Human rights in times of conflict
With the recent headlines that both the rebels and the Syrian government have committed war crimes by attacking civilians through torture, rape and indiscriminate attacks, I thought I would write about the use of torture.
Article 5 in the United Nations Statement on Human Rights declares that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This seems like a noble and fair statement for all civilized countries to follow, but how many do. In my position against the use of torture, I will discuss three areas. First, the use of torture is not as effective as many believe. Second, torture dishonors a country, especially if that country is built on morality. Third, will torture only be reserved to a countries enemies or will governments use torture on their own citizens?
To understand what torture consists of, let us review Title 18 of the United States Code. Torture is defined as inflicted pain that is difficult to endure. This covers both physical and mental torture. For physical pain to be considered torture there must be organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death. Mental torture must produce psychological harm of significance lasting months or years.
It is believed that torture or enhanced interrogation techniques produce crucial information in the fight against terrorism and that information derived under torture is accurate and saves lives. I believe this is false. Any information gathered due to torture is coerced information. Those who are tortured will tell their captors whatever they want to make the pain stop. In an age of technology governments have satellites and computer systems linked to every facet of human activity. There should be no need for medieval tactics to gather information.
The use of torture by the any government should be stopped. Advances in technology provide a nonviolent way of collecting information. Countries possessing the technological means should lead by example in eliminating torture. Not only are governments to blame for the continued use of torture, but its citizens have a voice in stopping it. Torture is not limited to wartime situations. Physically and mentally targeting peaceful demonstrations or groups of people is by definition a form of torture.
