Assignment 8 — Rough Drafts It is universally acknowledged that torture, regarded as a kind of crime, is prohibited in any circumstances according to the human rights law. However, the fact is that it is still widely used around the world especially in third world nations’ military regimes. Therefore, the question “Is Torture Ever Justified?” has been put forward which evoked a heated debate. As professor Bagaric and Clarke claims, torture need to be regulated in some circumstances instead of totally prohibited while philosopher Philip E. Devine holds the opposite view that torture should receive public approval in no case. From my point of view, the latter idea is more convincing for we should avoid the abuse of torture while torture may…show more content… As BELLAMY, ALEX J. (Jan 2006) supported, once accepted, torture tends to become the rule as the definition of military necessity slips to cover the use of torture to acquire expedient information. Though in the book named Collection of international instruments and legal texts concerning refugees and others of concern to UNHCR, it confirms that“ Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. ” and“ Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.” According to Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org ), the use of torture was still documented in the following countries in 2004 and 2005: China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. And as US President Barack Obama has acknowledged, the US used torture as part of the CIA’s post 9/11 interrogation program, and has said that waterboarding constitutes torture. Moreover, according to the article “Why is torture wrong”, torture is a slippery slope which means that each act of torture makes it easier to accept the use of torture in the future. Therefore, it is not hard to…show more content… It is obvious that plenty of victims cannot bear the pain on both physical and mental sides so that they would definitely give whatever the tormentors want even though it is not the truth. The article “Why is torture wrong” also holds the same point of view, “Torture is an ineffectivegation tool for it may well produce false information because under torture a prisoner will eventually say anything to stop the pain - regardless of whether it is true.And because of this the interrogator can never be 'sure' that they are getting the truth and will never know when to stop.” Therefore, the information gained from torture is likely to be incorrect or unclear which means that the truth will be buried. As UWE STEINHOFF. (Aug 2006) said, some forms of torture will undermine the ability of some torture victims to think rationally less than some forms of death threat would of some threatened people. Take a case for example, long ago there was a person who was not the wrongdoer but pretend to admit that he did the thing while being tortured. Only after ten years when the true victim voluntarily surrendered himself did people realize the truth. Evidently, it is hard to realize the justice of the society when torture
