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torture

Infliction of bodily pain to extort evidence or confession. In the 20th century torture is widely (though, in most countries, unofficially) used. The human-rights organization Amnesty International investigates and publicizes the use of torture on prisoners of conscience.

Torture was legally abolished in England about 1640, but allowed in Scotland until 1708 and in France until 1789.

Physical torture

In the Middle Ages physical torture employed devices such as the rack (to stretch the victim's joints to breaking point), the thumbscrew, the boot (which crushed the foot), heavy weights that crushed the whole body, the iron maiden (cage shaped like a human being with interior spikes to spear the occupant), and so on. While similar methods survive today, electric shocks and sexual assault are also common.

Brainwashing

This was developed in both the communist and Western blocs in the 1950s, often using drugs. From the early 1960s a method used in the West replaced isolation by severe sensory deprivation; for example, IRA guerrillas were prevented from seeing by a hood, from feeling by being swathed in a loose-fitting garment, and from hearing by a continuous loud noise at about 85 decibels, while being forced to maintain themselves in a ‘search’ position against a wall by their fingertips. The European Commission on Human Rights found Britain guilty of torture, although the European Court of Human Rights classed it only as ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’.

In 1996 Amnesty International concluded that most of the countries cited in its first reports on the worldwide practice of torture 1973 and 1984 were still actively torturing their citizens, and a few more countries had been added to the list.

Amnesty estimated torture had reached ‘epidemic proportions’ in 40 countries, and said outbreaks had been reported in 60 others.

The UN issued its annual report on tortue March 1997, listing 29 countries where torture was fairly extensive. They included Algeria, Bahrain, China, India, Israel, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey. The UN Investigator on torture likened Israel to South Afirca under apartheid and accused it of institutionalizing torture in interrogating Palestinian detainees.

There is a centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, where torture victims are rehabilitated and studies are carried out into the effects of torture.

Askew, Anne Beccaria, Cesare, Marchese di Beccaria

Bonampak Habré, Hissène

human rights Kotter, Johannes

Shin Bet Spero, Nancy