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Signatories of the Third Geneva Convention agree not to commit torture under certain circumstances in wartime, while signatories of the UN Convention Against Torture agree to not commit certain specific forms of torture. It is a severe violation of human rights. These conventions and agreements notwithstanding, torture remains in use throughout the world in several contexts, through various definitions, restrictions on judicial jurisdiction and plausible deniability. [1].
Sometimes torture is and was carried on in secret, while on other occasions it (or evidence of it) is public, in order to induce fear into a population. Some professional torturers use techniques such as electrical shock, asphyxiation, heat, cold, noise, and sleep deprivation which leave little evidence, although in other contexts torture frequently results in horrific mutilation or death. Evidence of torture also comes from testimony of witnesses and from breaches of discipline as for example, the untrained and indiscreet amateur photographers of Abu Ghraib prison.
Persons under torture, with rare exceptions (and then perhaps mainly in fiction), will say or do anything to escape the situation including signing confessions to serious crimes they had nothing to do with and implicating other innocent people who may be tortured to the same effect in turn. The acceptance of confessions without collaborating evidence as sufficient evidence for conviction of a crime is in practice an invitation to the use of torture to obtain them. Despite this, torture was used by many governments and countries in the past; in the Middle Ages especially and up into the 18th century, torture was believed to be a legitimate way to obtain testimonies and confessions from suspects for use in judicial inquiries and trials.
In the Roman Republic, for example, a slave's testimony was admissible only if it was extracted by torture, on the assumption that they could not be trusted to reveal the truth voluntarily.
In much of Europe, medieval and early modern courts of justice made liberal use of torture, depending on the crime and the social status of the suspect. Torture in the Medieval Inquisition was used starting in 1252. The torture methods used by inquisitors were mild compared to secular courts, as they were forbidden to use methods that resulted in bloodshed, mutilation or death. One of the most common forms of medieval inquisition torture was known as strappadoThe strappado is a form of torture. There are two variants of this torture. On the first one, the victim has his arms tied behind his back and then a large rope is tied to his wrists and passed over a beam or a hook on the roof. The torturer pulls on this. The hands were bound behind the back with a rope, and the accused was suspended this way, dislocating the joints painfully in both arms. Weights could be added to the legs dislocating those joints as well. Other torture methods could included the rack (stretching the victim’s joints to breaking point), the thumbscrew, the boot (crushing the foot and leg), water (massive quantities of water forcibly ingested), and the medieval red-hot pincers, although it was technically against church policy to mutilate a persons body. If stronger methods were needed, or death, the person was handed over to the secular authorities who were not bound by any restrictions.
Torture was abolished in EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England about 1640Events December 1 Portugal regains its independence from Spain and John IV of Portugal becomes king. Spain does not recognize the indepedence before 1668 Charles I summons and rapidly dismisses the Short Parliament in an attempt to fund the second of the, in ScotlandScotland or in Scottish Gaelic, Alba is a country and former independent kingdom of northwest Europe, and one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom. Scotland occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scotland took part in a p in 1708Events March 23 James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth Kandahar conquered by Mir Wais In Masuria one third of the population die during the plague September 28: Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya J. Bach appointed, in PrussiaThe word Prussia ( German: Preussen (Preussen Polish: Prusy Lithuanian: Prusai Latin: Borussia has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia in 1740Events May 31 Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions ( Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). However, her succ, in France in 1789 (one early measure of the French revolution), in Russia in 1801. [2] [3]
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