Background:
Torture means the use of interrogation techniques and the power vests in the President to detain indefinitely, and with no need to bring charges to 'unlawful enemy combatant'. It may be the use of mind-altering drugs, an acceptable procedure that could not be construed as torture, to get information from the detainee about planned terrorist attacks.
In U.S. and other countries, several bills were proposed to allow the use of torture against terrorist or unlawful enemy combatant.
Use of torture must be allowed:
1. The State has the right to defend itself. Terrorism is detrimental to the welfare of the people and the State. Terrorism destroys hundred of lives and destroys the order of the society. The evil or harm sought to be prevented was greater than the torture to be inflicted to a terrorist.
2. Torturing terrorists suspects "may be justified" if it was "in order to prevent further attacks on different States".
3. Terrorism is not covered by any international treaty. The war on terror “renders obsolete” the Geneva Conventions’ strict rules on the interrogation of enemy prisoners. Geneva Conventions should not be applied to terrorist prisoners.
4. The use torture is not totally inhumane. There is no “specific intent” to cause long-term harm to a detainee. In Israel, where torture has effectively been made legal, use of "a moderate measure of physical pressure" was considered not inhumane.
Use of torture must not be allowed:
1. Torture deprives the person the right to due process. Torture penalizes the person without the benefit of judgment from court. No free man should be imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, or exiled save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. The State, in furtherance of its right to defend itself, cannot resort to acts that would negate the people’s bill of rights.
2. Torture is against the principle of non-brutality. No cruel, degrading, or inhumane punishment must be inflicted upon any person.
3. The use of torture will circumvent international guidelines on the torture of detainees like the Geneva Convention and various other international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
4. The policy of using torture will have a domino effect to the society. It will create a culture of violence and will further destroy the order of society.
1. Torture deprives the person the right to due process. Torture penalizes the person without the benefit of judgment from court. No free man should be imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, or exiled save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. The State, in furtherance of its right to defend itself, cannot resort to acts that would negate the people’s bill of rights.
2. Torture is against the principle of non-brutality. No cruel, degrading, or inhumane punishment must be inflicted upon any person.
3. The use of torture will circumvent international guidelines on the torture of detainees like the Geneva Convention and various other international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
4. The policy of using torture will have a domino effect to the society. It will create a culture of violence and will further destroy the order of society.
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