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THE EUROPEAN COURT of Human Rights did something this week that is rarely done by the courts, they offered an opinion into which practices can be seen as torture, and which cannot.
The case, Ireland v United Kingdom, involved 14 ‘Hooded Men’, who were Irish nationals tortured by British soldiers in 1971.
The outcome of this case has forced us to confront a stark reality: To what extent can the use of torture by a State be morally justified?
Enhanced interrogation techniques
Amnesty International was supportive of the men’s claims, but the court ruled against torture for hooding, forced standing in stress positions, white noise, and food, sleep, and water deprivation.
The practices employed by the British during this period would lay the foundation for the ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’, which would be later adopted by the Bush Administration in their response to The War on Terror.
During the previous five years, Amnesty International has documented practices of torture in 141 countries, approximately three-quarters of the world. Their reports have shown some of the most unsettling aspects of humanity, and the true depravity that accompanies State sanctioned torture.
Among the most horrific recorded practices are; beating, electrocution, drowning, rape, murder, sexual humiliation, and being forced to walk barefoot on aids patients’ blood.
Legal philosophy
In legal philosophy, there are two main sides to the torture debate. One approach, which is the dominating position of Western societies, is that torture is never acceptable. This is reflective of an absolutist approach, as there is never a moral basis upon which one can warrant torture.
The absolutist approach hinges on two pivotal understandings; religious morality and self-evidence. Religious morality is the concept of ascertaining the morality of situations through reference to religious teachings, such as Catholicism.
‘Self-evidence’ assumes that the morality of an act can be judged as being good or bad, simply through common-sense. This approach supposes that it is self evident that torture is morally indefensible, and, thus, cannot ever be justified. This argument was made more tangible in reference to the concept of genocide.
From the absolutist perspective, the practice of annihilating an entire race is so obviously immoral, that there is no purpose in even engaging with a debate to the contrary, because the outcome of any discussion should be self-evident to all involved.
Utilitarian school of thought
Jeremy Bentham has been hailed as being a principal exponent for the utilitarian school of thought. Utilitarians propose that nothing, in theory, is ever intrinsically wrong. Their argument is that each case is different, and merits individual inspection to observe whether it is morally acceptable or not.
They strive for, ‘The greatest happiness of the greatest number’, so, if the torture of one person could save 100 lives, then they would have no objections.
But both of these approaches are more appropriate as academic debates, and lose much of their certainty in real life situations. To avoid being seen as torturing prisoners, the Bush Administration simply redefined what torture entailed.
For the US, it was only torture if it was: “Equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death”. Although this stance was later relaxed, some still see torture in the treatment of death-row inmates, as no medical training is required to administer painful execution injections.
The main issue with torture, from both perspectives, is that it has been proven to be unreliable, and it undermines civilian support towards the government involved in the torture.
The decision of the ECHR is not surprising, it is simply another example of endemic State torture going ignored yet again.
Conor Courtney is an aspiring writer living in Dublin. He became interested in writing while studying English in Trinity College Dublin, and Law in Dublin Business School.
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I pay a huge amount of taxes and I still pay to see a doctor or dentist. Plus I get the same pension ( more or less) than someone who has never worked. I pay for health insurance and my bins, a TV license and tolls on the roads I use. In effect I get sweet fa return from what I put in.
@Ben Jones: ‘This is the way’
@Ben Jones: If you are paying health insurance you shouldn’t be paying to see doctors. But I agree on everything else, You need to lose your job or have kids to get anything back.
@Ben Jones: yet
you drive on roads, rely on ambulance/fire/garda, schools, etc etc. Granted, there is always room for improvement. But take a look around, we’re not badly off compared to most of the worlds population
The councils in many towns and cities are an absolute disgrace. Run by minion’s who have zero ability regarding infrastructure based projects. Only interested in bloody cycle lanes and digging up city streets. Wasting taxpayer money because of zero accountability at the top. Banana Republic.
If you knew where your taxes went you would probably debate about whether working and even paying them.
Look around and see how many people are collecting , on disability. Etc and how much are they now sending back to Europe and to other countries. Like we can afford it
@Timo:
To paraphrase Moe Szyzlak:
Even when it was the bears, I knew it was the ‘immagints’!
BTW…Everyone pays taxes unless you live exclusively on baby food or off lotto winnings….VAT chance of that!
Comment of the month, kudos, sir!
@Timo: really. Have a look at what other countries have to endure. Which countries are better than here?
Why is there still such a reactive approach to this. Would wonder the cost analysis between costs of preparing all of these homes and premises for such an event vs the cost of clean up and insurance. This day and age, it is horrible to see such turmoil in people’s lives which can be prevented somewhat through proactively preparing homes and businesses for this.
@Michael Oc: how would you suggest a home should be prepared for up to 5ft of water flowing fast through it? How much do you think it would cost to prepare all properties for this? Also, how would you retro fit 100 year old buildings found in Midleton to cope with these conditions?
Are you for real?
Maybe should have been a little more specific.
Preparing homes also would mean preparing flood walls, banks etc of rivers to prevent rising water levels from reaching such.
So to answer your question, yes I am for real. Unsure if you are however. No name and all that.
Thanks for your contribution. You can take off the keyboard warrior costume now and play with your crayons.
Government cares about themselves only. Don’t fool yourself.
I think it’s time the Irish people all got together and went on the streets,is it today or 2moro these hate speech hate laws are to be voted in,Will be very interesting what opposition parties will vote,when Ireland is been spoken about on Fox news in the US and Elon Musk and other Countries,another conversation that needs to be had is why all the millions are giving to these so called NGOs,they are the 1s that protest against anything the Irish people aren’t happy with,no one’s tax money should be giving,aren’t they earning enough in the Dail,without paying people our money to stand against us,I just hope the farmers run enough candidates to form a party,because apart from Independents,the rest are obsessed with the EU,Sinn Fein I’ve always supported,they are on the EU train 100%
Don’t depend on the government to do anything. They’ve proved themselves time and again to be useless
@Martin Dennehy: I think it’s the local government to answer the questions. All of them parading into the dail today looking for relief. None of them were born yesterday. If they were true people of their own they would be proactive in these issues.
Gov. Can’t even manage the children’s hospital saga
Totally incompetent on every level
Figure out how much of your taxes gone in there
@Timo: That’s incompetent Civil Servants, not the government.
Ah yes, that magic money tree people believe exists for every want and need whenever there is something wrong.
@Temp Stuff: Well the magic money tree seems to arrive when politicians are trying to buy votes, appease the EU or the deluded NGO and virtue signalling mob when they want money for their latest bandwagon issue….amazing that
Don’t expect Varadkar to do anything. He’s proved himself time and again to be useless
@Martin Dennehy: if they’re all that bad, sure become a politician yourself and give it a go.
@Martin Dennehy: Yet their local government and TDs are directly responsible for dealing with flood measures and mitigation. After all, they live there, don’t they?
No money for flood defences, no money for Health service….. billions for Ukraine….. the country is being run by traitors
@Seamus Quinlan: you’ve got it all sorted. Do you really think the government can defeat nature? Ireland is not giving billions for Ukraine. The health service needs a lot of work but its a LOT better than most
These owners need to take more responsibility. Have they prepared for this flood warning? and are now complaining.
@Shane O Mac: Harsh – As the man said, it’s nature, but this time it swept in from the opposite direction. The flood routes have switched. They hadn’t any advance notice, nor any sandbags to fend it off. There are anti-flood works going on all around my area which is between two rivers. That’s visible and signposted & we can see it happening. They need to make their councillors accountable and more transparent about flood measures.
Our tax money goes into the pockets of the politicians, and to corrupt Ukraine Ireland is at the bottom of the list as per usual nothing changes
It goes on ‘disability’ and ‘dole’ and rent allowance and Christmas bonuses for see you next Tuesdays too lazy to get of bed. The other side of the coin is the complete omni shambles that is the Children’s Hospital. Why o effing why can things not be properly in thid Country?
Taxes won’t fix climate change.
Where are the trolls who belive if you live near a river you deserve to be flooded…?
Plenty of them about when it comes to Airport noise violations!
And our taxes fund unlimited welfare for the lazy and inflated wages and pensions for Public “workers”…
Don’t worry Corkonians, Michéal Nate Martin will be down to tell you that NATO Jan and Warring Joe has all our backs. He’s also going to ask Zelensky to draw some pics how they learnt from the floods and hopefully Michéal will do another field trip. (Ukrainian not Middleton). We’re so blessed to have a Cork schoolteacher with experience and eh..
Test
The areas of Middleton which were flooded were shown on flood risk maps 10 years ago.
No reaction from the people who live there.
On the other hand the projects which are funded have been tied up in local protests and judicial review for years.
In Cork city the River Bride culvert in Blackpool and the City center flood walls for example. -
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