sergeant and a field intelligence assistance had been implicated in the burning of two further suspects "during screening operations". "I had not myself realised until today that the extension of the principle of clemency to all members of the security forces involved so many cases with Europeans as principals," wrote Baring.<ref name="MAU MAU">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1956, Baring's administration devised the "dilution technique" – a system of assaults and psychological shocks to detainees, to force the compliance of the toughest Mau Mau supporters. Lennox-Boyd was told that one commander, Terrence Gavaghan, had developed the techniques at the Mwea camps in central Kenya – and he needed permission to treat the worst detainees in a "rough way". Baring telegrammed the Colonial Secretary in London asking for his approval to use "overpowering" force, and the cabinet minister's approval came within weeks. A ministerial delegation saw firsthand prisoners beaten for refusing to don camp clothes. Ringleaders of the "Mau Mau moan" – a chant of defiance – were singled out for special punishment. They were beaten and forced to the ground. Once there, a boot was placed on their throat while mud was forced into their mouths. Gavaghan also explained how difficult detainees would be subjected to the "third degree". "The measures adopted were to be kept awake all night, having water thrown at him and to be beaten up on a variety of pretexts."<ref name="MAU MAU"/>

One Hanslope Park document is a letter between Kenyan Special Branch police officers about treatment of "fanatical" detainees at the Mwea camps.

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In June 1957, Eric Griffith-Jones, the attorney general of the British administration in Kenya, wrote to Baring, detailing the way the regime of abuse at the colony's detention camps was being subtly altered. He said that the mistreatment of the detainees is "distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia". Despite this, he said that in order for abuse to remain legal, Mau Mau suspects must be beaten mainly on their upper body, "vulnerable parts of the body should not be struck, particularly the spleen, liver or kidneys", and it was important that "those who administer violence ... should remain collected, balanced and dispassionate". He also agreed to draft legislation that sanctioned beatings, as long as the abuse was kept secret, and reminded the governor that "If we are going to sin," he wrote, "we must sin quietly."<ref name="MAU">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Northern Ireland

During the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland, there were instances of British security forces, including the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), using torture on suspected Irish Republican Army (IRA) members. Former RUC interrogators who were active during the Troubles claimed that waterboarding, among other forms of torture, were systematically used against suspected IRA members in police custody.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1971, as part of Operation Demetrius, fourteen arrested men were subjected to a programme of "deep interrogation" at a secret interrogation centre. The interrogation methods involved sensory deprivation and were referred to as the "Five Techniques". The European Court of Human Rights defined them as wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink. For seven days, when not being interrogated, the detainees were kept hooded and handcuffed in a cold cell and subjected to a continuous loud hissing noise. Here they were forced to stand in a stress position for many hours and were deprived of sleep, food and drink. They were also repeatedly beaten, and some reported being kicked in the genitals, having their heads banged against walls and being threatened with injections. The effect was severe pain, severe physical and mental exhaustion, severe anxiety, depression, hallucinations, disorientation and repeated loss of consciousness.<ref name=mcguffin4>The Guineapigs by John McGuffin (1974, 1981). Chapter 4: The Experiment.</ref><ref name=mcguffin6>The Guineapigs by John McGuffin (1974, 1981). Chapter 6: Replay.</ref>

The fourteen so-called "Hooded Men" were the only detainees subjected to all Five Techniques together. Some other detainees were subjected to at least one of the Five Techniques, along with other interrogation methods.<ref name=mcguffin9>The Guineapigs by John McGuffin (1974, 1981). Chapter 9: Down on the Killing Floor.</ref> These allegedly included waterboarding,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> electric shocks, burning with matches and candles, forcing internees to stand over hot electric fires while beating them, beating and squeezing of the genitals, inserting objects into the anus, injections, whipping the soles of the feet, and psychological abuse such as Russian roulette.<ref name=mcguffin9/>

Details of the "deep interrogation" programme became known to the public, sparking outrage. In response, the British Government commissioned an inquiry, under Lord Parker, to look into the Five Techniques. In 1972 the Parker Report concluded that the Five Techniques were illegal under domestic law. British Prime Minister Edward Heath, then announced that the Five Techniques would no longer be used under his government. However, he said that if a future British government decided to reintroduce them, it would need to be approved by Parliament.<ref>Kelly, Tobias. This Side of Silence: Human Rights, Torture, and the Recognition of Cruelty. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. pp.34-35</ref>

The Irish Government had begun international legal action against the British Government over the Hooded Men in 1971. In 1976, the European Commission of Human Rights ruled that the programme of deep interrogation, using the Five Techniques, amounted to "torture".<ref name=bbcnov14>"Amnesty calls on Irish government to reopen 'hooded men' case". BBC News. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.</ref> The case was then referred to the European Court of Human Rights. In 1978 it ruled that the programme amounted to "inhuman and degrading treatment" which breached the European Convention on Human Rights, but did not amount to torture.<ref name=bbcnov14/> In 2014, evidence emerged that the British Government had withheld information from the Court. Following these revelations, the Irish Government announced in December 2014 that it would be asking the Court to review its judgement and acknowledge the Five Techniques as torture.<ref>"State to apply to have 'Hooded Men' judgment revised by ECHR" (RTÉ News);"Government asks European court to revise 'Hooded Men' ruling" (Irish Times); "Hooded Men: Irish government bid to reopen 'torture' case" (BBC News). Retrieved 12 December 2014.</ref>

The Court's ruling, that the Five Techniques did not amount to torture, was later cited by the United States and Israel to justify their own interrogation methods.<ref>"The Hooded Men – joint press release from CAJ and the Pat Finucane Centre" Template:Webarchive. Committee on the Administration of Justice. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.</ref>

21st century

On 23 February 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.{{#if:Judge Advocate Michael Hunter|{{#if:|}}

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At the court martial,<ref>Charge sheet for trial by court-marshal. The Queen v. Donald Payne ..., July 2005.</ref> the prosecution alleged that in giving the order to "work [the prisoners] hard", Captain Dan Taylor had broken the Geneva Conventions. Neither Taylor, nor his commanding officer Lt-Col Paterson (who was briefed on the operation "Ali Baba" by Taylor), was sanctioned and, indeed, during the period of time between the offence and the trial, both were given promotions. All the leaders of the major British political parties condemned the abuse. Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, declared that the pictures were "shocking and appalling". After sentencing, the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson, made a statement on television and said that he was "appalled and disappointed" when he first saw photographs of the Iraqi detainees and that<ref name=UKIndependent>Kim Sengupta, "You have tarnished the reputation of the Army and the British nation" Template:Webarchive, The Independent, London, 24 February 2005.</ref><ref>Ian Herbert and Kim Sengupta, "Exposed: soldier at the centre of Army's shame" Template:Webarchive, The Independent, London, 24 February 2005.</ref><ref>Martin Hickman, "British soldiers who abused Iraqis are jailed and dismissed from the Army"Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore, The Independent, London, 26 February 2005.</ref><ref>"Judge says 'put aside sympathy'" Template:Webarchive, BBC News, London, 21 February 2005.</ref>

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.{{#if:General Sir Mike Jackson|{{#if:|}}

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On 7 December 2005, the House of Lords reversed the deportations of Muslims convicted on "evidence procured by torture inflicted by foreign officials", and cited the 1978 case in ruling that centuries of common law and recent international conventions made torture anathema in the country's courts. Lord Bingham said it was "clear that from its very earliest days the common law of England set its face firmly against the use of torture"; Lord Nicholls said "Torture is not acceptable. This is a bedrock moral principle in this country"; Lord Hoffman said "The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it."; Lord Hope said it was "one of most evil practices known to man"; Lord Rodgers said "the unacceptable nature of torture ... has long been unquestioned in this country."; Lord Carswell referred to the "abhorrence felt by civilised nations for the use of torture"; and Lord Brown said that "torture is an unqualified evil. It can never be justified. Rather it must always be punished.".<ref>House of Lords Session 2005–06 2005 UKHL 71 on appeal from: [2004] EWCA Civ 1123. Retrieved 4 August 2008.</ref>

On 13 March 2007, the six-month court martial of the seven soldiers – including Colonel Jorge Mendonca and Major Michael Peebles – over the detention of Iraqi prisoners in Basra during May 2003 ended with all but one, Corporal Donald Payne, being acquitted.<ref>"'Historic' abuse court martial ends", BBC News, 13 March 2007.</ref><ref>Steven Morris and Richard Norton-Taylor, "Colonel and three of his men cleared over abuse of detained Iraqis", The Guardian, London, 15 February 2007.</ref> On 30 April 2007, Payne, Britain's first convicted war criminal found guilty under the provisions of the International Criminal Court Act 2001, who had pleaded guilty to mistreating prisoners, was jailed for a year and dishonourably discharged from the army.<ref>"UK soldier jailed over Iraq abuse", BBC News, 30 April 2007.</ref><ref>"Timeline: Road to military trial", The Daily Telegraph, London, 15 March 2007.</ref><ref>"This think piece is about the law produced and invoked by his death." Gerry Simpson, "The Death of Baha Mousa" Template:Webarchive, Melbourne Journal of International Law. Retrieved 27 July 2008.</ref>

In March 2008, the Ministry of Defence admitted breaching the human rights of Baha Mousa, who died in British custody in Basra, and of eight other Iraqi men held at the same facility, opening the way for a multimillion-pound compensation package for the relatives of Baha Mousa and the other men injured during illegal interrogations.<ref>"MoD to admit breach on Mousa case", BBC News, 27 March 2008.</ref> On 14 May 2008, Defence Secretary Des Browne announced in the House of Commons that there would be a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa in which "no stone [will be left] unturned in investigating his tragic death."<ref>"Timeline: Iraqi abuse trial" BBC News, 10 July 2008.</ref>

On 26 July 2008, the Joint Committee on Human Rights accused Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram in 2004 and Lieutenant-General Robin Brims, Commander Field Army, in 2006 of misleading the committee when they declared that conditioning practices (based on the five techniques, banned since their use in Northern Ireland in the 1970s) were not being used. It has now emerged that such techniques were being used by some troops deployed abroad. The BBC reported that "Labour MP Andrew Dismore, chairman of the committee, said he hoped the public inquiry [into the death of Baha Mousa] would give some indications as to why they were given 'wrong evidence'. Earlier this month, the MoD agreed to pay almost £3m in compensation to Mr Mousa's family and nine Iraqi men after admitting breaching human rights".<ref name=BBC-2008-07-27>"MPs 'misled' over interrogation", BBC News, 27 July 2008.</ref>

United States

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:See also

While the United States is a party to international conventions against torture, a proponent of human rights treaties and a critic of torture by other countries, torture has taken place within its borders and on its government's behalf outside of its borders.

On 13 December 1999, NYPD officer Justin Volpe was sentenced to thirty years in prison for sodomizing detainee Abner Louima with the handle of a bathroom plunger.<ref name=LouimaRefs>Volpe pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison."Policeman in torture case changes plea to guilty" Template:Webarchive, CNN, 25 May 1999.</ref><ref>"Volpe receives 30-year sentence for sodomy in Louima brutality case" Template:Webarchive, Court TV, 13 December 1999.</ref>

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."<ref name=Progr1994>Paige Bierma, "Torture behind bars: right here in the United States of America", The Progressive, July 1994.</ref> 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."<ref name=Tapley>Lance Tapley, "Torture in Maine's prison" Template:Webarchive, Portland Phoenix, 11–17 November 2005.</ref>

In 2003 and 2004, there was substantial controversy over the "stress and duress" methods that were used in the U.S. War on Terrorism that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Executive branch of government at Cabinet level.<ref name=WP_June20>"Torture Policy" (Editorial), The Washington Post, 21 June 2004.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Amnesty International and numerous commentators have accused the Military Commissions Act of 2006 of approving a system that uses torture, destroying the mechanisms for judicial review created by the Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, and creating a parallel legal system below international standards.<ref>Amnesty International, "Rubber stamping violations in the 'war on terror': Congress fails human rights", 27 September 2006.</ref><ref>Martin Scheinin, "UN expert on human rights and counterterrorism concerned that Military Commissions Act is now law in United States", UN High Commission for Human Rights, 27 October 2006.</ref><ref>Jeremy Waldron, "The Rule against Torture as a Legal Archetype" Template:Webarchive, Charney Lecture, 2006.</ref>

In an interview with the Washington Post, the convening authority of the Guantanamo military commissions, Susan J. Crawford, a retired judge, who was responsible for reviewing practices at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, said of one Guantanamo Bay detainee, "his treatment met the legal definition of torture, and that is why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.<ref>"Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official", The Washington Post, 13 January 2009.</ref> The U.S. Government denies that torture is being conducted in the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay.<ref>Human Rights Watch, 2001.</ref><ref>Dana Priest and Barton Gellman, "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations", The Washington Post, 26 December 2002.</ref>

It was reported in June 2008 that, according to human rights lawyers, the USA was "operating floating prisons to house those arrested in its war on terror":

"According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as 'floating prisons' since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed. Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.
... The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. 'One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo.'"<ref>Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor, "US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships", The Guardian, London, 2 June 2008.</ref>

Uzbekistan

After an investigating visit to Uzbekistan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van Boven concluded:<ref>Report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, UN Commission on Human Rights, February 2003.</ref>

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.{{#if:Theo van Boven|{{#if:|}}

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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."<ref name=HRWUzbek2001>Human Rights Watch, Uzbekistan, World Report 2001.</ref> (For example, see Muzafar Avazov.)

In 2003, Britain's Ambassador for Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, said that information was being extracted under extreme torture from dissidents in that country, and that the information was subsequently being used by Britain and other western, democratic countries which disapproved of torture.<ref name=Telegraph_23Oct2004>Robin Gedye, "The envoy silenced after telling undiplomatic truths", The Daily Telegraph, London, 23 October 2004.</ref>

Venezuela

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Under the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Venezuelan authorities held little regard for the human rights of citizens. Police often raided homes without search warrants and individuals were imprisoned without evidence. While initially detained, individuals faced torture in instances of interrogation.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Political police targeted, arrested, tortured and killed his opponents.<ref name="Ledezma">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Those who were attacked include future Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, Jaime Lusinchi and Luis Herrera Campins.<ref name="Ledezma"/> Lusinchi was jailed for two months in 1952 and was beaten with a sword.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to Human Rights Watch, the Carlos Andrés Pérez administration also tortured and executed opponents with a judicial branch that largely ignored abuses by his government.<ref name=":0" /> The Caracas Metropolitan Police [es] and DISIP were used as tools to persecute dissenters.<ref name=":0" /> Following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts, a crackdown on alleged plotters resulted in accusations of torture by those arrested.<ref name=":0" /> During the Bolivarian Revolution, levels of torture occurred that had not been seen since the dictatorship of Pérez Jiménez.<ref name="Santiago A. Canton Executive Director 2015">"Statement of Santiago A. Canton Executive Director, RFK Partners for Human Rights Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights" (PDF). United States Senate. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2015.</ref> Following the election of Hugo Chávez, human rights in Venezuela deteriorated. By 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report stating that Venezuela's government practiced "repression and intolerance".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In November 2014, Venezuela appeared before the United Nations Committee Against Torture over cases between 2002 and 2014, which criticized the Venezuelan National Commission for the Prevention of Torture for being biased in favor towards the Bolivarian government.<ref>"Venezuela ante la ONU: "Puede haber individuos armados dentro de los colectivos"". Infobae. 8 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.</ref><ref>"Venezuela tuvo que responder por más de 3.000 casos de tortura ante Naciones Unidas". Infobae. 6 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.</ref><ref>"Estado no respondió con precisión preguntas de la ONU sobre casos de tortura". El Nacional. 8 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.</ref> The committee had also expressed concern with "beatings, burnings and electric shocks in efforts to obtain confessions" that occurred during the 2014 Venezuelan protests and that of the 185 investigations for abuses during the protests, only 5 individuals had been charged.<ref>"U.N. watchdog urges Venezuela to investigate torture allegations". Reuters. 28 November 2014. Archived from the original on 28 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.</ref> United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez stated on 11 March 2015 that Venezuela had ignored requests for information and that he had made "conclusions based on the lack of response" and "concluded that the government violated the rights of prisoners", further saying that the Maduro government failed "with the obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish all acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment".<ref>"Venezuela violó derecho internacional al no prevenir tortura". La Verdad. 11 March 2015. Archived from the original on 13 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.</ref>

During the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, torture in Venezuela increased further. In La Tumba, one of the headquarters and prisons of SEBIN, has been used for white torture and some of its prisoners have attempted suicide.<ref name="Vinogradoff, Ludmila 2015">Vinogradoff, Ludmila (10 February 2015). ""La tumba", siete celdas de tortura en el corazón de Caracas". ABC. Retrieved 29 July 2015.</ref><ref>"Unearthing the Tomb: Inside Venezuela's Secret Underground Torture Chamber". Fusion. 2015. Archived from the original on 29 July 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2015.</ref><ref name="Venezuela 2015">"Political protesters are left to rot in Venezuela's secretive underground prison". News.com.au. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2015.</ref> Conditions in La Tumba have resulted with prisoner illnesses, though Venezuelan authorities refuse to medically treat those imprisoned.<ref name="Santiago A. Canton Executive Director 2015"/> Bright lights are continuously left on and prison cells are set at near-freezing temperatures.<ref>"Un calabozo macabro". Univision. 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2015.</ref><ref name="Vinogradoff, Ludmila 2015"/><ref name="Venezuela 2015"/>

During the 2017 Venezuelan protests, more than 290 cases of torture were documented by the Organization of American States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Human Rights Watch has documented over 350 cases of torture and abuse. Methods include severe beatings, cutting the soles of the feet with razors, partial asphyxiation, withholding food and medication, and electric shock.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Zimbabwe

The government of Robert Mugabe, in power from 1980 to 2017, has been accused of torturing protestors and members of the political opposition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Command responsibility
• Secret police

External links

• Template:Internet Archive short film