Essay on "Torture the Human Rights Situation"

Essay 4 pages (1161 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Torture

The human rights situation seems to have taken a new perspective post September 11. Tackling terrorism has gained precedence over every other issue. Today we have a situation where torture continues to be a much used weapon not only by terror outfits that have a failed moral compass but also by governments of civilized societies across the world. The horrific episodes of torture that came out of the Guantanamo bay detention camp for terrorists and suspected terrorists shocked the entire world driving a new debate on the use and abuse of torture in American terror detention camps. As a signatory of article 2(2) of the 1987 UN treaty that states '[n]o exceptional circumstances whatsoever[emphasis added] whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, maybe invoked as a justification of torture', [Sanford Levinson, pg 1] the use of torture by American investigators and law enforcement agencies has now come under moral purview with a heated debate among the public and policy makers. A brief overview of torture from a moral standpoint would help throw more insight into the topic.

Henry Shue argues that while combat killing and inflicting deaths on a battleground atleast have a moral justification of being a 'fair fight', torture is nothing but absolute and merciless infliction of pain on a defenseless victim. If international maritime laws do not permit killing surrendered opposition, then there is little doubt that torture by view of being an assault on a defenseless person, fails to be morally justifiable under any code of just war. If 'extraction of information' from the victim is the purpose of torture (interrogational torture) then the victim can find relief by condescending to the demands of the torturer. [Henry Shue] But according to Kantian moral absolutism torture cannot be justified under any pretext and so even the 'interrogational torture' is found lacking moral justification. As Thomas Nagel, the American philosopher stated in his essay 'War and Massacre', 'One could even say, as one bayonets an enemy soldier, "it's either you or me." But one cannot really say while torturing a prisoner, "You understand, I have to pull out your fingernails because it is absolutely essential that we have the names of your confederates'. [Sanford Levinson, pg 4]

There is also a problem of actually categorizing and defining torture. For instance, the Netherlands protested to the UN that the U.S. definition of torture "appears to restrict the scope of the definition of torture under article 1 of the convention." [Sanford Levinson, pg 6] This means that terror suspects can be subjected to 'inhuman and degrading acts' without being classified as torture. As Florencio Cabbellero, a Honduran torturer trained by U.S. military says, ' They make him stand up, don't let him sleep, keep him naked and isolated, put rats and cockroaches in his cell, give him bad food, serve him dead animals throw water on him, change the temperature. The Americans didn't accept physical torture' [Sanford Levinson, pg 7] Thus a distorted definition of torture could be used to evade appeals against human rights violation.

Moral justification of torture should satisfy some conditions. Torture should be the least harmful way towards a greater goal. Torture should have a particular end point and compliance from the victim should guarantee him freedom and relief from the torture. The greater goal that is mentioned may involve the potential to save countless lives or to avert a catastrophe. If by torture… READ MORE

How to Reference "Torture the Human Rights Situation" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Human Rights Violations by Multinational Corporation Research Proposal

Human rights violations are a problem throughout the world. These violations take place in both developed and undeveloped countries. In some instances these they are committed by government and in… read more

Research Proposal 22 pages (6004 words) Sources: 12 Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

David Cameron on Abolishing the Human Rights Act Essay

David Cameron

Guiding Legislation: Human Rights Act or British Bill of Rights

When British Prime Minister David Cameron originally called for the 'scrapping' of the Human Rights Act, it was… read more

Essay 10 pages (3098 words) Sources: 10 Style: Harvard Topic: Government / Politics

---

Gay and Lesbian Torture in Iraq and the International Human Rights Violations Term Paper

Torture and Abuse of Gays and Lesbians in U.S. Occupied Iraq

The United States has always presented itself as a model of fairness and equality. A champion of human rights… read more

Term Paper 25 pages (9056 words) Sources: 30 Topic: Sexuality / Gender

---

Torture: CIA Interrogation From the Cold War Research Proposal

torture: CIA interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror by Alfred W. McCoy. Specifically it will contain a book report on the book, including key points and… read more

Research Proposal 6 pages (2054 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA Topic: World History

---

What Is to Be Done? Term Paper

NThe Effectiveness of Human Rights

As humanity experienced progress, it became absolutely necessarily for society to function in agreement with certain basic laws in order to avoid that chaos. For… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1570 words) Sources: 6 Topic: Terrorism / Extremism / Radicalization

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>