HomeAboutJoinTake ActionNews & Events IssuesPublicationsContact

  • TORTURE

  • No Torture No Compromise

    "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
    Article 3, European Convention on Human Rights. 
     
    Article 3 of the Convention gives member states the flexibility to allow for emergency situations, but no room for compromise on the question of torture.
     
    The Convention's authors had survived the Second World War, seen people liberated from concentration camps and witnessed the worst acts of barbarity. They could not contemplate a situation where torture or inhuman or degrading treatment could be justified. Neither can we.
     
    Yet our Government has attempted to sidestep, ignore and undermine our legal and moral obligations to prevent torture.
     
    Liberty believes that by involving ourselves in torture – even if we are not actually torturing people ourselves – we make a mockery of our status as a civilised country and we lose any ability to press other countries to respect human rights.

  • Press Releases

    • Intelligence services commissioner to lead torture inquiry

    • The Prime Minister today announced an inquiry into concerns about collusion in torture by the British authorities during the War on Terror. He also announced the publication of guidance to the intelligence services on the interrogation and treatment of detainees held overseas.
    • 06.07.2010

    • UK torture inquiry terms agreed

    • The Government is expected to announce a judge-led inquiry into allegations of British complicity in the torture of terror suspects held overseas. 
    • 30.06.2010