Today, on UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, there will be far too many voices we won’t hear, namely the voices of those who are being tortured and continue to be imprisoned. Amnesty International’s latest annual report teaches us that torture is practiced in more than 100 countries. Nora Sveaass, member of UN´s Committee against Torture, analyses the difficulties in the fight against torture and today´s rays of hope. (26-JUN-06)
Nora Sveaass, Member of the UN’s Committee against Torture and council member and former Secretary General of ISHHR, member of the Human Rights House in Oslo. This article first appeared in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. It was translated and edited by HRH / Ralph Pluimert
Torture is defined as consciously inflicting serious physical or psychological pain on someone in order to acquire information, punishing a person for things s/he or another person has done, or to affect that person or a group. Torture is acts that are carried out with the assent of a civil servant or another person who works for a public body. Torture is, in other words, a systematic and severe violation of people’s integrity with serious psychological and social consequences.
The international prevention of torture is built on four pillars – the absolute ban on torture, the rights to rehabilitation and compensation for those affected, that those responsible are being held responsible and that torture must be banned. Because torture by definition represents violence against humanity and a collapse of values, it is important to search for rays of hope.
Today, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is ratified by 141 states. This means that 141 of UN’s 191 states have pledged to respect the requirement of an absolute prohibition, including article 2, which states that no circumstance can legitimise the use of torture. For a long time, the absolute ban on torture has been a corner stone in all human rights discourse, but after the 2001 terror acts and the implementation of a set of anti-terror laws and measures, this principle is under severe pressure.
For the first time in many years, questions have been raised if torture nevertheless should be allowed in certain circumstances, and the world has seen grotesque examples of torture against prisoners as a link in the war on terror. The answer of the question is still no, and on this day, the opportunity is once again used to state that one can not tamper with the ban on torture. The work against terror must be done within the existing legal framework. UN’s latest special representatives on torture, Theo van Bowen and Manfred Nowak have both been very clear in their statements that there are no excuses for torture and terror cannot be fought with torture, rather the opposite.
Torture must be hindered and the international community must be given more capacity to do so. On the international day in support of victims of torture, it is good to observe that this work has recently made a large and important step forward. Exactly four days, 22 June 2006, the so-called OPCAT (Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture) came into effect after being ratified by 20 states. The purpose is to contribute to hindering torture by establishing a system which can visit prisons and other closed institutions both nationally and internationally. Active follow-up and overview will be made possible. Norway has signed this protocol early but is not among the 20 countries that ratified it. Let this be an invitation to the Norwegian authorities to do this on this international day. Left: Nora Sveaass
