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Torture

Many debate the exact definition of torture. Most legal definitions of torture are composed of terms such as cruel, intentional, or severe, which are in need of further definition. Advocates for human rights often argue that torture tends to be defined in an overly narrow way. More specifically, they argue that the distinctions often made between torture and euphemistically named practices such as coercion or psychological pressure serve only to provide undeserved legal protection to the violator. Some believe that the distinction between torture and sexual abuse is also arbitrary and ultimately of benefit not to the victim, but to the criminal. The many recent incidents of state-sponsored sexual abuse on a massive scale and the subsequent legal proceedings have given new impetus to this debate. In addition, the well-publicized incidents of sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq, by American soldiers have brought into the public consciousness the fact that practitioners of torture use gender-based humiliation as a staple technique.

Sexual Abuse and the Definition of Torture

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) condemns torture but makes no specific mention of rape. The Geneva Conventions (1949, 1977) prohibit both rape and torture but treat each separately. Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration against Torture (1975) defines torture in more open terms:

Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or other persons. It does not include pain or suffering arising from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions to the extent consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

This definition was nonetheless much criticized. The United Nations Convention against Torture (1987) modified the definition slightly. One improvement is particularly relevant: The newer definition no longer references the “Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners” (with its suggestion that torture victims are always male prisoners of war). International bodies of law consistently reference these three documents (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and the United Nations Declaration against Torture) in the prosecution of war crimes. In 1998, in a landmark decision, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) recognized rape as a form of torture condemned by international law.

Forms of Gender-Based Torture

Sexual torture of males includes such acts as rape, genital mutilation, forced masturbation, forcing the victim to perform homosexual sex acts, and forcing the victim to wear women's clothing. The theme of femi-nization underlies all these acts. In addition to such direct sexual violations of men, the systematic rape of women from a particular group may have as secondary purpose the humiliation of their male relatives.

Female victims of torture are far more likely to be subjected to sexual torture, especially rape, than are their male counterparts. While women are subjected to the same abuses as their male counterparts (electrocution, beatings, near drowning), the sexuality and reproductive capacity of women is also often targeted in state-sponsored torture of women. Sometimes sexual assault is aggravated by forced impregnation or continues over the long term as forced prostitution. The lasting effects of such torture are devastating for the victim, and the social consequences often amount to a second victimization. Victims of rape are very frequently stigmatized and in some cultures considered unmarriageable.

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