Art 3 of the Geneva Conventions ban all forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as well as torture. The Rome Statute classified torture as a crime against humanity. Torture was prohibited by international law and it is illegal in most the countries. Torture the terrorist is unethical, but in those circumstances it is the 'right thing to do' if its purpose is to elicit information that could save innocent lives. Terrorism Act 2000 allows police to detain terrorist suspects for questioning for up to 7 days. Police in UK are vested with considerable prerogative and “moderate physical power” in emergency circumstances and in matters needing solution. However, This was considered as a violation of Human Rights under Art 3 of ECHR.
Nearly half of all Americans thought the torture of suspected terrorists was sometimes justified in a BBC survey. After the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration classifying torture techniques such as waterboarding as "alternative interrogation procedures.
Is torture ever justified? The Israel government classified relatively mild torture techniques as "moderate physical pressure" rather than torture and it is allowed to be use as a “last resort”. (The Israeli Supreme Court overturned this policy in 1999) Israel's Supreme Court ruled that torture could never be justified, even in the case of a ticking bomb. One objection to allow moderate physical pressure is the difficulty of knowing where to draw the line.At Abu Ghraib, U.S. military personnel and CIA interrogators were revealed to have gone several steps further, implementing forms of torture that involved lasting physical damage, sexual humiliation, and sometimes death.The use of torture has not been adequately justified, but it would be excused in any of the extreme cases cited by torture proponents.
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