The scourge of torture

Today is International Human Rights Day. The subject of human rights has given rise to much debate in this country. No so long ago, during the dark days of terror, Sri Lanka was blacklisted by the international community as human rights were almost non-existent. Extra judicial killings were rampant. Torture was an everyday occurrence. Abductions were all too common.

Today, this picture has changed. State terror has been eliminated. Fundamental rights are generally observed. The name Sri Lanka no longer evokes a response of disgust at international fora.

Instead, the world has focused its attention on blatant human rights violations by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) especially in the North-East. Of course, the LTTE has not confined its activities to the two provinces - it has killed political opponents and intelligence operatives in broad daylight in Colombo.

The LTTE has paid lip service human rights, while violating them all the time. Child recruitment remains one of the most horrendous violations of human rights, but it is only part of the problem. The killing spree is continuing in spite of the ceasefire.

The disenfranchisement of voters is no less a violation of human rights. Even more horrific is the amputation of the hand of the sole voter from Kilinochchi. Torture is also widely believed to be an instrument of terror used by the Tigers.

However, it would be quite wrong to say that only the LTTE violates human rights. There are elements in the Government law enforcement machinery who have been known to go beyond the law. There have been quite a few deaths in police custody in recent times. Several victims who were victims of police brutality have been compensated by the Courts.

Torture, in fact, is this year's Human Rights Day theme. Physical or psychological, torture takes a heavy toll on the victim and very often ends in death. As UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says in his message, 57 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibited all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, torture remains unacceptably common.

Recent times have witnessed an especially disturbing trend of countries claiming exceptions to the prohibition on torture based on their own national security perceptions. As Annan says, torture can never be an instrument to fight terror, for torture is an instrument of terror.

There should be no room for torture in the civilised world. The extraction of information using painful methods is as old as time. But the time has come to wipe out this scourge. The prohibition on torture is well established under international law. It is also unambiguous and absolute. It applies in all circumstances, in times of war as in times of peace.

We are seeing a dangerous trend in that some countries are resorting to inhuman treatment of captives. This is torture by another name. Attempts are also being made to differentiate between various degrees of torture. In reality, torture has no gradations. Can you differentiate between a tooth extraction (without anaesthesia, of course) and the cutting off of a finger ? Is starvation any better than being beaten up ?

Governments around the world must punish those officials who engage in torture. The victims of torture, if they survive, or their families (in case of death) must receive ample compensation. This should not be monetary compensation alone - the punishment of the perpetrators is equally important.

No State shall hesitate to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the Optional Protocol to the Torture Convention. It is true that the world has to combat terrorism. In doing so, civilised states should not adopt the very methods used by terrorist groups. Torture is for barbarians, not humans.