On the Ethics of Torture

Author: Uwe Steinhoff
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438446217
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Book Description
The question of when, and under what circumstances, the practice of torture might be justified has received a great deal of attention in the last decade in both academia and in the popular media. Many of these discussions are, however, one-sided with other perspectives either ignored or quickly dismissed with minimal argument. In On the Ethics of Torture, Uwe Steinhoff provides a complete account of the philosophical debate surrounding this highly contentious subject. Steinhoff s position is that torture is sometimes, under certain narrowly circumscribed conditions, justified, basing his argument on the right to self-defense. His position differs from that of other authors who, using other philosophical justifications, would permit torture under a wider set of conditions. After having given the reader a thorough account of the main arguments for permitting torture under certain circumstances, Steinhoff explains and addresses the many objections that have been raised to employing torture under any circumstances. This is an indispensible work for anyone interested in one of the most controversial subjects of our times.

A Tortured Heart

Author: Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Book Description

Torture

Author: Kathleen Barrett
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793624518
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Book Description
Drawing on insights from political science, criminology, and sociology, Torture: An Interdisciplinary Approach investigates the nature and evolution of torture. By surveying the use of torture across time and space, this book considers the development of an international human rights discourse challenging the legitimacy of torture as an instrument of interrogation. Kathleen Barrett, George Klay Kieh, Jr., Gavin M. Lee, and Neema Noori critically assess the effectiveness of legal regimes, both national and international, that arose as a result of this discourse and the emergent global movement to ban the use of torture. In addition to grappling with colonial legacies of torture and the particular ways that great powers, whether liberal or illiberal, deploy these coercive practices, this book argues that torture continues to serve as a repressive practice that mediates the relationship between the state and its citizens in many countries within the global south. The authors demonstrate that as governments move away from one set of perceived atrocities, they develop new methods of torture and establish novel strategies for justifying these coercive practices.

Torture

Author: Donatella Di Cesare
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509524401
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
Torture is not as universally condemned as it once was. From Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the death of Giulio Regeni, countless recent cases have shocked public opinion. But if we want to defend the human dignity that torture violates, simple indignation is not enough. In this important book, Donatella Di Cesare provides a critical perspective on torture in all its dimensions. She seeks to capture the peculiarity of an extreme and methodical violence where the tormentor calculates and measures out pain so that he can hold off the victim’s death, allowing him to continue to exercise his sovereign power. For the victim, being tortured is like experiencing his own death while he is still alive. Torture is a threat wherever the defenceless find themselves in the hands of the strong: in prisons, in migrant camps, in nursing homes, in centres for the disabled and in institutions for minors. This impassioned book will appeal to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory as well as to anyone committed to defending human rights as universal and inviolable.

The Torture Doctors

Author: Steven H. Miles MD
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626167524
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
Torture doctors invent and oversee techniques to inflict pain and suffering without leaving scars. Their knowledge of the body and its breaking points and their credible authority over death certificates and medical records make them powerful and elusive perpetrators of the crime of torture. In The Torture Doctors, Steven H. Miles fearlessly explores who these physicians are, what they do, how they escape justice, and what can be done to hold them accountable. At least one hundred countries employ torture doctors, including both dictatorships and democracies. While torture doctors mostly act with impunity—protected by governments, medical associations, and licensing boards—Miles shows that a movement has begun to hold these doctors accountable and to return them to their proper role as promoters of health and human rights. Miles’s groundbreaking portrayal exposes the thinking and psychology of these doctors, and his investigation points to how the international human rights community and the medical community can come together to end these atrocities.

Torture and Oppression in Brazil

Author: United States. Congress. House. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description

Torture

Author: Sanford Levinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195306465
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Book Description
This collection of essays will address some of the most controversial issues surrounding torture: how it is used by governments, legal definitions of torture, the theological implications of torturing, torture in declared states of emergency and why it should be prohibited.

The Mental Health Consequences of Torture

Author: Ellen Gerrity
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461512956
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
In 1997 the National Institute of Mental Health assembled a working group of international experts to address the mental health consequences of torture and related violence and trauma; report on the status of scientific knowledge; and include research recommendations with implications for treatment, services, and policy development. This book, dedicated to those who experience the horrors of torture and those who work to end it, is based on that report.

Torture

Author: Mirko Bagaric
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791479676
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
Argues that there are moral grounds to use torture where the lives of the innocent are at stake.

Torture in Brazil

Author: Joan Dassin
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292704848
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
From 1964 until 1985, Brazil was ruled by a military regime that sanctioned the systematic use of torture in dealing with its political opponents. The catalog of what went on during that grim period was originally published in Portuguese as Brasil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again) in 1985. The volume was based on the official documentation kept by the very military that perpetrated the horrific acts. These extensive documents include military court proceedings of actual trials, secretly photocopied by lawyers associated with the Catholic Church and analyzed by a team of researchers. Their daring project—known as BNM for Brasil: Nunca Mais—compiled more than 2,700 pages of testimony by political prisoners documenting close to three hundred forms of torture. The BNM project proves conclusively that torture was an essential part of the military justice system and that judicial authorities were clearly aware of the use of torture to extract confessions. Still, it took more than a decade after the publication of Brasil: Nunca Mais for the armed forces to admit publicly that such torture had ever taken place. Torture in Brazil, the English version of the book re-edited here, serves as a timely reminder of the role of Brazil's military in past repression.