A human being is suspended
from the air, hung from the ceiling for hours. A human being is shocked with
electric convulsions and then made to think he/she is drowning. A human is
being raped, forced to submit and release information, to give into the torture
and the pain.
The torturer, also a
human being, has by now been desensitized to the pain of the tortured. The
torturer has become loyal to his/her institution, and will do what it takes to
perform. The torturer is just a human being, completing an assignment, aiding
in a fight to find a criminal, a traitor, another human being rendered inhuman
by the greater institution. But what does this say about the humanity of the
torturer, and of the victim?
Kenneth Roth, an
American attorney and the director of Human Rights Watch, wrote, “Torture
dehumanizes people by treating them as pawns to be manipulated through their
pain” (Roth, Getting Away with Torture, Global
Governance, 2005). Roth uses a crucial term: dehumanization. Inflicting
pain on others is a human choice, but it often results in a loss of humanity –
the humanity of both the victim and the torturer.
Wafae Charaf and Oussama Housne from Morocco, Yecenia Armenta from Mexico, Mouhammad Bekjanov from Uzbakistan, Dave Enriquez from Philippine. These are the names
of human beings whose rights have been violated throughout the world, representing
millions who have been dehumanized by torture. From Mexico to Morocco,
Uzbekistan to the Philippines, humans continue to torture other human beings,
losing their sense of what it is to be human.
Today, on the
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, We need to stop torture and
put an end to dehumanization.
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Kathlyn Sullivan
Intern at Amnesty International Morocco
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Kathlyn Sullivan
Intern at Amnesty International Morocco
