Newswise — Torture has been practiced in recent decades by more than 98 percent of nations that experience any political violence, including Western democracies, according to testimony from a University of Maryland researcher. A second Maryland expert adds that torture is rarely an isolated incident and ends up being institutionalized and used broadly.
The experts presented their research at a field hearing conducted by the Helsinki Commission - a U.S. Government agency that monitors human rights. The hearing posed the question: "Is it Torture Yet?"
Christian Davenport Testimony: Torture is Ordinary http://newsdesk.umd.edu/Helsinki/davenport.cfmhttp://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521864909
"Torture remains widespread," said Christian Davenport, author of a new book "State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace," and a University of Maryland political scientist who has extensively researched human rights violations. "Existing data show that roughly 80% of the countries in the world tortured at least one person in the government's control in any given year over the period from 1981-1999." Davenport conducted the research along with colleagues Will Moore (Florida State) and David Armstrong (a Maryland graduate student now at Oxford University).
While less likely to engage in torture, liberal democracies are not immune. "When at least one group commits at least one act of violence, countries with institutions that support liberal democracy are effectively just as likely to use torture as countries that do not have such institutions... Democracies have responded by innovating 'clean' methods of torture that do not leave permanent marks or other evidence of pain or physical trauma." In short, he says, "the peace brought by democracy is not bulletproof."
In the face of a violent challenge, the use of government torture rises to at least 98 percent of countries: "It is quite likely that this figure is something of an underestimate!" Davenport said. Once started, torture practices are hard to stop. A strong judiciary and independent legislature help. But preliminary research shows that civil society "is the most important determinant for stopping torture once it gets started"¦. I urge this Commission to continue to reach out to non-governmental organizations as they are the primary vehicle for strengthening civil society, especially in the area of human rights," Davenport said.
Christian Davenport: http://www.christiandavenport.comUniversity of Maryland, professor of government and politics Director, Radical Information Project and Stop Our States Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Centre for the Study of Civil War , Visiting Scholar
Thomas Hilde Testimony: Unreliable, Torture Must Be Used Broadlyhttp://newsdesk.umd.edu/helsinki/hilde.cfm
Recent advocates of torture use claims of necessity and the moral importance of information it can provide as a justification. Yet information gained from torture is "notoriously unreliable," and so in practice torture is rarely an isolated procedure, says University of Maryland research professor Thomas Hilde, who edited the forthcoming book, On Torture. He specializes in international social, political and environmental ethics. He specializes in international social, political and environmental ethics.
Advocates invoke the 'ticking time bomb' as an example of the need for torture " often the hypothetical case of a terrorist who has planted a nuclear dirty bomb and must be tortured to reveal its location before it explodes. Hilde rejects this example as a "crude utilitarian justification for the use of torture: torturing one bad man vs. saving many innocent people"¦.More likely"¦is the case of torturing many innocent people in search of what might justify the act of torture."
To be effective, torture must be used broadly in order collect patterns of information as a means of corroborating bits of data. Single bits of coerced information must be verified. "How does one know when one has meaningful or true information?" Hilde asks. "The information must... be previously unknown in order to justify using torture. Yet, its moral significance must also be previously known in order to justify the act."
Torture becomes institutionalized, Hilde maintains, by the very logic of information-gathering. "There must be trained interrogators/torturers and thus also trainers, a legal and administrative apparatus, a cadre of doctors and lawyers and data analysts, and others, all of whom would be required to suspend their moral decency"¦.We end up with a swelling institution in search of its moral justification, causing increasing damage to innocents and ourselves, all in search of the supreme moral justification - the time bomb - only to find that, in the end, it is we who have become the moral equivalent of the time bomb."
Thomas Hilde: http://www.puaf.umd.edu/facstaff/faculty/Hilde.htmlResearch ProfessorUniversity of Maryland School of Public Policy
Senator Cardin and Congressman Hastings RemarksCommission News Release: http://tinyurl.com/2za3ko
Senator and commission co-chair, Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) convened the field hearing at the University of Maryland on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, which commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights
"I deeply regret that, six decades after the adoption of the Universal Declaration, it is necessary to have a hearing on torture and, more to the point, I regret that the United States' own policies and practices must be a focus of our consideration," Cardin said.
Commission chair, Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-Fl.) conducted the hearing. "I am profoundly frustrated by the damage that has been done to America's good name and credibility by the documented instances of abuse that have occurred in the context of our country's effort to combat terrorism, and by the erosion of the legal principles which make torture and other forms of ill-treatment a crime."
Both Senator Cardin and Congressman Hastings were critical of United States policy on torture and expressed their concerns over the destruction of CIA videotapes of terror suspects under interrogation.
Formally known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, it was created to monitor progress in the implementation of the provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. The Commission consists of nine members from the United States Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce.
Additional Testimony and Videohttp://tinyurl.com/youamm
Devon Chaffee, associate attorney, Human Rights First Malcolm Nance, director, Special Readiness Services International; director, International Anti-Terrorism Center for Excellence.
Copies of all the statements, an unofficial transcript and video of the event are posted on the Commission's website: http://tinyurl.com/youamm.
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