THE word ‘torture’ comes from the Latin word ‘tortura’ i.e. to twist, torment, rack, or intimidate. The World Medical Association (1975) defines torture as 1‘ The deliberate systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on orders of any authority, to force another to yield information, or to make a confession for any other reason’.
THE United Nations convention against torture and punishment, adopted on 10th December 1984, defines torture as: ‘ Any act by severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on the person for the purpose as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or confession, punishing him for an act he or the third person has committed, or intimidation, or coercing him, or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by, or at the instigation of, or which the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions’.
TORTURE prevails everywhere in our society. The despotic character of socio-economic fabric uses torture as an essential instrument for its survival and for snuffing out any dissent. The present system of legal institutions in Pakistan sometimes requires doctors to participate or assist in the process of torture. This is an abuse to the medical profession, the basic purpose of which should be to save and protect human life and dignity.
THOUSANDS of individuals and families including a large number of refugees in Pakistan suffer from torture, starting from home to workplace, streets, academic and religious institutions and police stations and prisons.
IMPACT of torture can remain on the body, as well as the mind, long after the procedure has ended. The whole life of an individual is destroyed making it difficult for the victim to integrate into society.
TORTURE is administered through both physical and psychological means:
- Physical Torture may include beating, shoving suffocation, sexual torture, flogging, and insertion of objects in bodily orifices and witnesses of torture.
- Psychological Torture may involve humiliation, taunting, sleep deprivation, restricting the practice of one’s beliefs and religion, confinement to room and dark cells.
THERE are innumerable contradictions inherent in a given socio-economic system. The internal dialectical mechanism is to resolve these contradictions. If it is desired that the system remain static, the use of external force becomes necessary. This external force is of torture. In other words, torture is a means to maintain the status quo of the system.