What are the definitions of orture, inhuman and degrading for the purposes of the ECHR?
The ECHR itself gives no definitions: any difference, which lies in the severity of the treatment or punishment, does not matter very much as all three are banned. However: • Torture is deliberate inhuman treatment causing very serious and cruel suffering. • Inhuman treatment or punishment causes intense physical and mental suffering. • Degrading treatment/punishment, arouses in the victim a feeling of fear, anguish and inferiority capable of humiliating and debasing the victim and possibly breaking his or her physical or moral resistance.[1] Threats which are ‘sufficiently real and immediate’ to cause mental anguish can come within the definitions even in the absence of physical harm.[2] Torture requires deliberation but inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment does not: the state’s deprivation of any lawful source of sustenance can amount to inhuman or degrading treatment, as when failed asylum-seekers are deprived of any income or benefit and not allowed to work [3] In the early
Related Questions
- Are psychologists forbidden from participating in interrogations involving torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment?
- Does APA have a position on the use of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during interrogations?
- What are the definitions of orture, inhuman and degrading for the purposes of the ECHR?
