Torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

, the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain upon an individual to extract information or a confession, or as an illicit extrajudicial punishment, is prohibited by

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

and is illegal in most countries. However, it is still used by many governments. The subject of this article is the use of torture since the adoption of the 1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...

(UDHR), which prohibited it. Torture in modern society Torture is widely practiced worldwide:

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

received reports of torture or cruel,

inhuman or degrading treatment Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) is treatment of persons which is contrary to human rights or dignity, but is not classified as torture. It is forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention ...

or punishment in more than 150 countries during the four-year period from 1997 to 2001. These accusations concerned acts against

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s in 70 countries and other prisoners and detainees in more than 130 countries. 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."Orlando Tizon, CovertAction Quarterly, Summer 2002. Tizon is assistant director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) in Washington, D.C. 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 Plausible deniability is the ability of people, typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command, to denial, deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by members of their organizational hierarchy. Th ...

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

, "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.Amnesty International
''End impunity: Justice for the victims of torture''
, 2001. 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. UN Special Rapporteur for the Commission on Human Rights, Sir

Nigel Rodley Sir Nigel Simon Rodley KBE (born Rosenfeld; 1 December 1941 – 25 January 2017) was an international lawyer and professor. Personal life Rodley was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 1 December 1941 to Hans Israel Rosenfeld and Rache ...

, believes that "impunity continues to be the principal cause of the perpetuation and encouragement of human rights violations and, in particular, torture." 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 A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

and guerrillas, criminal actors such as

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

syndicates and kidnappers. A recent approach to interrogations has been to use techniques such as

waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water torture, water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method ...

, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse, and

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

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 belt A stun belt is a belt fastened around the subject's waist, leg, or arm that carries a battery and control pack, and contains features to stop the subject from unfastening or removing it. A remote-control signal is sent to tell the control pack to g ...

s and

taser A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...

s 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.

Lawrence Weschler Lawrence Weschler (born 1952) is an author of works of creative nonfiction. A graduate of Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz (1974), Weschler was for over twenty years (1981–2002) a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', w ...

, ''A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers'', 1990: 62–63. One is the use of tasers and electro-shock devices now widely sold to prison authorities around the world. Minor refinements of ancient techniques—including tearing out fingernails and toenails with iron tools, burning the soles of the feet with clothes irons, and probing between the toes with electric wood-burning pencils—are also widely applied. Some African nations employ an iron foot-squeezing device patterned after the medieval French boot.

Inter-state collaboration

Substantial cooperation between states in the methods and coordination of torture has been documented. Through the Phoenix Program, the United States helped

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

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 Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

that extended to the use of torture (see

U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals The U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals are seven controversial military training manuals which were declassified by the Pentagon in 1996. In 1997, two additional CIA manuals were declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA ...

). 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.J. Patrice McSherry
"Operation Condor: Clandestine Inter-American System"
''Social Justice'', Winter 1999 v26 i4. 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 Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored Kidnapping, forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had t ...

, the delivery of prisoners or others recently captured, including terrorism suspects, to foreign governments known to practice torture are South Africa, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Afghanistan. Human rights activists have alleged that the practice amounts to

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

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 ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

reported —- citing administration sources —- that such facilities are operated by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

in Thailand (until 2004), Afghanistan, and several unnamed Eastern European countries.Dana Priest
"CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons"
''The Washington Post'', 2 November 2005.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

reports that planes associated with rendition have landed repeatedly in Poland and Romania."Statement on U.S. Secret Detention Facilities in Europe"
Human Rights Watch, 7 November 2005.

Recent instances of torture in selected countries

The use of torture is geographically widespread. A review by

, 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."Denounce Torture"
, Amnesty International.

Afghanistan

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.Richard S. Ehrlich

''The Washington Times'', 11 April 1988. 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".
, Amnesty International, November 1995. > AI Index: ASA/11/09/95. The

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

are likewise reported to have engaged in torture.Christina Lamb
"I was one of the Taliban's torturers: I crucified people"
''The Daily Telegraph'', London, 30 September 2005. 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 Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...

region, dominated by the warlord Ismail Khan,

reported extensive torture in 2002."Afghanistan: Torture and Political Repression in Herat"
Human Rights Watch, 5 November 2002. Torture by US troops has been alleged in news reports by the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

.Tim Golden
"In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths"
''The New York Times'', 20 May 2005. 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.

Albania

Under Enver Hoxha's

People's Socialist Republic of Albania The People's Socialist Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë, links=no) was the Marxist–Leninist one party state that existed in Albania from 1946 to 1992 (the official name of the country was the People's R ...

, torture was widely used by police and prison camp guards. Since the fall of communism, Amnesty International has reported police abuses amounting to torture; the government says it has "made efforts to punish all acts of torture under the Albanian criminal justice system". In 2020 more than 3000 Albanians signed a petition accussing the government of Edi Rama for torture against the Muslim cleric Genci Balla who was isolated under the article 41-bis prison regime in solitary confinement and deprived from halal food.

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 Jacques Émile Massu (; 5 May 1908 – 26 October 2002) was a French general who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Algerian War and the Suez crisis. He led French troops in the Battle of Algiers, first supporting and later ...

, bringing together the experience of "Les Paras" in the Indo-China War and German troops in the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

. 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."Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"
U.N. Commission on Human Rights."Angola: A new cease-fire – a new opportunity for human rights"
, Amnesty International USA, AI Index AFR 12/002/2002 – News Service Nr.60, 5 April 2002. Since that time, AI has also reported that "unarmed civilians are being extrajudicially executed and tortured""Angola: Extrajudicial executions and torture in Cabinda"
, Amnesty International Index: AFR 12/002/1998, 1 April 1998. in Angola's war against Cabindan separatists.

Argentina

During the so-called "

Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...

" carried out in the 1970s, in particular, but not only, by the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

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.

Bahrain

Torture has been used frequently by the Bahraini government in the 20th century. Notable cases include that of

Ian Henderson Ian Henderson may refer to: *Ian Henderson (footballer) (born 1985), English footballer for Rochdale * Ian Henderson (musician), New Zealand drummer *Ian Henderson (news presenter) (born 1952), Australian news presenter *Ian Henderson (police office ...

, a former colonial officer employed in Bahrain who was accused by multiple witnesses of torturing prisoners. Adel Flaifel, a notorious security officer identified by many detainees as having overseen torture, 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 and Human Rights Watch in the

1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War ...

point to the widespread use of torture in Bahraini prisons. During the Bahraini uprising, torture was described by many human rights reports as widespread and systematic. Up to 1866 who make up 64% of detainees reported cases of torture. Three government agencies, namely the Ministry of Interior, the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

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. Only four of the individuals who alleged torture were arrested by the BDF. The

Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), also known locally in Bahrain as the Bassiouni Commission, was established by the King of Bahrain on 29 June 2011''Bahrain News Agency''" HM King Hamad Sets up Royal Independent Investigation co ...

have attributed the deaths of five individuals to torture.

Brazil

Torture was used regularly by the

Brazilian dictatorship The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dict ...

regime from 1964 to 1977 against dissidents. It included torturing their children, some of whom were less than 2 years old at the time.

Chile

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. Among those tortured were future president Michelle Bachelet, who was held along with her mother at the notorious

Villa Grimaldi Villa Grimaldi is considered the most important of DINA’s (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, the Chilean secret police during the Pinochet regime) many complexes that were used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners during ...

detention center in the capital

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

China

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. Torture is reportedly used as part of the indoctrination process at the Xinjiang re-education camps.

Cuba

People imprisoned by the communist regime are reportedly tortured.

East Germany

In the socialist

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

of divided Germany, torture and inhumane and degrading treatment were systematically used by security forces, including the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

secret police, against suspected opponents of the regime.

France

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 generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power (mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas ...

s on suspects: this form of torture was called ''(la) gégène''. 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 French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

, subsequently taken over by the United States) and at

Philippeville Philippeville (; wa, Flipveye) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. The Philippeville municipality includes the former municipalities of Fagnolle, Franchimont, Jamagne, Jamiolle, Merlemont, Ne ...

(now ''Skikda'') in Algeria. Police abuse remains a reality in France today, while France has been condemned by the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

(ECHR) for the conditions of detention in prisons, including the use of torture on detainees. 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. 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. These repeated abuses are said to be one of the causes of the 2005 civil unrest. Conditions in

detention centers A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

for

illegal aliens Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...

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.

Guatemala

During the Guatemalan civil war and the repression by the army against civilians and suspected opponents of the military dictatorship, murder (even

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

), torture, rape and inhumane and degrading treatment was systematically used by the Guatemalan armed forces and police. There is evidence that the

, 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 The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

). 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 Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

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''. "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 The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) is a NGO (non-governmental organization) dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Asia. It is headquartered in New Delhi, India. The organization seeks to provid ...

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% 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.

Iran

Article 38 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids "all forms of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

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."
Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran
' The Islamic Republic itself vehemently denies the existence of torture by the government. Nonetheless, human rights groups and observers, such as

, the United Nations, and

, have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran. A substantial number of Iranians have been tortured and imprisoned by the religious police.

Arya Aramnejad Arya Aramnejad is an Iranian singer from Babol, Iran. He became known for his song "Ali Barkhiz" where he denounces the Islamic regime's crimes during the 2009 Ashura protests. After this, he was jailed and tortured. He was then released and con ...

, a singer, was jailed for his song "Ali Barkhiz" where he denounces the Islamic regime's crimes during the

2009 Ashura protests The Ashura protests were a series of protests which occurred on 27 December 2009 in Iran against the outcome of the June 2009 Iranian presidential election, which demonstrators claim was rigged. The demonstrations were part of the 2009 Iranian ...

. During his time in prison, he was reportedly tortured (sexually humiliated – photographed naked, laughed at, obliged to walk barefooted on aids' patients blood).

Farzad Kamangar Farzad Kamangar ( fa, فرزاد کمانگر; – 9 May 2010) was a 32-year-old Iranian Kurdish teacher, poet, journalist, human rights activist and social worker from the city of Kamyaran, Iran who was executed on 9 May 2010. 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 A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the human skull, skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near ...

, broken nose, signs of rape and severe abdominal bruising.
INDEPTH: ZAHRA KAZEMI
' "Iran's changing story" CBC News Online , Updated 16 November 2005. Retrieved 05/05/12

Ehsan Fatahian Ehsan Fatahian ( fa, احسان فتاحیان; ku, ئیحسان فەتاحیان; b. 1982 in Kermanshah - d. November 11, 2009 in Sanandaj), was a Kurdish activist, who was executed on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, in Sanandaj Central Prison ...

, an Iranian

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

activist, was tortured for confession before being executed. Zeynab Jalalian, also a

activist, is currently ill due to prison conditions and torture. She has been sentenced to death. Other notable victims include Behrouz Javid Tehrani,

Habibollah Latifi Habibollah Latifi (حبیب الله لطیفی) is a Kurdish Iranian law student at Azad University and a Kurdish activist who has been charged with Moharebeh ("waging war against God") and sentenced to death by an Islamic Revolutionary Court i ...

Houshang Asadi Houshang Asadi ( fa, هوشنگ اسدی; born 1951) is an Iranian journalist and writer. Life He was a member of the Tudeh Party of Iran. During his time in prison, under duress he confessed to being an agent of the SAVAK (Persian: , short for ...

,Iranian Journalist Recalls Torture, Sharing Cell With Supreme Leader (To Be
Radio Free Europe 3 August 2010
/ref> Saeed Malekpour, Shirkoh (Bahman) Moarefi, Hossein Khezri, and Akbar Mohammadi. In a study of torture in Iran published in 1999, Iranian-born political historian Ervand Abrahamian included Iran along with "

Stalinist Russia Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

Maoist China Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...

, and early modern Europe" of the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

and

witch hunts A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...

, as societies that "can be considered to be in a league of their own" in the systematic use of torture. 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.

Chronicle of Higher Education International, reports that the widespread practice of

raping Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or a ...

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." Several bills passed the

Iranian Parliament The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...

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 The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...

.Iran: Guardian Council turns down Majlis bills on women's rights, torture ban
''Payvand's Iran News'', 13 August 2003
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 10 January 2003

Iraq

The government headed by

Baathist Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation ...

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

made extensive use of torture, including at the notorious

Abu Ghraib prison Abu Ghraib prison ( ar, سجن أبو غريب, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison with torture, weekly exe ...

. The post-

invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

Iraqi government holds thousands of people in prison. After investigating from July to October 2004,

found that torture was "routine and commonplace." According to their report, 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 The Nayirah testimony was false testimony given before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a 15-year-old girl who was publicly identified at the time by her first name, Na ...

. Years later it emerged that she was the daughter of

Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah (3 October 1944 – 21 January 2012) was a Kuwaiti politician and diplomat. Biography Sabah was born on 3 October 1944. Sabah served as ambassador of Kuwait to Great Britain from 1975 to 1981. He then served as Kuw ...

, Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, and that the story was the creation of the

Hill & Knowlton Hill+Knowlton Strategies is an American global public relations consulting company, headquartered in New York City, United States, with over 80 offices in more than 40 countries. The company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1927 by John W. Hil ...

public relations firm employed by the Kuwaitis.

Israel

After investigation of continued allegations of torture, the Supreme Court ruled in 1999Supreme Court ruling
(HCJ 5100/94) that all torture – even moderate physical pressure – was illegal. This decision was praised by human-rights organizations. Despite this reform of the law,

continued to express concerns to Israel about treatment which amounts to torture, and remained unhappy about the steps taken by Israel to eliminate torture.

stated in 2002: The human rights group

B'Tselem B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...

estimated that 85% of all Palestinian detainees suspected of terrorism were subject to prolonged

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary ...

; prolonged sight deprivation or

sensory deprivation Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing, while more complex devices can al ...

; 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: " heGSS 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..."B'Tselem, ''Legislation allowing for the use of physical force'', January 2000, pp.32,48.

Kenya

Mau Mau inflicted torture and death on 1,819

Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: *Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Centr ...

during their uprising in the 1950s, along with 58 people of European and Asian descent.

Lebanon

Suspected

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

guerrillas, their families and Lebanese civilian internees were previously detained in the

South Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the United Nat ...

(SLA) prison at

Khiam Khiam ( ar, الخيام; sometimes spelled Khiyam) is a large town in the Nabatieh Governorate of Southern Lebanon. Location Khiam is situated approximately south from the capital city of Beirut and south-east from the city of Nabatieh. The bo ...

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."Torture and ill-treatment: Israel's Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories"
Human Rights Watch, June 1994."Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture: Israel. 18/05/98"
by

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

Committee Against Torture, Twentieth session, 4–22 May 1998, A/53/44, paras.232–242.

Nigeria

In 2005, Human Rights Watch documented that Nigerian police in the cities of

Enugu Enugu ( ; ) is the capital city of Enugu State in Nigeria. It is located in southeastern part of Nigeria. The city had a population of 820,000 according to the 2022 Nigerian census. The name ''Enugu'' is derived from the two Igbo words ''Énú ...

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

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."Rest in Pieces: Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria"
Human Rights Watch, July 2005. Systematic torture was used in conjunction with military occupation in an attempt to quell anti- oil protests by the

Ogoni people The Ogonis are a people in the Rivers South East senatorial district of Rivers State, in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. They number just over 2 million and live in a homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common ...

in the

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

, according to a

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...

report.Deborah Robinson
"Ogoni: The Struggle Continues"
World Council of Churches. 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.

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, electrick shock, and sexual abuse.

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

merican ''Merican'' is an EP by the American punk rock band the Descendents, released February 10, 2004. It was the band's first release for Fat Wreck Chords and served as a pre-release to their sixth studio album ''Cool to Be You'', released the follow ...

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." See Con Son Island for accounts of US torture practices.

Palestinian Territories

The

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

has reportedly practiced torture in the Palestinian territories over the years. Amnesty International found: "Torture

y the Palestine Authority Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or sevent ...

of detainees remained widespread. Seven detainees died in custody. Unlawful killings, including possible extrajudicial executions, continued to be reported." 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. Rahim's family attempted to sue the PA and the

Palestinian Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...

, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against them. 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." 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." 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. 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. 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." In another report, Human Rights Watch "documents cases in which alestiniansecurity 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."

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.

Philippines

During the rule of

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

, 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.

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.

Romania

Under the communist regime of

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ( ...

, and later that of

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was ...

, torture was often used against political and religious prisoners, including those incarcerated during the notorious Pitești Experiment.

Russia

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...". However Russian police are regularly observed practicing torture – including beatings, electric shocks, rape, asphyxiation – in interrogating arrested suspects."UN Committee against Torture Must Get Commitments From Russia to Stop Torture"
Human Rights Watch, 13 November 2006. Torture and humiliation, or '' dedovshchina'', are also widespread in Russian's military, according to Human Rights Watch."The Consequences of Dedovshchina"
Human Rights Watch, 2004. This is essentially the Russian version of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

hazing Hazing (American English), initiation, beasting (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), ragging (South Asian English) or deposition refers to any activity expected of someone in joining or participating in a group that humiliates, ...

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.Vjacheslav Ismailov
"Terrible dedovshchina in General Staff"
, ''Novaya Gazeta'', Moscow, 10 July 2006. Amnesty International reported on allegations of Chechen locals, that Russian military forces in

Chechnya Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...

rape and torture local women with

electric shock Electrical injury is a physiological reaction caused by electric current passing through the body. The injury depends on the density of the current, tissue resistance and duration of contact. Very small currents may be imperceptible or produce ...

s, when electric wires are connected to the straps of their bra on their chest."Russian Federation Preliminary briefing to the UN Committee against Torture"
, Amnesty International, 1 April 2006. 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.Marat Hayrullin
"The entire city was beaten"
''Novaya Gazeta'', Moscow, 10 January 2005. Marat Hayrullin,
"A profession: to mop up the Motherland"
''Novaya Gazeta'', Moscow, 17 March 2005. Marat Hayrullin
"Welcome to Fairytale"
''Novaya Gazeta'', Moscow, 25 April 2005.

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." 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", According to the Human Rights Watch ''World Report 2003'', "Torture under interrogation of political prisoners and criminal suspects continued", 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".

South Africa

According to

, 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.

Soviet Union

Torture was widely practiced by the brutal

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...

during the early days of the Red Army, followed by the Soviet NKVD during the early

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

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

, nicknamed "conveyor" due to interrogators replacing one another to keep the inmate from sleeping. The use of torture was authorized by the

Central Committee of the Communist Party Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the c ...

and personally by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

. During the

Doctor's Plot The "Doctors' plot" affair, group=rus was an alleged conspiracy of prominent Soviet medical specialists to murder leading government and party officials. It was also known as the case of saboteur doctors or killer doctors. In 1951–1953, a gr ...

, Stalin ordered falsely accused physicians to be tortured "to death". Torture was still used after Stalin by the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

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 Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

ruled Spain. Such abuses continued into the 1970s and included severe beatings and waterboarding. The Spanish kingdom today categorically denies the existence of torture. 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).

Syria

Torture has reportedly been used in the Adra Prison near Damascus. In 2010, the prison held 7,000 prisoners. The Tadmor Prison in Palmyra was known for harsh conditions, extensive human rights abuse,

and

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

s. 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. A number of captured Israelis have been tortured in Syria. This includes

Eli Cohen Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen ( he, אֱלִיָּהוּ בֵּן שָׁאוּל כֹּהֵן‎, ar, إيلياهو بن شاؤول كوهين‎; 6 December 1924 – 18 May 1965), commonly known as Eli Cohen, was an Egyptian-born Israel ...

, who was executed in 1965. In 1955, five Israeli soldiers were captured in a covert operation on the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

and brutally tortured in a Syrian prison. One of the soldiers, Uri Ilan, committed suicide when falsely informed by his captors that his comrades had been killed.Syria returns the body of a soldier captured in Damascus
, IDF Ilan became a symbol of courage and patriotism in Israel. During the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

, many Israeli prisoners said that they had been tortured by Syrians,"Golan's capital turns into heap of stones". ''The Times'', 10 July 1974, p. 8 and one POW,

Avraham Lanir Avraham "Avi" Lanir (January 25, 1940 – October 1973) was a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Air Force. He was the highest-ranking Israeli fighter pilot to fall into enemy hands. Biography Avraham Lankin (later Lanir) was born in 1940 in Herzl ...

, was tortured to death. During the Syrian Civil War, reports have been made of widespread and systematic torture used by Syrian security forces. 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." 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.

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

In April 2009 a video emerged of a United Arab Emirates Royal Sheik, Sheik

Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan ( ar, عيسى بن زايد آل نهيان) is the son of former United Arab Emirates President Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan; the half brother of the former President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; and the half brother of ...

(a son of

Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, زَايِد بِن سُلْطَان آل نَهْيَان, Zāyed bin Sulṭān Āl Nahyān; 6 May 1918 – 2 November 2004) was an Emirati politician, statesman, and philanthropist who served as ...

) 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 Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

. 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.

United Kingdom

Kenya

During the 1950's, a rebellion against British rule in Kenya known as the

Mau Mau rebellion The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', ...

broke out, spearheaded by the

Kenya Land and Freedom Army The Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, was a guerrilla army, formed mainly by the people of central and eastern Kenya, dominated by the Kikuyu people. It resisted British colonialism in Kenya from the late 1940s to ...

(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 population- numbering over a million- 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 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, i ...

." 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." One of the detainees who was tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion was Hussein Onyango Obama, the grandfather of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. According to his widow, "British soldiers forced pins into his fingernails and buttocks and squeezed his testicles between metal rods" at the Kamiti Prison. One British settler described an interrogation by the colonial police force: On 22 November 1954, Colonel Arthur Young sent a letter to

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Evelyn Baring about the "inhumanity" of various parts of the security forces amid his investigations of wrongdoing: In January 1955, Baring sent a telegram to

Alan Lennox-Boyd Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL (18 November 1904 – 8 March 1983), was a British Conservative politician. Background, education and military service Lennox-Boyd was the son of Alan Walter Lennox-Boyd by his ...

, 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. 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." One Hanslope Park document is a letter between Kenyan Special Branch police officers about treatment of "fanatical" detainees at the Mwea camps. 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 Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

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."

Northern Ireland

During

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

, an ethno-nationalist conflict in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, there were instances of British security forces, including the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...

(RUC), using torture on suspected

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

(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. 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

and were referred to as the " Five Techniques". The

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 A hood is a kind of headgear that covers most of the human head, head and neck, and sometimes the face. Hoods that cover mainly the sides and top of the head, and leave the face mostly or partly open may be worn for protection from the environm ...

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.''The Guineapigs''
by John McGuffin (1974, 1981)

by John McGuffin (1974, 1981)

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.
by John McGuffin (1974, 1981)

These allegedly included

electric shocks Electrical injury is a physiological reaction caused by electric current passing through the body. The injury depends on the density of the current, tissue resistance and duration of contact. Very small currents may be imperceptible or produce a ...

, 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. Details of the "deep interrogation" programme became known to the public, sparking outrage. In response, the

British Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

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. The

Irish Government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The governm ...

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"."Amnesty calls on Irish government to reopen 'hooded men' case"
BBC News. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014. The case was then referred to the

. In 1978 it ruled that the programme amounted to "inhuman and degrading treatment" which breached the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...

, but did not amount to torture. 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. 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.

21st century

On 23 February 2005, British soldiers were found guilty of abuse of Iraqi prisoners arrested for looting at a

camp called Bread Basket, in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

, during May 2003. The judge at the military court, Judge Advocate Michael Hunter, said of photographs and the soldier's behaviour: At the court martial, the prosecution alleged that in giving the order to "work he prisonershard", Captain Dan Taylor had broken the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

. 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 Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

, British Prime Minister, declared that the pictures were "shocking and appalling". After sentencing, the Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson (British Army officer), 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 thatKim Sengupta
"You have tarnished the reputation of the Army and the British nation"
, ''The Independent'', London, 24 February 2005. 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.". 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 (soldier), Donald Payne, being acquitted. 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. 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. 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." On 26 July 2008, the Joint Committee on Human Rights accused Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram (Labour politician), 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 Ministry of Defence (UK), MoD agreed to pay almost £3m in compensation to Mr Mousa's family and nine Iraqi men after admitting breaching human rights"."MPs 'misled' over interrogation"
BBC News, 27 July 2008.

United States

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 police officer, officer Justin Volpe was sentenced to thirty years in prison for sodomizing detainee Abner Louima with the handle of a bathroom plunger.Volpe pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in priso
"Policeman in torture case changes plea to guilty"
, CNN, 25 May 1999. 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."Paige Bierma
"Torture behind bars: right here in the United States of America"
''The Progressive'', July 1994. 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."Lance Tapley
"Torture in Maine's prison"
, ''Portland Phoenix'', 11–17 November 2005. 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."Torture Policy" (Editorial)
''The Washington Post'', 21 June 2004.

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. 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. The U.S. Government denies that torture is being conducted in the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Guantanamo Bay. 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 (LHD-5), USS Bataan and USS Peleliu (LHA-5), 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.'"

Uzbekistan

After an investigating visit to Uzbekistan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van Boven concluded: 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."Human Rights Watch
Uzbekistan, World Report 2001
(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.Robin Gedye
"The envoy silenced after telling undiplomatic truths"
''The Daily Telegraph'', London, 23 October 2004.

Venezuela

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. Political police targeted, arrested, tortured and killed his opponents. Those who were attacked include future Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, Jaime Lusinchi and Luis Herrera Campins. Lusinchi was jailed for two months in 1952 and was beaten with a sword. According to

, the Carlos Andrés Pérez administration also tortured and executed opponents with a judicial branch that largely ignored abuses by his government. The Caracas Metropolitan Police [es] and DISIP were used as tools to persecute dissenters. Following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts, a crackdown on alleged plotters resulted in accusations of torture by those arrested. During the Bolivarian Revolution, levels of torture occurred that had not been seen since the dictatorship of Pérez Jiménez. 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". 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. 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. United Nations special rapporteur, 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". During the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, torture in Venezuela increased further. In La Tumba (Caracas), La Tumba, one of the headquarters and prisons of SEBIN, has been used for white torture and some of its prisoners have attempted suicide.Vinogradoff, Ludmila (10 February 2015). ""La tumba", siete celdas de tortura en el corazón de Caracas". ABC. Retrieved 29 July 2015."Political protesters are left to rot in Venezuela's secretive underground prison". News.com.au. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2015. Conditions in La Tumba have resulted with prisoner illnesses, though Venezuelan authorities refuse to medically treat those imprisoned. White torture, Bright lights are continuously left on and prison cells are set at near-freezing temperatures. During the 2017 Venezuelan protests, more than 290 cases of torture were documented by the Organization of American States.

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.

Zimbabwe

The government of Robert Mugabe, in power from 1980 to 2017, has been accused of torturing protestors and members of the political opposition.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uses of Torture in Recent Times Violence Torture