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A Doctor Looks at Torture By Antoine Jacob Le Monde via Truthout http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,[EMAIL PROTECTED],36-370828,0.html Tuesday 29 June 2004 Cofounder of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) and coordinator of their activities in Denmark, Professor Bent Soerensen emphasizes that the December 10, 1984 United Nations' text supplies "a precise" and "universal definition" of torture: any act which produces "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental." At what point of intensity does this pain become "severe"? This is one of the most sensitive issues in the debate. According to this expert, doctors, however, have "no difficulty defining the border. If a person is slapped, the pain is not severe. It becomes severe in the case of punches or violent beatings with a stick, for example," he explains. "Most of the time, doctors will give the same answer as to whether pain is severe or not, even if there are rare borderline cases." The UN Committee against Torture, says Mr. Soerensen, which has convened for thirteen years, has never had any internal disagreements on this subject. With regard to mental suffering, he considers that the limits are also clear. "A person held in a cell where music is broadcast at full volume night after night is a victim of severe pain," he cites as an example. As with physical pain, psychic suffering "can be diagnosed with the same degree of certainty as any other sort of illness." For Mr. Soerensen, "limited or moderate torture does not exist." The second criteria: the pain must have been inflicted "intentionally and with a specific objective": to obtain intelligence or confession to commission of an act that the victim (or a third party) is suspected of. However, the objective being pursued could also be "to intimidate or pressure" the person. According to the IRCT expert, the acts committed against the detainees in Iraq- take, for example, the case of naked bodies photographed in the presence of women - are also acts of torture. Finally, the UN stipulates that for an act to qualify as torture, the severe pain must have been committed "at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity." According to the Dane, this concerns the private militias working for the American army in Iraq. The 1984 Convention finally stipulates that torture "does not extend to the pain or suffering resulting from legitimate punishments, inherent in or caused by them." This phrase was added to allow the Muslim states which follow sharia law -the punishments of which are similar to torture in the West - to sign the convention. Why was the definition limited to the sphere of the state, leaving by the wayside similar acts committed by political or armed movements? "Because the UN deals only with states. That's a restriction, of course," Mr. Soerensen regretfully adds. Translation: t r u t h o u t French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher. =========+========= FEEDBACK? http://nativenewsonline.org/Guestbook/guestbook.cgi WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Escribe archives http://escribe.com/culture/native_news/ Reprinted under the Fair Use http://nativenewsonline.org/fairuse.htm =========+========= Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Native News Online a Service of Barefoot Connection FREE LEONARD PELTIER!! "YOU ~ARE~ THE MESSAGE" Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nat-International/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
