Torture

Torture Definitions

Convention Against Torture (1984)

“…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person…”

Federal law

“…torture means an act committed by a person acting under color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering…”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Geneva Convention (1950) (treatment of prisoners of war)

“No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatsoever.”


Yoo & Bebee Memo August 1, 2002 (Office of Legal Counsel):

"Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death. For purely mental pain or suffering to amount to torture … it must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., lasting for months or even years.”


What Yoo does not - and in the opinion of this author cannot - understand, is that these treaties reflect fundamental principles that lie at the very core of the military profession - principles that reflect a delicate balance between the necessities of war and the dictates of humanity.


What those who have, or do, serve in uniform on behalf of our nation intuitively understand is the implied covenant that exists between the armed forces and the nation under whose flag they fight, kill, destroy, and detain. The essence of this covenant is a willingness to engage in such conduct based on a belief that doing so will be consistent with the inherent notion of morality. Because members of the military profession have historically understood that preserving this sense of morality would be most severely stressed during armed conflict, they were at the forefront of developing non-negotiable principles to limit the brutality of conflict, and in so doing limit the corrosive moral consequence of conflict for those called upon to engage therein. When Senator McCain reminds us that the conduct we endorse during armed conflict reflects more about us than it does our enemy, it reflects his intuitive appreciation of this truism.
Geoffrey S. Corn
Law Professor and former Lt Col. U.S. Army

Peter Thompson