Why Stop Torture?

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