In 2014 Amnesty International launched its Global Stop Torture campaign to stop governments around the world from torturing people.
Torture is abhorrent. It is barbaric and inhumane. It can never be justified. It is wrong, self defeating and poisons the rile of law, replacing it with terror. No one is safe when governments allow its use.
The world’s governments recognised these fundamental truths when they adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This enshrined the basic rights of all of us, everywhere, to live free from torture, free from cruelty.
This right was later enshrined in a legally binding international agreement through an explicit prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This was further built upon by the UN Convention Against Torture.
Despite these international laws many governments are betraying their responsibilities and torture is being used in countries across the globe.
Amnesty International has reported on torture and other ill-treatment in 141 countries and from every world region. While in some of these countries Amnesty International has only documented isolated and exceptional cases, in others torture is systematic.
Read our report Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises to find out more.
