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The Israeli Supreme
Court in 1999 decided to legalize the use of arbitrary
torture as an interrogation method including violent
shaking, isolation, beating, kicking, sleep deprivation,
agonizing positioning and infliction of pain for prolonged
periods and exempts ISA (Israeli Security Agency, formerly
known as the GSS) interrogators who use physical pressure
in extreme circumstances from criminal liability, as
they may rely on the "defence of necessity".
The UN Committee Against Torture has emphasized that
such Israeli practices is torture and has expressed
concern that Israel has failed to promulgate legislation
prohibiting torture - both are violations of the UN
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Furthermore, torture
is strictly forbidden under the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Articles 3 and 32, and is described as a grave breach
under Article 147, thus constituting a war crime. [1]
The
Fourth Geneva Convention
Art.
3. In the case of armed conflict not of an international
character occurring in the territory of one of the High
Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall
be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities,
including members of armed forces who have laid down
their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness,
wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all
circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse
distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith,
sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain
prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with
respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a)
violence to life and person, in particular murder
of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b)
taking of hostages;
(c)
outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating
and degrading treatment
(d)
the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions
without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly
constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees
which are recognized as indispensable by civilized
peoples.
(2)
The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.
An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International
Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to
the Parties to the conflict.
The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour
to bring into force, by means of special agreements,
all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.
The application of the preceding provisions shall not
affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.
Art.
32. The High Contracting Parties specifically agree
that each of them is prohibited from taking any measure
of such a character as to cause the physical suffering
or extermination of protected persons in their hands.
This prohibition applies not only to murder, torture
, corporal punishments, mutilation and medical or
scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical
treatment of a protected person, but also to any other
measures of brutality whether applied by civilian or
military agents.
Art.
147. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article
relates shall be those involving any of the following
acts, if committed against persons or property protected
by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture
or inhuman treatment , including biological experiments,
wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to
body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or
unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling
a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile
Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the
rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present
Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction
and appropriation of property, not justified by military
necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment of 1984
Article
1
1.
For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture"
means 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 a third person, or for any reason based
on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering
is inflicted by or at the investigation of or with the
consent or acquiescence of a public official or other
person acting in an official capacity. It does not include
pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or
incidental to lawful sanctions .
2.
This article is without prejudice to any international
instrument or national legislation which does or may
not contain provisions of wider application.
Article
2
1.
Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative,
judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture
in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2.
No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether
a state of war or a threat of war, internal political
instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked
as a justification of torture .
3.
An order from a superior officer or a public authority
may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
Article
4
1.
Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture
are offences under its criminal law. The same shall
apply to an attempt to commit torture and an act by
any person which constitutes complicity or participation
in torture.
2.
Each State Party shall make these offences punishable
by appropriate penalties which takes into account their
grave nature.
Article
5
1.
Each State Party shall take such measures as may be
necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offences
referred to in article 4 in the following cases:
(a)
When the offences are committed in any territory under
its jurisdiction or on board a ship or aircraft registered
in that State;
(b)
When the alleged offender is a national of that State;
(c)
When the victim is a national of that State if that
State considers it appropriate.
2.
Each State Party shall likewise take such measures as
may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over
such offences in cases where the alleged offender is
present in any territory under its jurisdiction and
it does not extradite him pursuant to article 8 to any
of the States mentioned in paragraph 1 of this article.
3.
This Convention does not exclude any criminal jurisdiction
exercised in accordance with internal law.
http://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Torture.conv.htm
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