Pfiffner, 7 I will take each assumption in turn to demonstrate the inherent problems in the scenario. However, in reality there is little certain intelligence; would torture still be justified if there was only some, weak evidence?
The justification for torture where we are uncertain about the existence of the bomb is weakened as its necessity is much harder to demonstrate. Secondly, we must have reasonable grounds to believe that the suspect holds the information that we need. The argument for torture is severely weakened if it is likely that the suspect is innocent and unable to help our enquiries. In terms of efficiency, torturing the wrong person is a waste of time and, on a more human level, we must decide on the value of protecting the innocent from pain.
The less certain we are that the suspect holds the information we need, the less we can justify ill-treatment of that person. Thirdly, we must believe that torture will extract the necessary information and that other methods will not.
If there is another way to induce the subject to talk our humanity must rule out any justification for torture; it can only be justifiable as a last resort. There are many other methods of interrogation that must have been tried and failed — developing rapport, plea bargaining, trickery, positive and negative psychological techniques, surveillance, disorientation and other non-damaging psychological methods.
Pfiffner, 15; Meyer, ; Saul, ; Bowden, The argument may still be made that the price of failure to find the information makes an early recourse to torture worthwhile but the moral case is severely weakened as a result. In addition to the above concerns about the usefulness of torture, the fourth assumption requires that torture will cause the subject to divulge accurate information.
This is highly questionable as torture may force answers but there is no guarantee that they will be truthful Rodley, 8 Under torture, a knowledgeable suspect may not tell the truth and an innocent suspect cannot; there can be no method of distinguishing between the two.
You become like an animal. Finally, the scenario rests upon the presumption that it will be possible to save lives if the information is obtained. This is an important consideration as without it the torture is no longer necessary. If torture is carried out when the information cannot be of any use in saving lives e.
Once uncertainty is added into the equation, the moral strength of the decision to torture is removed. In particular, the case rests on highly flawed beliefs in the usefulness of torture to produce truth. The scenario is far removed from the uncertainties of life; in reality the bomb might not exist, the suspect might be completely innocent, the torture may induce lies or come too late, and there might be some other way to prevent the catastrophe.
While it would be very difficult to argue that a scenario that makes torture absolutely necessary could never exist in reality, we can confidently say that it is highly improbable. The Wider Context. We are encouraged to consider only the immediate consequences of action and inaction which serves to strengthen the case for torture. However, the context can be widened to examine the implications of undermining the international torture taboo and allowing the likely extension of the practice, the adverse effects on those asked to torture, and the undermining of the judicial system.
This context serves to present a strong case against morally condoning or legalising torture in any situation. It is argued by US officials that the scale and unpredictability of the threat, as well as the lack of human intelligence sources, make harsher interrogation methods a necessity. Pfiffner, 12; Mayer, Alan Dershowitz has argued that there would be public outcry in any democracy that failed to use all necessary means to prevent terrorist attacks. Meyer, For the US to allow, and even encourage, such a breach of human rights is severely weakening the norms prohibiting torture.
Countries that are dictatorships. Countries that are democracies. It occurs every day, in every region of the world. Men, women and even children are subjected to torture. In the vast majority of cases, there is no investigation of these crimes. No one is prosecuted for them. Torture is committed with impunity. Survivors who receive care at CVT endure chronic pain in muscles and joints, from being bound or hung or confined to small spaces like cages.
They have balance and mobility issues, often from being beaten on the soles of the feet or lower legs. They have a range of sleep disorders, from sleeplessness to intense and incessant nightmares in which the torturers revisit them night after night after night. They endure deep depression, severe anxiety and frequent thoughts of suicide. Torturers often focus on ways of inflicting grave pain that never leave a mark on the flesh: forced nakedness and sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, sensory overload, sensory deprivation and mock executions are among some of the horrific methods used.
One of the reasons that this fact is important is that it is abused. You hear this in connection with waterboarding. But we know, and medical experts have proven, that the psychological effects of torture are as devastating and long-lasting as physical effects.
These tactics are cruel and debilitating. James Mitchell himself acknowledged that most people would rather have their legs broken than endure waterboarding. At CVT, we work with survivors of torture committed by repressive regimes around the world. Many of our clients were highly successful in their lives, in business, in professional careers and in their communities. When one person is taken and tortured, the family learns immediately to be afraid, to be silent.
When a second person is tortured, the community quickly gets the message: you must do whatever the perpetrators want. Torture takes control swiftly. Torture creates such a climate of fear and insecurity that it fractures communities, silences dissent and suppresses civic engagement.
It creates cultures based on apathy and fear. This can be difficult to accept, but the fact is CVT clinicians work in many locations with children who have been tortured or survived war atrocities. In some cases, perpetrators capture children to force their parents to turn themselves in. In other cases, children are singled out for torture.
Parents describe watching their children being tortured and being powerless to protect them—a pain that they say is even more excruciating than their own torture. At CVT Ethiopia , where we see Eritrean survivors, over 40 percent of our clients are under 18 years old. One out of every four clients is a minor at CVT Jordan.
As the global refugee crisis grows, with over 65 million persons displaced today, the number of refugees who have survived torture is staggering. This is as many as 1. We also know that rehabilitative care is critical to rebuild lives of torture survivors. The long-term effects of torture can last a lifetime without proper care.
Many survivors suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD , major depression, anxiety and other severe mental health conditions, in addition to the painful physical symptoms of their torture. Many survivors tell CVT of the intense fear they confronted every day before getting help; this fear causes many to isolate themselves and remove themselves from the community.
Rebuilding a life is a journey, but one that results in success for survivors with the proper care. The CIA bears some of the blame for the way Trump—and the earlier candidates—see the issue.
In response, the CIA admitted mistakes were made. President Barack Obama also deserves some of the blame. The two remaining Democratic Party candidates have condemned torture in general terms, but neither has said they would prosecute those involved in the program who were acting on government orders.
Overwhelmingly, experts agree that torture produces unreliable information, and that it undermines attempts to get detainees to cooperate. They should do so because it is cruel and inhumane to abuse someone in custody. That is also why international conventions ban it, as do the laws of many countries, including the United States and Brazil.
Torture has destroyed the lives of detainees and done enormous damage to the reputation of the US. A version of this article was published in the print version of weekly magazine Carta Capital. Torture methods used on victims can be of both physical and psychological nature, such as prolonged solitary confinement or sleep deprivation.
Both psychological and physical torture complement each other causing severe pain to people who were affected by it. Infliction of physical torture is in most cases reflected in psychological consequences. Applying torture methods of these types on someone can directly damage their memory and cause an extreme psychological trauma. For example, if affected by one of these methods, victims may become so mentally broken that they might not even remember simple things such as their home address.
Similarly, victims who are deprived of sleep may become confused and disoriented, which can cause them to convince themselves in things interrogators are suggesting them and, in this way, produce false information. However, infliction of torture methods does not cause psychological trauma only to victims, but also to the torturers. Most often, state authorities and politicians who support torture are not the ones who inflict it personally.
They leave to others to enforce their policies and apply torture methods, which affects them on a psychological level by being rooted deeply within their brain circuit. This means that both victims and perpetrators face a range of devastating psychological consequences.
The use of torture physically destroys people. Torture methods, such as sham executions, rape, sexual assaults, humiliation and sleep deprivation often leave physical consequences on affected persons such as chronic pain in certain parts of body and inability to lead a healthy and prolonged lifestyle. For this reason, people who had been affected by torture should have access to redress such as medical care, reintegration into society, rehabilitation and counseling.
When states and governments use torture to achieve their goals, they often see it as necessary to provide some type of justification for its implementation. Governments and politicians must find ways to excuse and explain the use of torture, while those who publicly advocate for it must find arguments that would justify torture as a practice that is globally and universally regarded as immoral and condemned.
The prohibition of torture is enshrined in many conventions and declarations within the international human rights and humanitarian law. Similarly, it was established by the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols that serious violations of international humanitarian law, including torture and other inhuman treatment, constitute war crimes in both international and non-international armed conflicts.
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