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You’ve hung from the ceiling for hours. Your muscles scream. Electric shocks convulse your body. Water forced into your mouth. You think you’re drowning. Rape. Mock executions. Whatever it takes to break you. To make you submit. To sign a confession, or hand over information. You’re hidden away from the world’s gaze. You think you are forgotten, you think you are alone.
Photo: Ali Aarrass pictured with his baby girl © Private
All over the world, states are torturing people just like you.
TORTURE SIGNS IGNORED IN MOROCCO Coffee shop owner Ali Aarrass was born in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, in 1962. He moved to Belgium at aged 15 and became a Belgian national. He returned to Melilla with his wife in 2005 to be close to his ageing father. In December 2010, Ali was extradited to Morocco on terrorism charges. Ali says Moroccan intelligence held him in secret detention for 12 days. He describes being beaten on the soles of his feet, electric shocks to his testicles, being suspended for long periods from the wrists and being burnt with cigarettes.
In 2011, Ali was convicted of the illegal use of weapons and participation in a group intending to commit acts of terrorism. He is now serving a 12 year sentence. His conviction was based solely on statements extracted by torture. Ali remains in Salé II prison and describes continued ill-treatment including being forced to strip naked in his cell and being prevented from sleeping at the night. Moroccan authorities have failed to adequately investigate his torture.
“Experiencing injustice causes great Ali was formally arrested and damage. But even more devastating is transferred to the notorious Salé II being abandoned, forgotten, when prison. Other inmates were shocked by the torture marks on Ali’s body and relatives and friends give up the fight… those we rely on to fight for justice how traumatised he was. Moroccan to be done.” Ali Aarrass authorities ignored the signs.
For over 50 years, Amnesty International has exposed governments who torture, and supported torture survivors to get justice. These decades of campaigning have already brought huge achievements, including the historic moment 30 years ago when the UN agreed to combat torture worldwide with the Convention against Torture – a groundbreaking step towards making the global ban on torture a reality. Many states also have national anti-torture laws. So, if laws against torture exist almost everywhere, why do we need another campaign? Because this barbaric and inhumane treatment is flourishing… Early in 2014, police officers in a secret detention facility in Laguna, Philippines, hit international headlines when they were discovered spinning a “wheel of torture” as a fun way to decide what method of torture to use on detainees. That is why now more than ever, we need to unite and demand torture stops once and for all.
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TORTURE TECHNIQUES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Electric Shocks
TORTURE: A GLOBAL CRISIS
Photo: Moses Akatugba © Private
Over the last five years, Amnesty has reported on torture in at least three quarters of the world – 141 countries, from every region. There are many reasons governments use torture, from obtaining information to silencing opposition or as a cruel punishment. Often it is simply the standard way to investigate crimes. Torture is flourishing because rather than respecting the law by refusing to tolerate torture, governments are either actively using torture, or turning a blind eye and lying about it to their own people and to the world. At the same time, many countries have still not made torture a crime.
Forced administration of drugs
Sleep deprivation
Mexico has made many commitments to stop torture, and the government consistently argues that torture rarely happens. But for some Mexican police and military officers, torture is the method of choice for investigating crime. Mexico’s own Human Rights Commission recorded more than 7,000 torture complaints against federal officials from 2000 - 2013. Torture has included beatings, electric shocks, suffocation using plastic bags or wet cloths, and rape.
TORTURE Forced drinking of dirty water, urine and chemicals
• is barbaric and inhumane • is banned under international law • corrodes the rule of law and undermines the criminal justice system … CAN NEVER, EVER BE JUSTIFIED Too often, governments invest more effort in denying or covering up the existence of this abuse, than carrying - out full investigations when a complaint is made. The Philippines government has pledged to increase its efforts to implement laws banning torture. But five years
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STOLEN FUTURE IN NIGERIA Aged 16, Moses was awaiting the results of his secondary school exams when his life changed forever. On 27 November 2005, the Nigerian army arrested and charged him with stealing three phones and various other items.
severely beat him with machetes and batons; tied and hanged him for several hours in interrogation rooms and used pliers to pull-out his finger and toe nails in order to force him to sign two confessions.
Moses describes being shot in the hand and soldiers beating him on the head and back. He was taken to an army barracks, and shown the body of a dead man. When he was unable to identify who it was, he was beaten again.
At his trial, the investigating officer failed to show up. Moses was convicted solely on the basis of the victim’s statement and the two confessions Moses made under torture.
If Moses had been allowed to call a lawyer – or even just his mother – it could have protected him from being tortured. But for the first 24 hours, nobody knew where he was.
After eight years in prison, Moses was sentenced to death by hanging. Today, Moses is traumatized, his life hanging in the balance.
“The pain of torture is unbearable. I never thought I would be alive till this day. The pain I went through in the hands of the Moses was moved to Epkan police station in Delta State and says police officers was unimaginable.” Moses Akatugba
NO JUSTICE IN MEXICO Marines broke into Claudia Medina’s home, that she shared with her husband and three children, on 7 August 2012. They tied her hands, blindfolded her and took her to a naval base in Veracruz City. They accused her of being a member of a powerful and violent criminal gang, which she flatly denied.
The next day, Claudia was pressured into signing a testimony she had not even read. Later that month, all but one of the charges against her were dropped, and she was released on bail. If Claudia had been allowed a medical examination after she said she had been tortured, she may have had the evidence needed to convict her torturers. Claudia’s torture allegations have not been investigated.
Claudia later described how the torturers gave her electric shocks and wrapped her in plastic to stop her “Not one person has been arrested for the bruising when they beat and kicked torture that I suffered. I ask that Amnesty her. They sexually assaulted her, tied International joins me in the fight that I will her to a chair and left her outside in undertake... I want justice.” Claudia Medina the scorching afternoon sun.
after the Anti-Torture Act was passed, not one person has been convicted of torture. Torture remains widespread in police stations. Beatings with wooden batons and metal bars are common. Despite the Nigerian constitution banning the use of torture, thousands of people have been tortured into confessing a crime. Police and military routinely use torture to interrogate suspects, and courts are sentencing people based on the resulting “confessions”. Allegations of torture are very rarely investigated or punished.
SAFE FROM TORTURE
Needles pushed under fingernails
Mock executions
Almost anyone can be at risk of torture – regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or politics. Once governments use or allow torture, no one is safe. In early 2014, an Amnesty global survey showed that almost half the world do not feel safe from torture. We cannot let this continue.
Forcible shaving of Muslim men’s beards
Amnesty’s Stop Torture campaign is calling on governments to honour the law and their own commitments. We will stand between the torturer and the tortured by positioning ourselves inside those systems that are failing to protect people. By making sure that: • From the outset detainees have access to a lawyer. • Lawyers are present during interrogations. • Doctors are on hand to examine detainees. • Detainees can have contact with their families. • Confessions obtained by torture can never be used as evidence. • Anyone involved in torture is brought to justice.
Whipping
Boiling water poured onto skin
Photo: Claudia Medina © Amnesty International 7
TOGETHER WE CAN We cannot do this alone. We need you to stand between the torturers and the tortured too, by learning the truth and supporting the campaign. Torture is a global tragedy that can only be stopped when we all unite with the millions of activists around the world calling for an end to this barbaric practice. Join us and get ready to take action for people who face torture, from Uzbekistan to Mexico, from Morocco/ Western Sahara to Nigeria. We won’t stop until everyone can live free from the fear of torture. “We need to remind governments that they have an obligation to prevent torture. If everyone in the Amnesty movement works together, we will really make a difference.” Dr Aurora Parong is a member of the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Claims Board in the Philippines. Her fight against torture has been shaped by her own experiences in detention.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. AMNESTY.ORG Index: ACT 40/003/2014, English, May 2014 Amnesty International, International Secretariat, Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW, United Kingdom