U.S. Law Prohibits Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Any practice of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by United States officials violates international human rights standards to which the United States is a party. These include the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.1
The use of torture also violates U.S. law. In 1994, Congress passed a new federal law which specifically provides for penalties including fines and up to 20 years' imprisonment for acts of torture committed by American or other officials outside the United States. In cases where torture results in death of the victim, the sentence is life imprisonment or execution.2
"Renderings" to countries known to engage in routine torture violate article 3 of the Torture Convention, which prohibits sending an individual to another state where there are "substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture."3 Such transfers, and even credible threats of such transfers, made to combatants detained in an armed conflict also violate article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention, which provides that "[n]o physical or mentaltorture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind" (emphasis added). Indeed, if committed against persons protected by the Geneva Conventions, "torture or inhuman treatment.[or] willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health," would all constitute "grave breaches" under the Geneva Conventions.4
