Harry1984a 0 Report post Posted January 31, 2006 Because of a short TV clip in the news yesterday, i want you to read some lines from an essay i wrote some years ago. It is a short report of torture in connection with NGOs, etc. Like my other articles (=topics) in this board, I want to make you think in some way... think about themes which are not cool/easy/great/funny... General information about the organisations in connection with torture... NGOs: NGOs are non-governmental organisations that are impartial, independent and global. They fight against all kind of injustice, such as oppression, segregation, corrupt governments, ⦠The best-known organisations are Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Amnesty International: Amnesty is a worldwide movement, which is independent of any government, political party, economic interest or religious belief. The members of Amnesty International are volunteers and this organisation is the largest, because there are now over one million members in more than 160 countries. Its aims are... 1.They want to achieve the release of all prisoners of conscience. These are men and women imprisoned for their political beliefs, religion and race. 2. Amnesty International fights for the enforcement of human rights. 3. Amnesty International demands fair and early trials for all prisoners and it wants to prevent these people from torture and executions. 4. Furthermore they also want the governments to improve the conditions in the prisons. Amnesty International achieves these goals with its letter-writing-campaigns. Thousands of letters are posted by the members to put an involved party or country under pressure. This organisation was founded in 1960, after a British lawyer, Peter Benenson, read an article about two Portuguese students, who had been arrested, because they drink a toast to freedom. So he started a campaign and soon there was an enormous response to his initiative. The symbol of Amnesty International is a burning candle surrounded by barbed wire. Torture itself... Types of torture: Torture has been practised with different level of brutality for many centuries. It is a world-wide problem and is often practised by governments or military dictatorships to intimidate the population or the opposition. There are two types of torture ⦠Physical Torture This means that people are âre-educatedâ through hard labour, and poor food. Very often corporal punishment is used, such as hanging by legs & arms, electric shocks, severe beatings, ... . In general people who resist against a âruleâ are punished with ill-treatment. Mental Torture For example being prevented from sleeping, can be even more painful than physical torture and it doesnât leave marks on the prisoners body. Furthermore subjecting to a high-pitched noise is a quite common form of torture. The Milgramâs Experiment: An American scientist, Stanley Milgram, carried out an experiment in which one person was ordered to hurt another person more and more. He wanted to find out when persons would refuse to obey. The âteachersâ were to punish the âlearnersâ with an electric shock. At the beginning of the experiment most of the âteachersâ said that they would never hurt the âlearnersâ, but most of them changed their opinions during the experiment. So Mr Milgram found out that it is more important for the âteachersâ to obey the experimenters than to avoid hurting the âlearnersâ. Article 5 of the UNâs Declaration of Human Rights: âNo one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment!â information/links about the theme: Amnesty international on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_international Logo of Amnesty International http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ HQ of Amnesty INternational and Official-Site https://www.amnesty.org/en/ Greetings Harry Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
