Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, like slavery and genocide, are always wrong. This principle was established many years ago, and is enshrined in international law.

Everyone has the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (‘other ill-treatment'), according to Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted over 60 years ago by the United Nations.

Amnesty International has documented torture for decades, and it persists in countries around the world. Actions in recent years taken by states in the name of counter-terrorism threaten to weaken respect for the absolute prohibition and show the need to reinforce understanding of its importance, and ensure the enforcement of the prohibition.

Consensus against torture under threat

Some of the measures that governments have taken in response to the attacks of 11 September 2001, as well as attacks or the threat of attacks in other countries since then, have amounted to a serious assault on the framework of human rights protection. States have used torture and other ill-treatment and have tried to justify this in the name of security, and to confering impunity on the perpetrators.

Some have sought to avoid their obligations and responsibility by conceding that "torture" is wrong and illegal, while at the same time trying to introduce definitions of "torture" and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" at the national level that exclude particular techniques or circumstances.

US authorised torture, still no accountability

When he took office on 20 January 2009, President Barack Obama inherited a legacy of torture, impunity and unlawful detention.
 
The previous US administration authorised "enhanced" interrogation methods – including stress positions, prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation and simulated drowning – that constitute torture or other ill-treatment under international law.

The US government has operated a programme of rendition – transferring individuals suspected of terrorism from one state to another without due process, including to countries where they face a real risk of torture and other ill-treatment – as well as a program of secret detention, in which detainees have become victims of enforced disappearance.

One key way to ensure torture is eradicated is to ensure there is full accountability whenever it occurs: that the full truth of what happened is disclosed, that perpetrators are prosecuted, preventive measures are put in place and victims are given redress.

Although the US administration has since banned the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques, these crucial next steps have not been taken. Governments around the world complicit in the US program have also failed to ensure accountability. There have been positive developments in Europe, particularly in terms of further revelations of European states' involvement in violations associated with the US program, and investigations in Poland, Italy, Germany and elsewhere. Relatively little has been done by European states, however, in terms of accountability, remedy, or measures to prevent recurrence.
 
Deals with states that torture

Other states around the world have contributed to weakening the international prohibition of torture by seeking to forcibly transfer detainees to countries where they are at real risk of torture.

Governments in countries including the United States, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, the UK and Sweden have sought and accepted "diplomatic assurances" from receiving states that detainees will not face torture or other serious human rights violations.

These "assurances" are essentially unenforceable promises and, in accepting them, the sending state effectively acknowledges the torture of other detainees in the receiving country. In cases where the promise of proper treatment has been broken, the individuals involved have suffered drastic consequences.

Rather than asking for exemptions for a few individuals, states must instead work together to ensure that all torture and other ill-treatment end. Diplomatic assurances should be condemned and abandoned.

Old patterns of repression, new rhetoric

Torture and other ill-treatment are not new. But, in countries across the world where torture and other ill-treatment were rife before 2001, governments can only be encouraged by the new climate of tolerance towards such abuses.

The Saudi Arabian authorities, for example, have launched a sustained assault on human rights in the name of security and fighting terrorism. Thousands of people have been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy; others have been killed in uncertain circumstances in what the authorities say were clashes with the security forces. Hundreds face secret and summary trials and possible execution.

Anti-terrorism measures adopted by the government since 2001 have exacerbated long-standing patterns of human rights abuse.

What needs to happen?

All states must:

• Condemn all forms of torture and other ill-treatment and speak out against governments that perpetrate, are complicit in, or fail to act against such abuse;

• Prevent these practices;

• Bring to justice those responsible for authorising and inflicting torture and other ill-treatment;

• Ensure that information obtained by torture or other ill-treatment cannot be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of abuse as evidence of the abuse.

Explore this issue in greater detail:

Find out more about torture in our information sheet No Hiding place for torture

USA: A case to answer: from Abu Ghraib to secret CIA custody (Report in pdf, March 2008)

Tunisia: Torture, Illegal detention and Unfair trials (Information sheet, May 2008)

Jordan: ‘Your confessions are ready for you to sign': Detention and torture of political suspects (Report, 24 July 2006)

Algeria: Torture in the 'war on terror': A memorandum to the Algerian President (Report, 18 April 2006)