Freedom from Fear - In the Last 60 Years

No hiding place for torture

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, like slavery and genocide, are always wrong and are banned absolutely under international law.

Government responses to the attacks of 11 September 2001, and attacks in other countries since then, have amounted to a serious assault on the framework of human rights. They have not only used torture, they have sought to justify it in the name of security.

Detainees have been subjected to secret detention, enforced disappearance and indefinite detention without charge or trial. They have been transferred from one state to another without due process and have been sent to countries where they have faced torture. Such practices and lack of accountability have facilitated the spread and acceptance of torture.

Governments must condemn and prevent torture and other ill-treatment and hold to account those responsible.

• ... are always wrong, regardless of who the torturer is or what the victim is suspected of
• … are banned absolutely under international law
• ... are unreliable interrogation techniques
• … spread and, once authorized, are never limited to “just once”
• … corrode the rule of law and undermine the criminal justice system
• … do not make us safer
• … CAN NEVER, EVER, BE JUSTIFIED

States agreed many years ago that no circumstances, not even war or public emergency that “threatens the life of the nation”, could be employed to justify the use of torture or other ill-treatment.

But governments’ responses to the attacks of 11 September 2001, and attacks in other countries since then, have presented a new and acute threat to the international prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.

The USA has now effectively admitted to being a state that condones torture – one that has used torture and reserves the right to do so again. As one of the most powerful countries in the world, the example set by the USA has considerable influence over other governments.

It is not only the US government that has undermined human rights in the context of counterterrorism while continuing to pay lip service to international obligations. Many governments have been willing to jettison long-held human rights principles in the name of “security” while others, long accused of human rights violations, have a new screen to hide behind in counter-terrorism.

This permissive atmosphere has seriously corroded the rule of law. Governments around the world have resorted to torture and other ill-treatment, seeking to justify these practices as necessary.

Governments have tacitly condoned torture through seeking to circumvent the rules that ban the deportation of detainees to countries where they would face a real risk of torture or other grave human rights violations.

Governments have a clear duty to protect their civilian population from violent attacks, including terrorist acts. Deliberate attacks on civilians constitute grave human rights abuses. But governments must also adhere to their obligations under international human rights law. Real security can only be achieved through strengthening the human rights framework, not through undermining it by resorting to unlawful practices such as torture.

When governments subvert the law by using torture and other ill-treatment, they are resorting to the tactics of terror, and destroy the very values they claim to be protecting. Erosion of one set of rights inevitably devalues others. Torture and all other ill-treatment must be condemned and prevented, and those who authorize and inflict it must be held to account. Governments must stop shielding torturers and must accept responsibility for their crimes.

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