Home | About Us | Torture Defined

TORTURE DEFINED

Anyone can be tortured. Often, individuals are tortured because of their identity (ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, etc.) or because they are activists for human rights, women's rights and other causes. People may be tortured at random if the government or opposition group is trying to create a climate of fear in a population.

Definitions
Types of Torture
Torture in Today's World
Illegality
The Perpetrators

Definitions
The United Nations Convention against Torture defines torture as "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 intimidating or coercing him or a third person 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."

The World Medical Association, an international organization that governs professional standards and ethics for physicians, defines torture as "the deliberate, systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason."

The U.S. Torture Victims Relief Act (TVRA) passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998 defines torture as "an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control."

Types of Torture
Methods of physical torture include beating, electric shocks, stretching, suffocation, burns, rape and sexual assault. Common methods of psychological torture include threats, isolation, humiliation, mock executions, mock amputations, witnessing the torture of others and being forced to torture or kill others.

Torture in Today's World
Information about torture is hard to document, so figures often underestimate its prevalence. Amnesty International has documented reports of torture in more than 150 countries. In more than 70, torture was reportedly widespread or persistent. SURVIVORS condemns the use of torture in all circumstances. No human being or society that permits torture can maintain respect for either human life or the rule of law.

Illegality
Torture is illegal under U.S. and international law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” No detainee held by U.S. authorities may be tortured—regardless of nationality, regardless of whether the person is held in the U.S. or in another country, and regardless of whether the person is labeled a civilian or combatant.

The Perpetrators
Perpetrators may include the police, the military, paramilitary forces, state-controlled contra-guerrilla forces, prison officers, death squads, health professionals, opposition forces or any government official. Torture is often used to control populations by destroying individual leaders and terrorizing communities.