Torture is outlawed in international law and forbidden in the laws of many countries. The UN Convention against torture reinforces this.
Torture and the law
Torture and the law
Torture and the law
The United Nations bans torture completely:
No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, United Nations, 1984
Torture is outlawed in international law and forbidden in the laws of many countries. The Convention against torture reinforces this by insisting that states should either extradite or prosecute alleged torturers within their boundaries, regardless of where their crimes took place.
Some countries explicitly forbid the use of evidence obtained by torture in any legal proceedings.
Torture is banned by the ethical codes of many professional organisations - particularly medical organisations.
When torture 'isn't really torture'
A US government memo suggested a very narrow definition of torture ©Some states have defended the use of torture in particular cases, denied that inflicting pain in those cases amounts to torture, or narrowed the definition of torture to exclude many things that most people would class as torture.
(NB: The document in the following example has now been completely superseded and no longer represents US policy.)
A 2002 US government Department of Justice memorandum narrowed the definition of torture to include only the most extreme pain:
We conclude that for an act to constitute torture as defined in Section 2340, it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure.
Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.
For purely mental pain or suffering to amount to torture under section 2340 it must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g. lasting for months or even years...
...In short, reading the definition of torture as a whole, it is plain that the term encompasses only extreme acts.
US Department of Justice interrogation memo, 1 August 2002
The memorandum also stated that for a person to be guilty of torture the infliction of severe pain must have been that person's precise objective.
Thus, even if the defendant knows that severe pain will result from his actions, if causing such harm is not his objective, he lacks the requisite specific intent even though the defendant did not act in good faith.
Instead, a defendant is guilty of torture only if he acts with the express purpose of inflicting severe pain of suffering on a person within his custody of physical control.
US Department of Justice interrogation memo, 1 August 2002
The same document then went on to say that the US law banning torture did not apply:
to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.
US Department of Justice interrogation memo, 1 August 2002
and went on to say that even if a case of torture did survive those limitations, the torturers could find a legal defence:
We conclude that, under the current circumstances, necessity or self-defense may justify interrogation methods that might violate Section 2340A.
US Department of Justice interrogation memo, 1 August 2002
The 2002 memorandum has now been completely superseded by a 2004 memorandum, which stated:
we disagree with statements in the August 2002 Memorandum limiting "severe" pain under the statute to "excruciating and agonizing" pain, or to pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death,"
US Department of Justice interrogation memo, 30 December 2004
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