Because of his firsthand experimentation and selection of many prisoners, Mengele is responsible for countless numbers of deaths. However, in advanced capitalist societies, the distribution of wealth helps to maintain a standard of living among torture essay citizens, torture essay, which diminishes the potential for internal violent conflict. Second edition. PATIOT ACT. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. part of the special wrongfulness of torture lies, then, torture essay, in the limitlessness of the extent to which the victim is at the mercy of the torturer, who never relents until he himself, for his own reasons, chooses to end the terror which this implants in the victim. There are still two camps in the American society.
Works Cited
Torture has been a tool of coercion for nearly all of human history, whether to instill fear in a population or torture essay people to convert, but almost all contemporary attempts to justify the use of torture revolve around torture as a means of extracting information from a victim. Used in this context, torture has a number of prominent advocates, torture essay, despite the fact that ample historical and experimental evidence suggests that torture is a particularly ineffective way of extracting information Cole,p. Despite its inefficacy, torture was a central element of torture essay United States' response to the terrorist attack of September 11th,and its supporters frequently invoked the image of a high-value target refusing to provide time-sensitive information.
egardless of these dramatic scenarios or even the question of torture's efficacy, it is possible to definitively demonstrate that torture is not acceptable under theories of ontological, torture essay, deontological, utilitarian, or…. References Angell, J, torture essay. Ethics, torture, and marginal memoranda at the DOJ office of legal counsel. The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, 18 3 Annas, G, torture essay. Unspeakably cruel - torture, medical ethics, and the law. The New England Journal. Torture Debate Torture Is Unacceptable Under No Circumstances Argument: torture is unacceptable because it is counterproductive Argument: torture essay is unacceptable because it is illegal Argument: torture is unacceptable because it is immoral Is Torture Ever Acceptable in Any ay?
Although torture has existed as long as human history, liberal democracies in the last two centuries began to argue against the use of torture in all occasions torture essay they began to see torture as a barbaric practice and morally repugnant. Nevertheless, even liberal democracies torture essay often resorted to torture in practice, especially in times of war. Although as a matter of policy, most democracies have banned torture and have signed international torture essay against the practice of torture and cruel punishments, torture essay, periodic wars and crises force some policy-makers to question the wisdom of banning all kinds of torture.
Thus, following the horrific attack on the United States on September 11, torture essay,members…. Works Cited Alvarez, Jose E. Academic Search Premier. Applebaum, Anne. Banbury, Jen. Blumenfeld, Laura. Torture The use torture essay non-lethal torture in torture essay possible criminals has always been an area of debate. It wasn't hot topic when the terrorist activities were kept at a down torture essay in the nineties. However, following nine eleven and the surge of terrorists, it became necessary to be torture essay of the activities they were up to. The major debate lies in the fact that whether a known terrorist should be subjected to non-lethal torture in order to attain information from him. There are questions whether these procedures should be mad into a law and the problems that would surface if it did.
The major conclusion is that non-lethal torture would be deemed fit in a case when the person is a known terrorist and is expected to cause chaos and damage, torture essay. Even through torture is morally wrong, in some cases it might go onto save thousands of people from dying. References Dershowitz, A. Should the Ticking Bomb Terrorist be tortured? In: Katherine, torture essay, M. et al. Civil liberties vs. Amherst, N. Y: Prometheus Torture essay, pp, torture essay. pg Drogin, B. And Miller, G. Spy Agencies facing questions of tactics. Los Angeles Times, torture essay, October Langbein, J. Torture and the law of proof: Europe and England in the ancien re-gime.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Torture essay and the Ticking Time-omb The Definition of Torture Inthe United Nations General Assembly produced an advisory measure known as the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Torture essay document specifically addressed torture from the perspective of governments and states, torture essay, while it also focuses on torture essay use of torture by any individual acting in an official capacity for said state or government. The document also addressed other forms of 'cruel and inhumane treatment'.
The definition of torture specifically…. Bibliography Dershowitz, A. Fourth road. Chapter 15 pp. Allhoff, F, torture essay. pdf Dershowitz, A. Tortured Reasoning. However, in truth, such incidences are rare and hence based on this pretext there is every danger that torture might become an administrative practice. There is every possibility that torture might become a systemic abuse tool. Thus torture essay if morally permissible conditions prevail can torture be pursued. Another popular perspective is that torture essay torture under a legal prism would make it a more effective tool as officials would only recourse to torture if the case seems really justified. If torture is accountable, then it becomes more justified.
Bibliography 1 Henry Shue, torture essay, 'Torture', Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol 7, no 2, Winter, -- 2 Kenneth Roth, 'Getting Away with Torture', Global Governance 11 3 Sanford Levinson, 'The Debate on Torture', Dissent Summer These logistical problems are only one source of error in Levin's argument, however. The idea of establishing guilt with certainty before using torture fits the utilitarian ethic; it ensures that any reduction in happiness or good to the terrorist is more than compensated for by the increased happiness in the terrorist's would-be victims. The other part of Levin's argument, that torture should only be used as a preventative and not a punitive measure, torture essay, also fits into utilitarianism.
Punishment and confession to past acts does not create nearly enough happiness or good to make up for the pain caused by torture. But these two conditions for the use of torture -- that it is practiced with complete certainty of guilt and that it is solely preventative -- cannot logically coexist. In order for guilt of a terrorist to be certain, the act of evil has to have already been committed, which…. The dilemma lies herein: neither of the two approaches is entirely wrong. The former, seemingly more humane, also seems impractical considering the fact that the overall dangers that hover the world today in the form of weaponry available and tactics designed are far advanced and devastating than anything else that has been witnessed in history.
Its impracticality lies in its overlooking the gravity of an attack and in how torture at the right time and towards the right link could prove to be the difference between mass destruction and liberty. The fact is that this idea cannot stand firm for long in the face of the dangers and perils that can be caused today. The latter approach, seemingly harsh, torture essay seems ignorant of the fact that terrorism or war is not restricted to any race, torture essay, religion or nation. Since the beginning of time, torture essay, every nation has looked for supremacy in….
References: Corrado, Raymond R. State Torture in the Contemporary World, torture essay. International Journal of Comparative Sociology. Volume: Krauthammer, Charles. The Weekly Standard. McCain, John. Torture's Terrible Toll. Torture. The Spanish Inquisition, torture essay, on the other hand, was meant to discourage heresy, but in the end was simply the murder of many innocent people. During Medieval times, torture was used as a form of public punishment and, most dreadfully, as not only a deterrent, torture essay also as entertainment. Torture is absolutely immoral. No conditions or circumstances would ever justify such terrible actions towards a person's fellow human beings. No crime or offense merits the terror, pain and humiliation inflicted upon a human being.
No purpose is high or important enough to justify such actions. Along with the rest of the civilized world, torture essay, I most strongly condemn this form of punishment. While the focus here is torture today, I am particularly horrified by the concept of torture as torture essay. It is the deliberate infliction of severe and unbearable pain upon another human being for the entertainment of others. It cannot…. Sung accomplishes the refutation by the simple means of refusing to allow Dershowitz to stand on his assumptions of what permits so radical a circumstance. For example, Sung directly addresses Dershowitz's claim that terrorists are not implicitly owed protection of human dignity rights by virtue of their activities.
Dershowitz does make a compelling argument for this but, as Sung points out, he is not actually enabled to take such a position because the Fifth and Torture essay Amendments have already made that decision Sung Due process is built into the law to protect all, and deliberately so; Sung implies, in fact, torture essay, that the protections are likely in place to avert just such extreme eventualities. Then, Sung challenges the use of judicial warrants as an inherently contrary action, aside from the fundamental illegality. To legally torture essay torture is, in Sung's view, to "legitimize" the practice, and this is clearly a catastrophic….
Works Cited Sung, torture essay, C. Dershowitz, A, torture essay. Even for the crime of murder without torturethe infliction of many tortures are worse than the crime. The moral justification for executing a murderer is much more obvious than the infliction of any punishment that is even worse from the perspective of the murder.
political essay examples
A very well-known philosopher - the late Elizabeth Anscombe - stood up and was counted when it came to ethics and human rights. In , Anscombe took offense to the suggestion that Oxford University should bestow an honorary degree on President Harry Truman. She along with others "opposed this because of his responsibility for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" O'Grady Although Anscombe and her colleagues were voted down by others at Oxford, "they forced a vote, instead of the customary automatic rubber-stamping of the proposal.
Works Cited Dryer, Alexander Barnes. O'Grady, Jane. Shane, Scott. These responsibilities notwithstanding, the American public was already being conditioned to view the war in Iraq as a battle against extremists, that is, against the Islamist radicals who had threatened the "American" way" of life on September 11, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson had already inflamed America's own Christian fundamentalists with talk that the terrible events of that day were to blame in part on "the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen. Homosexuality is condemned by Muslim fundamentalists as much as by their Christian fundamentalist counterparts.
Yet, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was reasonably tolerant of "discreet" gay and lesbian relationships. It was only with the emergence of radical Islamic…. Works Cited Gay. com Newscenter Staff. A www. First, torture is likely to elicit false confessions. This is true; torture is likely to illicit false confessions and false information. Apply enough physical pain to a person and one is likely to get false information. The Inquisition established that people will admit to things that are impossible being werewolves or witches in order to put a stop to physical pain. Therefore, while torture should be used to gain information, information elicited by torture should not be used in prosecutions. In the United States, the Fifth Amendment protects people from involuntary self-incrimination, a protection that has been construed as a means of preventing police brutality to elicit false confessions.
There is nothing incompatible with the idea of allowing the state to use torture to elicit emergency information but not allowing the state to use that information in a criminal trial. The impetus behind the use of torture is to prevent…. While the reader does not want to admit this could happen in the United States, after reading this book it does not seem so far-fetched, and that is a frightening, even unspeakable conclusion. The fact that the government condones these torture techniques is bad enough.
The situation at Guantanamo Bay underscores how deeply the government has delved into torture and other forms of detention that fly in the face of human rights and what is right and wrong. Many Americans may turn their backs on these practices, saying they are "necessary" for the time, but they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to losing human rights and our own personal freedoms. There is little difference between the torture techniques the CIA is using around the world, and many of the tactics the Soviets and many other dictatorships have used throughout the years.
The regime of…. Jones, T. Hicks 'severely damaged', says CIA expert. McCoy, a. A question of torture: CIA interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror. New York: Metropolitan Books. Wolff, B. Author explores CIA connections to torture tactics. Torture an Animal? While many people believe that animal testing is inhumane, many others see it as an important part of preserving human life. In my opinion, animal testing, due to the harsh nature of the process, should only be conducted if it is necessary to advance science and technology that may help save lives.
If I were working in a research lab and was involved in the development of a revolutionary skin graft that would save lives, I would definitely support animal testing for the product. In this case, animal testing would be a necessary process in testing the effects of the new development. Without animal testing, this development would not be approved by the government. As a result, millions of lives would be affected, especially those of accident victims that may be saved by the skin graft. While I am against torturing animals to test products like lipstick…. One of these methods is torture. From a utilitarian perspective, torture should be viewed as an unethical approach to problem solving. The main problem that can be identified from this approach is that it simply does not work.
A person who is being tortured cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Torture as a tool of procuring the truth, therefore, is…. Works Cited Fox, James. NY: Robert Appleton Company, Mill, J. On Liberty. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand, Sandle, Michael. NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, Public Policy Analysis The definitions of some terms, such as torture, are not clearly defined in law. Whether it is torture or not depends on the initial objective, not the actual actions. After the rules for interrogation were set, they were changed several times to implement more actions as being allowed for interrogation. Without terms being clearly defined, it opens the door for confusion and misconceptions as to the meanings of the terms and what is allowed and what is not allowed, or prohibited, by law.
Policies can be changed based on simple misconceptions that can make situations worse instead of bringing improvement. Chronology of Facts Numerous reports indicated slapping, kicking, beating, stripping of clothes, hands and feet chaining, dark cells, and extreme temperatures, among other actions. There were numerous reports that proved the abuse to the detainees did happen. Detainees were falsely imprisoned. Bibliography Friedrich, C. Public Policy and the Nature of Administrative Responsibility. In Stillman, Public Administration-Concepts and Cases p. Rosembloom, E. Policy Analysis and Implementation Evaluation, 7th Ed. Rosembloom, Chapter 8 pp. Torture: Often Morally Justifiable Given the events of the last ten-year, most notably U.
Military techniques in Abu Graib, the subject of torture is ever a popular one and ever controversial. For the purposes of this paper, torture will be defined as "the intentional infliction of extreme physical suffering on some non-consenting, defenseless, other person for the purpose of breaking their will. I note that a person might have been tortured, even if in fact their will has not been broken; the purpose of the practice of torture is to break the victim's will, but this purpose does not have to be realized for a process to be an instance of torture" Miller, Torture is all things that a civilized and peaceful society stands against.
Torture is not something which is at all palatable or which seems to be the actions of an evolved and just collective of people. References Miller, S. Is Torture Ever Morally Justifiable? Retrieved from csusb. pdf Newsherald. The use of torture can never be justified. Retrieved from newsherald. Deontology's Foil: Consequentialism. Retrieved from stanford. Mill, Kant, And Torture An Analysis of the Utilitarian and Kantian Arguments for and against Torture Alan Dershowitz expresses moral approval with reservations in his essay "Should the Ticking Time Bomb Terrorist be Tortured? But it also contains elements of Kantianism. hile a Kantian, however, could argue against the moral correctness of torture, Dershowitz steers the argument away from a Kantian perusal of the moral correctness of the argument through universality, which Dershowitz describes as a "slippery slope" , and concludes with a self-centered Utilitarian perspective that approves of torture as long as it meets specific criteria i.
In this paper I will analyze whether torture is morally acceptable from both a Utilitarian and a Kantian perspective and show conclusively how either could actually be used to argue for and against torture. The reason that both may be…. Works Cited Aristotle. Weaver, Richard. Ideas Have Consequences. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, Dershowitz, Alan. Congress Under a military commission's procedures and rules of evidence, the accused may present evidence, cross examine witnesses against him, and respond to evidence presented against him; attend all the sessions of the trial; and have the rights to counsel and self-representation. The bill does not grant him the right to see all the evidence against him to establish his guilt or innocence.
It authorizes the Secretary to determine what kind of evidence is admissible, including that obtained without warrant within or without the United States. It forbids the disclosure of classified information if deemed detrimental to national security. It authorizes a conviction if the accused enters a plea of guilt or with two-thirds concurrence of the commission members present. The Secretary determines the sentence to be imposed, all post-trial procedures and trial review U. Analysis of the ill S broadly defines "unlawful enemy combatant [Section….
Acknowledges Torture at Guantanamo; in Iraq, Afghanistan -- UN. AFX News Limited: Forbes. com, html CCR. Military Commissions Act of Center for Constitutional Rights, Even though the order promised prisoners would receive humane treatments, the Bush Administration said that Geneva Conventions was not applicable to them Goldsmith, , p. The Detainee Treatment Act, sponsored by Senator John McCain sponsored the Detainee Treatment Act, states that "no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider…an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the Department of Defence at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Part 6 -- What is the appropriate ethical professional response of the…. Letters: Psychological Ethics and National Security.
Retrieved from apadivisions. aspx American Pscyhological Association. APA Amends Ethics Code to Address Potential Conflicts. Retrieved from apa. aspx American Psychological Association. APA Ethics Committee Rules and Procedures. Retrieved from Apa. Saying it Again. Torture: Is It Morally Acceptable? Part 1: Introduction Is torture morally acceptable? There are several practical problems with torture—namely that confessions made under duress do not even hold up in a court of law, so to assume that any information obtained under duress would be authentic is to go against reason as used in courts of law. However, this paper will look at the morality of torture using the deontological position.
First, it will explain the deontological position. Then it will show that from…. References Mosser, K. Ethics and social responsibility 2nd ed. Harvard University Press. Sandle, M. NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Sen, A. Evaluator relativity and consequential evaluation. Micheal Levins "The Case for Torture In my opinion, Michael Levin's arguments in his essay, "The Case for Torture," cannot be sustained and are easily dismantled for the simple fact that they are not fully logical and are too much based on simple suppositions and false premises. I will be able in my essay to dismantle his arguments one by one, so as in the end to prove that the use of torture, under any circumstances, is not only immoral, unethical and illegal under international laws , but also impracticable.
In his essay, Michael Levin starts from a simple supposition: a terrorist has placed an atomic bomb in Manhattan, thus threatening the lives of millions of individuals. y a stroke of luck, he is caught in the morning of the fateful day, but "preferring death to failure, won't disclose where the bomb is. html 2. Buchanan, Pat. The case for torture. March shtml From the essay text. Can be found online at. The Rationale for and the Efficacy of Torture during Interrogation Although information from interrogational torture is unreliable, it is likely to be used frequently and harshly. Schiemann, Introduction The epigraph above is indicative of the growing consensus concerning the lack of efficacy of torture in providing interrogators with reliable concealed information Concealed information is the foundation of the majority of security issues.
In most cases, concealed information is a situation wherein one individual knows something that someone else does not know. Consequently, the majority of security issues could be resolved if there was a dependable method of determining those cases in which an individual was concealing information and extracting that information effectively. To date, though, there has not been a dependable method developed. This resulted in many countries rejecting majority if not all of the aspects regarding torture. However, torture is still being practiced in quite a few countries although they would rather not accept it in front of their own public or on the international level.
There are a number of devices that are being used in order to bridge this gap such as "need to know," country denial, using jurisdictional argument, "secret police," denying the torturous nature of the treatments, appeal to different laws, making claim regarding the "overriding need," and many more on. In the history and even today as well there are a lot of countries that have taken part in torture unofficially , what this means is that all of these countries have stopped their efforts in trying to stop this trend of torture and have started making use of this technique again Vreeland, United States in one…. References Levinson, Sanford Torture: A Collection. Oxford University Press, USA. Parry, John T. Understanding Torture: Law, Violence, and Political Identity.
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Reddy, Peter Torture: What You Need to Know, Ginninderra Press, Canberra, Australia. Schmid, Alex P. And Crelinsten, Ronald D. The politics of pain: torturers and their masters. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press. This last category includes the infamous waterboarding technique, which has -- in subsequent evaluations -- been labeled illegal torture. An important consideration in the evaluation of these techniques has been the additive impact of combining techniques to achieve an enabling condition or objective. In other words, in its memo to John izzo, the Acting General Counsel of the C.
Justice Department specifically prohibited some combinations of techniques and specifically permitted other combinations. Justice Department issued radical memos supporting or opposing the standard imposed by Congress for identifying torture. The harsh interpretation in asserted that the techniques used by the C. were not "cruel, inhuman or degrading," and so could not be considered to be torture. How would you validate the information received from a suspect that was deprived…. References Greene, C. And Banks, L. Ethical guideline evolution in psychological support to interrogations operations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 61 1 , Mazzetti, M. And Shane, S. Interrogation memos detail harsh tactics by the C. The New York Times.
hp [Type text]. Undoubtedly, this association is partially explained by his postwar notoriety, but the ubiquitous image of Mengele at the ramp in so many survivors' accounts has also to do with the fact that Mengele often appeared "off-duty" in the selection area whenever trainloads of new prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, searching for twins. From witness accounts, Mengele would even inject the children with diseases, which often provoked vomiting and diarrhea, or would subject them to cuts while strapped to a table. Because of his firsthand experimentation and selection of many prisoners, Mengele is responsible for countless numbers of deaths.
Furthermore, due to his orders, others were either tortured, maimed, or killed…. Works Cited: Evans, Nick. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. Encyclopedia Britannica. In other words, up until the middle of the 19th century, there were no cases of note or significance that indicated that the executive branch of the UNITED STATES government had the authority to render suspects or criminals to foreign locations outside of the explicit authority granted through a signed treaty with a foreign government. It was during the Civil War that the first major break with this established legal tradition was made. The incident involved the capture of a foreign citizen in New York City during wartime and performed by presidential authority alone. The man captured was Jose Augustin Arguelles, a Spanish subject, who captured illegal slave traders, claimed a reward, then sold the slaves to plantation owners.
Under Spanish law he was a criminal, but the United States had no extradition treaty with Spain. Despite having no legal authority to do so, Lincoln authorized the capture of the…. References Elsea, J. And Kim, J. Undisclosed UNITED STATES detention sites overseas: background and legal issues. CRS Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service. pdf Grey, S. Torture's tipping point. New Statesman, pp. Grey, S. Missing presumed tortured. Gutierrez, D. The extraordinary cruelty of "extraordinary rendition. A d the theoretical approach to legal reasoning that casts the most helpful light on judicial reasoning in determining whether or not evidence derived from torture should be admissible is legal positivism, as developed by H.
Hart's approach to legal positivism focused strongly on the relationship between the law and morality. One would be hard pressed to describe an area where the relationship between moral behavior and the law is more at issue than in a question involving torture. The question is especially salient when a country may not have any influence over interrogation procedures, such as when the United Kingdom is relying upon interrogations performed in other countries. However, Hart's rule of recognition articulates the point-of-view that social norms should not always be legal norms. There is no question that the prohibition against torture is a widespread social norm, as reflected by the common law, informal international law,….
They point out that if a suspected terrorist gets on a plane and gets off at a place like Copenhagen or Toronto and demands asylum, even if he is not granted asylum, he's pretty much got a safe haven to operate in because he can' be deported or extradited back to where ever he came from. They believe that such lenient 'European' laws create a huge gap in security, which need to be tightened and that human rights conventions such as the Convention Against Torture make it almost impossible for states to gain a reasonable and necessary degree of assurance against devastating attacks in an age of asymmetrical warfare against international terrorists.
Former U. officials such as Michael Scheuer, who helped to set up the CIA's rendition program during the Clinton administration, are more forthcoming about commenting on the nature and existence of 'extraordinary' renditions. Scheuer has in different statements…. Works Cited Begg, Moazzam. Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and 'disappearance. April 5, html Charter, David. November 29, February 5, ece Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Finally, torture is the best means to try to get this information from the suspect McCoy, Taken as a whole, these circumstances are so unlikely to occur that, even if the ticking bomb scenario would justify the use of torture, it has not ever occurred and, therefore, cannot be used to justify torture.
In fact, what many people who advocate in favor of torture fail to acknowledge is that while torture may be guaranteed to elicit information from even the most reticent of subjects, there is no reason to believe that torture will elicit truthful information. The theory behind torture is that, with the application of sufficient pain and fear, people will talk, and that does appear to be true in the vast majority of cases. However, it is more important to wonder what they will say than whether they will talk. References Armbruster, B. Obama's successful counterterror strategy. Torture, terrorism, and the state: A refutation of the Ticking-Bomb argument. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 23 3 , Gathii, J. Torture, extra-territoriality, terrorism, and international law.
Albany Law Review, 67, Retrieved March 19, from:. According to Kant, men cannot be used as a means to an end, even to achieve a positive action for a greater number of men and women: "For he whom I propose by such a promise to use for my own purposes cannot possibly assent to my mode of acting towards him and, therefore, cannot himself contain the end of this action. This violation of the principle of humanity in other men is more obvious if we take in examples of attacks on the freedom and property of others. For then it is clear that he who transgresses the rights of men intends to use the person of others merely as a means, without considering that as rational beings they ought always to be esteemed also as ends, that is, as beings who must be capable of containing in themselves the end of the very same action.
This is because, most suspects will more than likely only begin talking after they have been subject to extreme amounts of pressure. Evidence of this can be seen with Danner writing, "American officials acknowledged that such techniques were recently applied as a part of the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the highest ranking Al Qaeda operative in custody until the capture of Mr. Painkillers were withheld from Zubaydah, who was shot several times during his capture in Pakistan. However, during the process of obtaining this information is when they will have to use different tactics that will place physical and emotional pressure on the terrorist.
This is when they will begin to openly talking about future activities and plans. When you compare the…. Bibliography Danner, M. Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. New York: New York Review of Books. Wanchekon, L. The Game of Torture. Journal of Conflict Resolution 43 5 : Geneva Conventions Enacted after the horrors of World War II demonstrated the limitations of earlier treaties, the Geneva Convention of have become one of the preeminent international standards dictating the behavior of combatants and the treatment of individuals in the context of international and other conflicts, to the point that it has become a part of generally accepted customary international law.
Building upon three earlier treaties signed in Geneva, the Convention of outlined rigorous standards defining and governing the treatment of civilian and military prisoners, the wounded, and civilians found in and around the war zone. Over the course of the last decade, the centrality of the Geneva Convention to international war and politics has come to the fore as a result of debates surrounding the relevance of the Convention to the United States execution of the War on Terror, especially in regards to the treatment and detainment….
References Senior u. officials acknowledge waterboarding of three suspected terrorists; administration defends practice. The American Journal of International Law, 2 , Bellamhy, A. Security and the war on terror. New York: Routledge. Bugnion, F. The geneva conventions of 12 august From the diplomatic conference to the dawn of the new millennium. International Affairs, 76 1 , Latin America In Ariel Dorman's play Death and the Maiden, Paulina has obviously been deeply traumatized by her experience of being tortured by former military regime of this Latin American country, and is definitely not prepared to peacefully coexist with those who committed atrocities against their own people.
Although the country is never named specifically, anyone familiar with the history would recognize it as Chile, which had been ruled by General Augusto Pinochet in Nowhere does the play mentioned that Pinochet was installed in a coup by the Central Intelligence Agency and supported by the United States government, or that the U. has continued to lie about these events up to the present. As part of the transition to democracy, also brokered by the U. government, the members of the former regime received an amnesty so that they could never be prosecuted. Paulina is one of the victims of…. Pinochet's Case is Not Yet Satisfying to Chilean and Human Rights Activists Although hampered by internal constraints and challenges, the nation of Chile stands poised to enter the 21st century as a major player in the world's international community.
On the one hand, the sound economic policies that were first implemented by the Pinochet dictatorship resulted in unprecedented growth in ; these policies have also helped secure the country's commitment to democratic and representative government. On the other hand, General Augusto Pinochet has been found guilty of the torture, disappearance, and murder of thousands of Chileans, including international citizens, but he has not yet been brought to justice. After Patricio Aylwin inaugurated a democratic presidency in , he continues to bring excuses for Pinochet's actions or exercises control to avoid facing justice. Pinochet declared himself as Commander of Chief of the Army and afterwards, Senator for life in Chile.
Works Cited Blakesley, Christopher. Ensalaco, Mark. Chile Under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth. Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, Facts on File. Multnomah County Library, Portland, Oregon. Hawkins, Darren. Also, the death penalty still in use in a great deal of countries might provide another subject for debate from the point-of-view of human rights. A minimalist set of human rights, meant only to keep people safe from humiliation and pain cannot be effective. This is mainly because while certain human rights seem to be of little necessity, they are actually indispensable. Economic, civil, and political rights are of great importance because they assist society's interests.
Human rights are not likely to have any decisive effect in international relationships, and they are also not expected to be of any use when it comes to the stopping perpetrators from breaking the law. The best thing to do in order to make the world a better place would be to promote the concept of good, so as to influence the masses into contributing to preserve human rights. orks cited: 1. Forsythe D. Works cited: 1. Foreign Policy and Human Rights in an Era of Insecurity," Wars on Terrorism and Iraq: Human Rights, Unilateralism, and U. Foreign Policy, ed. Thomas G. Weiss, Margaret E. Crahan, and John Goering. Ignatieff M. Appiah K. Gutmann a. Human rights as politics and idolatry. Princeton University Press. Ramcharan B. A UN High Commissioner in Defence of Human Rights: "No License to Kill or Torture.
CONADEP In , life changed dramatically in Argentina. On March 24, , a military coup took place. In an attempt to wipe out all dissenting opinion, they began a campaign of terror where thousands of people literally disappeared. The testimonies of the survivors of torture and kidnapping are brutal to read. The methods used to torture them; including electrical prods and live burials left lasting scars, both physical and mental on these survivors. The patterns in these testimonies are all the same. The torturers were sadistic and brutal, and would stop at nothing to get the information they wanted.
They tortured loved ones in front of their family members, they took whole families from their homes, and they killed thousands with no remorse. The patterns are patterns of extreme violence, and the violence seems to stem from fear. They feared the recriminations of the left-wing dissidents, they feared their reaction…. Road to Guantanamo The docudrama, the Road to Guantanamo, the film by Matt Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom provided a unique look at the complexities and difficulties of enforcing international cooperation. This thrilling tale of the now famous "Tipton Three" British men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin who, through a combination of poor decision-making and violations of international law, allows the viewer to examine these modern problems using the war on terrorism as a means of telling the story.
The purpose of this essay is to examine this film and highlight five separate violations of international cooperation using the articles of the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a guide and authority of the discussion. The first violation of international cooperation is evident at the beginning of the film. The film is taking place under the conditions at the beginning of the war on terror in…. Terrorists operate like spies and not like soldiers. For this reason, terrorists are not regarded as members of the combat concerning the conventions and treaties that ban torture. Therefore, it is normal for them to be given a different treatment when they are captured. This approach suggests that terrorists undertake actions that exclude them from protection from torture as indicated in treaties such as the Geneva Conventions Hall Their actions justify the argument that terrorists should not be given the legal protection normally given to other citizens on the foundation of law.
Moreover, terrorism has created the foundation of the global context that provides justification to the suspension of the rights of suspects. People who are suspected to assist terrorists or to be part of terrorism groups do not belong to humanity. Therefore, it is possible and necessary for them to be tortured if this is the only means…. Works Cited McCormack, Wayne. Understanding the Law of Terrorism. New York: Lexis Nexis, Print Hall, Simon. Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the s. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, While the medical field agrees that prolonged suffering is not a desired product of medical care it has not yet reached the point of accepting that it is actually torture.
Making someone endure the fevers, the pain, and the physical maladies that come with many of the life ending diseases today is actually a form of torture. It makes a person suffer against their will and at the hands of someone else, in this case the medical community. More recently there have been strong arguments in courtrooms regarding Euthanasia and the right to choose to die now rather than later after…. The Humanist. Banality of Evil What is the relationship between the banality of evil and the ordinariness of goodness? Justas the 'banality of evil' was committed by apparently ' regular' ordinary' people who proceeded with the premise that their actions were acceptable based on their indoctrinations or cultural teachings as e.
By the third eich and, therefore, 'evil' lost its maliciousness and became ordinary, so too, as per David Blumenthal , goodness is also normalized and becomes banal through systems of social hierarchy, education, and childhood discipline that shape both good and evil attitudes and actions. How do both torturers and the tortured come to terms with their circumstances? Are their similarities between these processes? Torture not only causes pain to the body but can also cause associated damage and corruption to the psyche. The torturer, on the other hand, may not experience physical pain but will certainly experience the same damage….
References Blumenthal, D. Conroy, John, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture, Alfred A. Knopf, The United Nations Human Rights System. a Changes in APA Public Policy According to several changes made in APA Public policy with relation to the role of psychologists in the interrogations session, APA has prohibited its psychologists from taking part in the varied torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading interrogation techniques by stating, "No psychiatrist should participate directly in the interrogation of persons held in custody by military or civilian investigative or law enforcement authorities, whether in the United States or elsewhere. Direct participation includes being present in the interrogation room, asking or suggesting questions, or advising authorities on the use of specific techniques of interrogation with particular detainees Pope, , Psychologists at the Center of the Controversy.
Furthermore, since APA complies with United Nations definition of human rights, it can be implied that APA's definition of human rights includes universality and inalienability. The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in , has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions UNHR, Hence, APA recognizes humans to have rights which cannot be taken away APA, Impact of U. Policies on Detainees Where treaties like Geneva Convention and convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, prohibit any inhumane behavior resulting into physical and mental distress, there are no governing bodies to supervise the law and order agencies as an organization like APA has been.
Even if the torture of these people would save lives it is a slippery slope that we do not want to begin. Once we allow the torture of suspects or terrorists it could begin a landslide witch-hunt in which people who are not terrorists and have not committed any crimes could be tortured based on suspect or circumstantial evidence. While there is justified outrage at what happened in this country we, as Americans, must maintain our ethical standards at all times. It is only by maintaining these standards that we can hope to set and example worldwide about the strength and dignity of our nation and all that it stands for. The history of "just war" philosophy stems from religious and secular issues. One of the longest standing Just War traditions centers on religious differences including the differences between Muslim and Christian faiths.
In addition the "Just War" theories support…. Guantanamo: A Complicated Issue Guantanamo Naval prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been a controversial topic among American citizens and politicians ever since information surfaced about detainees being held indefinitely without charge and possibly tortured while incarcerated there. President Obama made it a key issue in his campaign, vowing to close it when he became president. He seemed to be making good on his promise in December of , when he signed an Executive Order demanding the transfer of remaining prisoners to other facilities or to foreign countries and the permanent closure of the prison camp.
But as of , the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay remains open. There are several difficult issues that complicate Obama's ability to close "Gitmo," as it is sometimes called. One of the central pillars of the court process in the common law system of justice is built on the bedrock assumption that coercive interrogation works. All people in common law countries must give evidence in court when subpoenaed to do so. This is even when they have no connection to the case, apart from having to be a witness to a relevant event. Many people have no desire to get involved in any form of litigation. It is often stressful and nearly always time consuming. Sometimes it puts them at risk of reprisal by a party to the proceeding. Despite this, they are always forced to give evidence under threat of imprisonment if they do not provide relevant information.
It is assumed that this coerced evidence is truthful Barnet et al. Therefore, the argument that torture never works is unsupportable. Rather, the most accurate assessment of the efficacy of torture as an information-gathering device is that it will sometimes fail, while, on other occasions, it will succeed. However, torture should not be mistreatment for punitive reasons and the suspect should have the relevant information. It transpires that even the most effective torture techniques only elicit the relevant information in a small number of cases. For the torture to be justified, it would mean that the plus side of the scales would need to be heavier than the negative side. In the case where thousands of lives were at stake, even 20 percent likelihood that torture would be effective would justify its use.
Ultimately, one cannot be guaranteed that torture will work in any given instance, but one can be virtually certain that doing nothing will fail when faced with an imminent catastrophe. According to Hickman , he believed that torture is more efficient than other forms of punishments in obtaining the relevant information and enhancing national security. The utilitarian-expediency argument is that one has to be kept in prison for a long time in order to achieve the desired punitive and deterrent goals of the state. However, if torture can achieve these goals in a shorter period, torture is justified regardless of the mental pain of time and the long-term effects associated with being subjected to torture. Consequently, it is not that faith and values frames do not also apply; it is that torture is inseparable from the national security of the Americans.
It is just a fundamental truth that Americans, and American policymakers, perceive torture in this context. It is not disputing the enormity of the moral implications of torture; rather it is that framing opposition to torture in terms of moral or religious imperatives is vital. However, it does not remove torture from the national security context. In an attempt to combat these real and supposed threats, state may adopt a policy of torture. In this case, the vital goals of torture are to maintain the authority of those in power by systematically destroying those who are a threat to them and to intimidate all others into conformity. In order to legitimize the use of state torture, the authorities frequently point to a history of violence against the state, real or imagined.
This violence takes the form of insurgency, guerilla operations, or terrorist attacks. As part of the threat assessment approach, people can be subjected to torture, not because of criminal acts that they have performed or are planning to perpetrate. However, as they hold political or religious beliefs that are deemed dangerous to the state, they cannot deliver the stated goals within the stipulated time framework Rejali In addition, any possible threat to the state enables the authority to create a purpose and a justification for the implementation of a torture policy. The state sanitizes torture in the eyes of the public. Torture is necessary in protecting the society from internal and external threats. The state determines the legitimate targets of torture by successfully applying negative labels to certain groups or individuals.
Torture, therefore, must be seen as an expression of state power and a method of constituting and expressing the domination of the state over its subjects. For instance, it has been argued that the detainees from the War on Terror held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba possess little valuable, actionable intelligence. Given this, it appears that deterrence and control are the primary motivations behind continued use of torture. In effect, the use of torture serves to transform an individual into the enemy. This transformation is perhaps the most vital aspect for torture. Another central economic factor related to the utility of state torture is the distribution of wealth within the country.
