{"id":151,"date":"2006-05-05T12:08:37","date_gmt":"2006-05-05T08:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=151"},"modified":"2006-10-03T02:32:21","modified_gmt":"2006-10-02T22:32:21","slug":"amnesty-international-and-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/151\/","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty International and Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amnesty International,\u00a0having been happy to compare<\/a> the US prison at Guantanamo to the labour camps of Vorkuta, Kolyma, and Noril’sk,\u00a0is now working hard<\/a> on making sure that torture is an acceptable practice\u00a0around the world:<\/p>\n

Amnesty International USA Senior Deputy Executive Director Curt Goering said:<\/p>\n

“Although the US government continues to assert its condemnation of torture and ill-treatment, these statements contradict what is happening in practice.<\/p>\n

“The US government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish – including by trying to narrow the definition of torture.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the Yanks are trying to narrow the definition of torture, presumably to allow them to carry out certain practices without being accused of using torture.\u00a0 This might well be true, but at some point we’re going to have to come up with a definition of what does and does not constitute torture.\u00a0 So how do we do this?\u00a0 Noticeably, outfits like AI shy away from any discussion or study into what is and isn’t torture, preferring to apply their own\u00a0definition without any consideration for the world at large or any consultation.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Amnesty\u00a0definition of torture is thus rather alien to those who\u00a01)\u00a0Amnesty are trying to convince to stop\u00a0torturing, and 2) the public who ultimately are required to\u00a0hold the torturers to account.<\/p>\n

For instance, were I to learn that my government was involved in the use of torture\u00a0as\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0see it, I would conjure up images of electric shocks to the bollocks, Guy Fawkes on the rack, red hot pokers,\u00a0mock executions, beatings, floggings, tying people to anthills, ect. and would be rightfully appalled.\u00a0 I would be encouraged to take serious action against such a government, be it my own or anyone else’s.\u00a0 Now each and every person will have their own view of what is torture and what is not.\u00a0 For instance, some will think standing somebody to attention for 3 hours is torture, others will not.\u00a0 I’m sure everyone will agree that boiling somebody alive is torture, but\u00a0there will be\u00a0disagreements about whether sleep deprivation – to differing extents – is or is not.<\/p>\n

In order to make torture unacceptable, it is necessary for the public to be suitably outraged to the point that they demand their governments stop; in order to get the public suitably outraged at torture, you must first define torture to encompass all acts which a significant number consider to be torture.\u00a0 And here is where Amnesty International has fouled up considerably, and done untold harm in the process.\u00a0 Take their recent report<\/a> on torture as practiced by the US, for instance:<\/p>\n

The latter include hooding, stripping and shackling of detainees in painful positions as well as using military dogs to intimidate blindfolded detainees; prolonged isolation, deprivation of food and sleep and exposure to extremes of temperature also appear to have been common practice to punish detainees for failing to cooperate or to “soften them up” for interrogation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of which Amnesty defines as torture.\u00a0 Well, sorry – and here I realise in the eyes of some I am admitting to being Tamerlane’s less understanding brother – but when I define torture, I do not include any of those practices above per se<\/em>.\u00a0 For sure, prolonged isolation for lengthy periods, or exposure to “extreme” temperatures which are genuinely extreme would be considered torture in anyone’s book.\u00a0 But I don’t believe I am alone in thinking that threatening somebody with a dog or making them damned uncomfortable constitutes torture.\u00a0 They are unpleasant practices, without a doubt, and whether or not they are effective or necessary is open to debate; but this debate does not belong in a discussion about torture.<\/p>\n

In broadening the definition of torture to encompass practices which are in the eyes of most people merely unpleasant and not torturous, Amensty International is diluting the very force of the word “torture” and the emotions which it stirs in people:\u00a0the very emotions which they are hoping, and indeed are necessary, to ensure the public forces its government to outlaw\u00a0the practice.\u00a0 I am sure I am not alone\u00a0in this, and I will stick my neck out and claim to speak for many, but in the years since the Iraq war the use of the word “torture” has\u00a0become so overused that now when I read it,\u00a0I do not\u00a0express outrage as before, but\u00a0instead stifle a yawn.<\/p>\n

This has come about by\u00a0seeing umpteen newspaper articles and press releases\u00a0charging the US and its allies with\u00a0torture,\u00a0and when\u00a0I churn\u00a0through the text looking for appalling tales of\u00a0prisoners having their fingernails ripped out or other such practices, I find that the inmate in question has suffered no more than having some\u00a0bird stick her tits in his face.\u00a0 I’m sorry, but I’ve read way too many of these stories to even bother with them any more.\u00a0 Splashing water on a Koran,\u00a0depriving them of\u00a0food or sleep (within reason), or making them feel utterly miserable, humiliated, and uncomfortable does not constitute torture in my book.\u00a0 If people want my help in condemning torture, you are going to have to leave out stuff like this and narrow your definition to those practices which I consider to be torturous (and the list will\u00a0be long,\u00a0believe me).<\/p>\n

And Amnesty is doing the exact opposite.\u00a0 In accusing the USA of trying to narrow the definition, and themselves trying to broaden it, they have alientated thousands of people who would\u00a0normally\u00a0support them on this issue.\u00a0 And what is worse, using such a broad definition\u00a0fails to distinguish\u00a0between a government routinely lopping off limbs and a single soldier leading somebody around on a leash.\u00a0 According to Amnesty, the two acts under their definition of torture are morally inseparable, which to most people is ludicrous.\u00a0 In hoping to promote\u00a0humiliating prisoners\u00a0to be worthy of equal moral outrage as barbaric acts of medieval torture, Amnesty achieves only in excusing the latter to a large degree.\u00a0 How many governments, now reading daily that the US tortures people on its own soil, are now comfortable in flogging people to death, not knowing or caring that the US “torture” involved nothing more than a man being hooded for a few hours?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furthermore, this broadening of the definition allows the US to deflect much of the deserved criticism for genuine acts of torture being carried out by its troops in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.\u00a0 They can simply point to a handful of ludicrous allegations of torture, and ask the public to decide come the next election.\u00a0 How can the public be expected to hold the government to account for genuinely torturing prisoners when the\u00a0details are buried under a mountain of other accusations of torture which the average man on the street thinks is\u00a0no such thing?<\/p>\n

If Amnesty and its members want to make progress on the elimination of torture, they need to start by working with other human rights organisations and the UN (yeah, I know) in drawing up a comprehensive list of those practices which are considered by civilised societies to constitute torture, and gather public support in ensuring that these practices are outlawed without exception worldwide.\u00a0 Because all they are\u00a0ensuring on their present course is that the public are so apathetic to accusations of torture that governments the world over can continue to practice it with impunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amnesty International,\u00a0having been happy to compare the US prison at Guantanamo to the labour camps of Vorkuta, Kolyma, and Noril’sk,\u00a0is now working hard on making sure that torture is an acceptable practice\u00a0around the world: Amnesty International USA Senior Deputy Executive … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}