Torture murder is a term given to the commission of torture by an individual or small group as part of a sadistic agenda. Such murderers are often serial killers, who kill their victims by slowly torturing them to death over a prolonged period of time. Torture murder is usually preceded by a kidnapping , where the killer will take the victim to a secluded or isolated location. Article 5 states "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
The most relevant articles are 1, 2, 3, and the first paragraph of article These are reproduced below:. In Section 1, torture is defined as "severe pain or suffering," which means there are also levels of pain and suffering which are not severe enough to be called torture.
Section 2 of the treaty states that if a state has signed the treaty without reservations, then there are "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever" where a state can use torture and not break its treaty obligations. However, the worst sanction that can be applied to a powerful country is a public record that they have broken their treaty obligations. Furthermore, Section 16 of the treaty contains the phrase, "territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," so if the government of a state authorizes its personnel to use such treatment on a detainee in territory not under its jurisdiction then it has not technically broken this treaty obligation.
The four Geneva Conventions provide protection for those who fall into enemy hands. Both treaties state in similarly worded articles that in a "non-international armed conflict persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms… shall in all circumstances be treated humanely" and that there must not be any "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture or outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment. In particular, article 17 states that "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever.
Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind. If a person is an enemy combatant in an international armed conflict, then they will have the protection of GCIII. If there is a question as to whether the combatant is unlawful or not, they must be treated as POW's "until their status has been determined by a competent tribunal" GCIII article 5. Even if the tribunal decides that they are unlawful, they will still be protected under GCIV Article 5 and must be "treated with humanity and, in case of trial [for war crimes], shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed by the present Convention.
There are two additional protocols to the Geneva Convention: Protocol I , which broadens the definition of a lawful combatant in occupied territory to include those who carry arms openly but are not wearing uniforms and Protocol II , which supplements the article relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. These protocols clarify and extend the definitions of torture in some areas, but to date many countries, including the United States , have either not signed them or have not ratified them.
The treaty included the provision for a court to interpret it and Article 3, Prohibition of Torture, stated, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Historical developments
In , the European Court of Human Rights ruled that techniques of "sensory deprivation" were not torture but were "inhuman or degrading treatment. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also explicitly prohibits torture and "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
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The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners states, "corporal punishment, punishment by placing in a dark cell, and all cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments shall be completely prohibited as punishments for disciplinary offenses. In times of armed conflict between a signatory of the Geneva conventions and another party, delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC monitor the compliance of the signatories, which includes monitoring the use of torture. The Istanbul Protocol , an official UN document, is the first set of international guidelines for documentation of torture and its consequences.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment CPT "shall, by means of visits, examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty with a view to strengthening, if necessary, the protection of such persons from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," as stipulated in Article 1 of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and the Association for the Prevention of Torture , actively work to stop the use of torture throughout the world and publish reports on any activities they consider to be torture.
Countries which have signed the UNCAT have a treaty obligation to include the provisions into domestic law. The laws of many countries, therefore, formally prohibit torture. However, such legal provisions are by no means a proof that the signatory country does not actually use torture.
To prevent torture, many legal systems have a right against self-incrimination or explicitly prohibit undue force when dealing with suspects. Torture was abolished in England around except peine forte et dure which was only abolished in , in Scotland in , in Prussia in , in Denmark around , in Russia in The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , of constitutional value, prohibits submitting suspects to any hardship not necessary to secure his person.
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Statute law explicitly makes torture a crime. In addition, statute law prohibits the police or justice from interrogating suspects under oath. The United States includes this protection in the fifth amendment to its constitution, which in turn serves as the basis of the Miranda warning that is issued to individuals upon their arrest. Additionally, the US Constitution's eighth amendment expressly forbids the use of "cruel and unusual punishments," which is widely interpreted as a prohibition of the use of torture.
Even after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in , torture was still practiced in countries around the world. It remains a frequent method of repression in totalitarian regimes, terrorist organizations , and organized crime groups. In authoritarian regimes, torture is often used to extract confessions, whether true or not, from political dissenters, so that they admit to being spies or conspirators.
Most notably, such forced confessions were extracted by the justice system of the Soviet Union thoroughly described in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 's Gulag Archipelago. Some Western democratic governments have on occasions resorted to torture, or acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, of people thought to possess information perceived to be vital for national security which cannot be obtained quickly by other methods.
An example is the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp of the U. Many countries find it expedient from time to time to use torture techniques; at the same time, few wish to be described as doing so, either to their own citizens or international bodies. So a variety of devices are used to bridge this gap, including state denial, "secret police," "need to know," denial that given treatments are tortuous in nature, appeal to various laws national or international , use of jurisdictional argument, claim of "overriding need," and so on.
Torture has been a tool of many states throughout history and for many states it remains so today. Despite worldwide condemnation and the existence of treaty provisions that forbid it, torture is still practiced in many of the world's nations. The use of torture has been criticized not only on humanitarian and moral grounds, but also on the grounds that evidence extracted by torture tends to be extremely unreliable and that the use of torture corrupts institutions which tolerate it.
The purpose of torture is often as much to force acquiescence on an enemy, or destroy a person psychologically from within, as it is to gain information, and its effects endure long after the torture itself has ended. In this sense, torture is often described by survivors as "never ending. Since torture is, in general, not accepted in modern times, professional torturers in some countries tend to use techniques such as electrical shock, asphyxiation, heat, cold, noise, and sleep deprivation which leave little evidence, although in other contexts torture frequently results in horrific mutilation or death.
Evidence of torture also comes from the testimony of witnesses. Although information gathered by torture is often worthless, torture has been used to terrorize and subdue populations to enforce state control. It was long thought that only evil people would torture another human being. Research over the past 50 years suggests a disquieting alternative view, that under the right circumstances and with the appropriate encouragement and setting, most people can be encouraged to actively torture others. For example, the Stanford prison experiment and Milgram experiment showed that many people will follow the direction of an authority figure in an official setting, to the point of torture, even if they have personal uncertainty.
The main motivations for this appear to be fear of loss of status or respect, and the desire to be seen as a "good citizen" or "good subordinate. Both official and peer encouragement can incite people to torture others. The processes of dehumanization of victims, or disinhibition, are social factors that can also contribute to torture. Like many other procedures, once torture becomes established as part of internally acceptable norms under certain circumstances, its use often becomes institutionalized and self-perpetuating over time, as what was once used exceptionally for perceived necessity finds more reasons claimed to justify wider use.
Torture is often difficult to prove, particularly when some time has passed between the event and a medical examination. Many torturers around the world use methods designed to have a maximum psychological impact while leaving only minimal physical traces. Medical and Human Rights Organizations worldwide have collaborated to produce the Istanbul Protocol, a document designed to outline common torture methods, consequences of torture, and medico-legal examination techniques. Typically, deaths due to torture are shown in autopsy as being due to "natural causes.
For survivors, torture often leads to lasting mental and physical health problems. Physical problems can be wide-ranging, and can include musculo-skeletal problems, brain injury, post-traumatic epilepsy and dementia, or chronic pain syndromes. Mental health problems are equally wide-ranging; post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety disorders are common.
Treatment of torture-related medical problems requires a wide range of expertise and often specialized experience. Common treatments are psychotropic medication such as SSRI antidepressants, counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, family systems therapy, and physiotherapy. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation.
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To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats. The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:. Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. Credits New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: History of "Torture" Note: Politics and social sciences Law Sociology Credited. Contents 1 Etymology 2 History of torture 3 Torture devices and methods 3.
He began by quarrelling with the civil and military officials, whom he treated in the most imperious fashion; he ended by the infliction of inhuman tortures and murder. F The Dutch court system operated in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka was also not immune of adopting capital punishment and torturous practices. The system of penal law which prevailed, and which was in accordance with the practice in Europe, was appallingly severe. For instance it is recorded that in an unfortunate Chetty who had been guilty of what today is regarded as merely a social offence, was sentenced to be hanged, his corpse to be put into a sack and cast into the sea.
However, this sentence was commuted, and instead, he was flogged under the gallows, branded, and banished for life. In a woman named Joana, who was found guilty of slave stealing, was strangled by being tied to a pole, her head was then sundered from her body, which latter was dragged to the public place of execution and stretched on the wheel and left there to be devoured by the fowls of the air. Breaking on the wheel was not customary, and instead it was usual to crush the thigh- bones of criminals with an iron club.
As a rule the death sentence was executed by the gallows and not by the sword; an accused person could not be sentenced to death till he confessed his guilt, and the difficulty this created was taken care of by torturing the man whose guilt was considered proved, till a confession was wrung from him.
Slavery is distinguished as one of the worst forms of cruel and inhuman treatment that has existed in human civilization. Many references pointed out the fact that Slaves were present in ancient and colonial Sri Lanka. Though detail documentation of practice of slavery in ancient Sri Lanka is not available it was shown that Buddhist monasteries in medieval times were the largest owners of slaves in Sri Lanka.
History of Torture
In fact, it records an actual instance in which slaves were purchased with gold belonging to a monastery. It also lists eighty-three slaves, in groups of families, as having been granted to serve the monastery in various capacities as cowherds, potters and tailors. The rest were sold for slaves with their wives and children. Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period s to VijithaYapa publications, Sri Lanka, ]. History often recounts the grant of men and women slaves with other movable property to temples.
Davy in his detailed account on the Kandyan kingdom17 describes how slavery was applied across the civilian life and the caste system. The debtor could not be sold, but if he died, leaving his children in slavery, they and their children might be sold. No interest was allowed to accumulate for the original debt, the labour of the slaves being considered an equivalent. In respect to slavery, there was no privileged caste; it was a punishment to which all insolvent debtors were liable.
THE HISTORY OF TORTURE IN ANCIENT SRI LANKA
The state of slavery is of course considered disreputable; by marrying a slave, a free woman would be utterly disgraced. The Dutch were involved in extensive slave trade across Indian Ocean and it was recorded that slaves most probably of non Ceylonese origin were found in Colombo in It could be seen that in many stages of the ancient and colonial history of Sri Lanka causing fear and terror among public had been the modus operandi of the administrators to maintain their policies and the survival.
This practice has been continued in the post independent Sri Lanka by all elected governments up to now. The 1st section of the Kandyan convention states as follows:. The Kandyan Convention could be considered as the first serious attempt in the recent history to eradicate torture in Sri Lanka. He was an Italian jurist, philosopher and politician who put forward the first modern argument against torture and death penalty.
The impression of pain, then, may increase to such a degree that occupying the mind entirely, it will compel the sufferer to use the shortest. His answer, therefore, will be in effect, as necessary as that of fire or boiling water; and he will accuse himself of crimes of which he is innocent. In effect this implies that the very means employed to distinguish the innocent from the guilty, will most effectually destroy all difference between them. However it is regrettable to note that even almost after two centuries of legislative and institutional developments Sri Lanka has still not shown a significant attempt to intervene and prevent torture in civilian life.
In , the Asian Human Rights Commission AHRC has published case narratives of police torture out of approximately torture cases reported to them from Sri Lanka between and The Lionel Bopage Story.
Geiger translation , page 74, at lines E. Ceylon and the Hollanders. An Account of the Interior of Ceylon. Agahas publishers Colombo, The Legal Heritage of Sri Lanka. SarvodayaVishvaLekha Publishers, Ratmalana, 6.
Methods and sequelae of torture. A study in Sri Lanka. Oxford University Press London, , p. Government Printer, Colombo , p. Ceylon and the Portuguese. American Ceylon Mission Press. Ceylon An Account of the Island. A History of Ceylon for Schools. The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon. A Short History of Ceylon. Macmillan and Company Ltd. University of Arizona Press, Ceylon and the Cingalese. The Words Oldest Trade. XX, pp An Essay on Crimes and Punishments. Translation of original fourth edition. Usliyanage Clifford Priyantha Perera is a senior lecturer and medico-legal specialist attached to the Dept.
He has completed post graduate studies at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine Melbourne Australia from He served as a clinical senior lecturer in forensic medicine at the Centre for Forensic and Legal Medicine, University of Dundee in United Kingdom during