STOP TORTURE!!!!!
The world has changed immeasurably since AI first began denouncing torture at
the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, but torture continues and is not
confined to military dictatorships or authoritarian regimes; torture is
inflicted in democratic states too. It is also clear that victims of torture
are criminal suspects as well as political prisoners, the disadvantaged as well
as the dissident, people targeted because of their identity as well as their
beliefs. They are women as well as men, children as well as adults.
Torture is abhorrent. Torture is illegal. Yet Torture is inflicted on
men, women and children in well over half the countries of the world.
Despite the universal condemnation of torture, it is still used to extract
confessions, to interrogate, to punish or to intimidate. In Police stations and
prison cells, on city streets and in remote villages, torturers continue to
inflict physical agony and mental anguish. Their cruelty kills, or leaves scars
on the body and mind that last a lifetime.
The fact that children could suffer torture at all should come as a
terrible shock. Their dependency and vulnerability should render them immune
from the atrocities adults inflict on one another. Their very innocence should
put them beyond reach.
Yet violence against children is endemic: children are tortured by the police
or security forces; detained in appalling conditions; beaten or sexually abused
by parents, teachers or employers; maimed, killed or turned into killers by war..
done by Theli
visit www.stoptorture.org
for more info.
also www.amnesty.org