By Mike Phipps

Today is designated International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Despite the Convention against Torture being adopted by the United Nations over four decades ago, and most countries having ratified it, over half of those that have are still practising it, according to Amnesty. As a result, there are millions of estimated victims of torture in the world today.

The secrecy and denial surrounding the practice of torture means it is difficult to be precise about statistics. But North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, and Myanmar consistently feature as among the worst perpetrators. Amnesty International has reported it to be “endemic” across Asia.

There are even attempts to intellectually justify this state of affairs by those who argue that “Asian values” should focus on social harmony and respect for authority, and should consciously reject the notion of universal human rights as a western, even imperialist-colonial construct. Such arguments have been employed by regimes as diverse as China and Indonesia. In essence, their attempt to deny the universal humanity that unites us expresses the very hierarchy of nations and cultures they claim to condemn.

Israel

Israel’s response to allegations of torture of its Palestinian detainees  is more straightforward: denial. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, however, says that torture has become “state doctrine” in the country. Francesca Albanese says senior government figures have institutionalised torture, collective punishment and manifestly dehumanising conditions of detention.

Confirming this assessment is “Welcome to Hell”,  a report by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, based on collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians held since October 2023 and released, almost all with no charges.  It says that a dozen Israeli prison facilities, military and civilian, have been transformed into de facto torture camps as a matter of policy. Amnesty International has also confirmed “horrifying” cases or torture.

In Europe, Belarus and Russia are widely documented as having the worst records for state-sanctioned torture and severe prisoner ill-treatment. Across the continent, however, a wide range of countries have used practices which amount to torture to target refugees and migrants attempting to cross Europe’s borders.

Russia

Russia’s abusive treatment of Ukrainian detainees in the territories it occupies merits particular mention in this context. In a report published last year, Amnesty said this treatment amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. It reported:

“Torture takes place in complete isolation from the outside world, with the victims entirely at the mercy of their captors for survival. This is not a series of isolated incidents – it is a systematic policy that violates every tenet of international law.”

Human Right Watch describes Russia’s physical and psychological torture of Ukrainian detainees as “systematic”. Russian torture chambers were discovered following the Ukrainian liberation of Kharkiv in 2022. In Izyum alone, ten different torture sites were uncovered where both Ukrainian civilians and POWs were “routinely” subject to torture. At least eight men died under torture. Rape was systematic. After the liberation of Kherson by Ukrainian forces, Russian torture chambers established especially for children were discovered.

One of the things I do is helping to compile the Ukraine Information Group bulletin each week. it requires regularly looking at the website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, one of the foremost Ukrainian human rights organizations. It reports on a daily basis about confessions extracted under torture, routinely upheld by Russian courts.

Execution of Ukrainian detainees is also widespread. Currently law enforcement agencies are investigating 306 instances of the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces. Human rights organisations also document cases of individuals being tortured to death.

The victims

There are countless Ukrainians, women especially, who have been helping their compatriots deal with the horrific consequences of abuse, and their work has increased exponentially as the war has gone on.

But help for victims of torture needs to reach beyond the medical and psychological.  “There is strong and growing evidence that torture and sexual violence have been perpetrated on a widespread scale since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” reports Physicians for Human Rights. “The thousands of people who have survived this torture and conflict-related sexual violence are entitled to (a) equal and effective access to justice; (b) adequate, effective, and prompt reparation for harm suffered; and (c) access to relevant information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms.”

It’s important to keep in mind the victims of torture, and not just on the day designated to mark their plight: torture goes on 365 days a year. But it’s also important to recognise that, from Ukraine to Palestine and beyond, the victims are connected in a global struggle for human rights. Torture is a crime against humanity and our fight against it is not conditional on the political allegiances of the regimes carrying it out.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.

Image: https://pix4free.org/photo/3075/human-rights.html Credit: Pix4Free.org Human rights by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free