Torture

A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights

Lisa Hajjar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136339905
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Social Sciences

Torture is indisputably abhorrent. Why, you might ask, would you even want to think or read about torture? That is a very good question, and one this book addresses in a compelling and enlightening way. Torture is a very important issue, not least because millions of people around the world have been subjected to this odious practice—and many are enduring torture right now as you read these words.

Glossary/Index

Page numbers followed by ‘f’ refer to figures.

1984 23, 61

24 2

A

abolition of torture: when judicial torture was expunged from legal systems as a lawful procedure to investigate crimes 19–20

Abrahamian, Ervand 22

Abu Ghraib: a prison in Baghdad, Iraq, that became infamous in 2004 as a site where US abuse and torture of prisoners was “systematic” and “wanton” 7, 48, 58, 59

photos 7–8, 7f, 52–53, 53f

sexualized humiliation and torture in 52–53

Taguba report on 7

talking about torture after photos 9–10

Abu Zubaydah 9, 48, 56, 57

actionable intelligence: forward-looking information of national security value 6, 9, 54, 57

al-Libi, Ibn al-Shaykh 58

al-Qaeda 9, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60

al-Qahtani, Muhammad 58

Algeria 24

Améry, Jean 51

Amnesty International 6, 41

Ancient Greece 14–15

anti-torture deontologists: people who oppose torture under all circumstances because it is illegal and immoral 4

antiquity, torture in 14–16

Arab-Israeli War 30

Arendt, Hannah 23, 54

Argentina 28

authoritarianism: when state power is concentrated in the hands of a few political leaders and repression is frequently used to maintain that power. Authoritarian regimes can include military juntas, fascist or racist regimes, dictatorships, theocracies, and one-party states. What they have in common is an utter lack of accountability of the state to society 23

B

black sites: secret overseas prisons run by the CIA 9, 12, 48, 49

Blackstone, William 18

brainwashing 25, 27

Brazil 28, 54, 55

Bumiller, Kristin 35

Bush administration 9, 10, 11, 57

reaction to Abu Ghraib photos 7–8

Bush, President George W. 5, 8, 11, 45, 47, 49

C

Calling the Ghosts 52

Cambodia 23

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

to adhere to same rules as military 12

concerns over vulnerability to prosecution 9

“exception” 10

interrogations and detentions 9, 11, 48, 49, 56, 57, 58

mind-control research 25–26, 27

Phoenix program 26, 27

subject to universal jurisdiction 48, 49

Cheney, Dick 2, 12, 56, 57, 58

Chicago Boys 27

Chile 27–28, 46–47, 51–52

China 22, 25

Christians 16

civil war: armed conflict within a country, usually pitting a government against one or more opposition groups 22

see also conventional war; unconventional/aysmmetric war

Clinton, President Bill 45

Cohen, Stanley 42

Cold War 25–26, 44

colonialism: when one country claims sovereignty over a conquered foreign territory and its population, and establishes a colony. The history of colonialism dates back to the 1500s when European governments began taking over and establishing colonial rule throughout the Americas, Africa, and Asia 23–24, 26

Common Article 3: common to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, this article pertains to the treatment of combatants or civilians who are captured in “non-international” (i.e. not state-to-state) wars and conflicts 11

confessions: first- or third-person accounts of criminal wrongdoing 15

Medieval 16–17, 18

modern tortured 22, 52, 57

of Palestinian detainees 30

consequentialism 3

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT): a human righ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Torture
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Preface
• I: Why Are We (Still) Talking about Torture?
• II: Torture’s Past
• III: Modern Torture
• IV: Torture and Rights
• V: Enforcing the Right Not To Be Tortured
• VI: What’s Wrong with Torture?
• References
• Glossary/Index