Read the rest."Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are prohibited under international law. No exceptions are allowed, ever. Torture was made unthinkable – or at least impossible to defend - after the ban had been inscribed in United Nations human rights treaties, the humanitarian Geneva Conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights. This great achievement in the struggle against barbarity and for human rights must now be defended.
International watch mechanisms have been established to ensure that states adopt measures to uphold these treaties and to condemn any practices of torture when they occur. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has also authority to make unannounced visits to places of detention.
This is not a theoretical debate – torture has continued to be used on a distressing scale, also in recent times. The proper response is to strengthen the existing mechanisms. It is therefore shocking that misdirected counter-terrorism strategies are now challenging the very consensus against torture.
The devious “ticking bomb” argument has returned and even been taken seriously by some leading opinion makers, not least in the United States where it has been used to defend one of the most cruel torture methods, the so-called water boarding (mock drowning). (Emphasis mine.)
Are you listening Washington?
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