Definitions of torture

Definitions of torture

Definitions of torture

Most people define torture as deliberately inflicting pain on another person, and tend to leave it at that.

They would probably go along with the World Medical Association's very wide definition of torture contained in the Tokyo Declaration of 1975 as:

The United Nations definition of torture is more restrictive and includes the following ingredients:

• Inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering
• Doing so deliberately
• For any of the following reasons (this is an illustrative list, not an exclusive list)
  • To obtain information or a confession from the person being tortured or from someone else
  • To punish that person for something they, or another person, has done or is suspected of having done
  • To intimidate or coerce that person or another person
  • For any reason 'based on discrimination'
• A 'public official' or a 'person acting in an official capacity' must either inflict the pain, instigate the action, or agree to it being carried out
  • This element isn't essential to the ethical debate - an act might still be torture without 'public officials' being involved
• The actions must not be part of a 'lawful sanction'
  • This is a pretty obvious loophole and is not part of the ethical debate - one might want to argue that a legal punishment amounted to torture and so ought to be made illegal.

United States law gives more details of precisely what forms of mental torment should count as torture:

'severe mental pain or suffering' means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from -

• the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
• the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
• the threat of imminent death
• the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;

U.S. Code: Title 18: Section 2340