Torture

Torture is the intentional infliction of severe physical or psychological pain or suffering on a person for a variety of reasons, including punishment, coercion, or for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession. Torture is a serious human rights violation and is prohibited under international law.

Torture can take many forms, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and other forms of mistreatment. It may involve a range of techniques, such as beating, electrocution, waterboarding, and other forms of abuse. Torture can cause serious physical and psychological harm, and it can even result in death.

Torture is universally condemned and is strictly prohibited by a number of international treaties and conventions, including the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Many countries have laws that prohibit torture and provide for criminal penalties for those who engage in it. However, despite these legal protections, torture continues to occur in many parts of the world.

 

 

U.S. among 17 countries that practice forced labor, a form of ‘modern slavery,’ report finds
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U.S. among 17 countries that practice forced labor, a form of ‘modern slavery,’ report finds

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, with one exception: compulsory labor in prisons. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,” it reads. Nearly 160 years later, the United States is one of…

36 Days of Type: Indian Laws That Shaped Our Lives
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36 Days of Type: Indian Laws That Shaped Our Lives

For #36DaysOfType, The Swaddle’s Denise D’Souza illustrated the A-Z of Indian laws that have impacted Indians in unforeseen ways. ⁠ The Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 (AFSPA) grants the military the ability to maintain public order in ‘disturbed areas,’ through wide powers of arrest, the right to shoot to kill, and to occupy or…

The strange origins of the Satanic Panic: How one Canadian book started a worldwide witch hunt
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The strange origins of the Satanic Panic: How one Canadian book started a worldwide witch hunt

Editor’s note: we present this article as a view of our current political / cultural climate. We acknowledge the reality of documented Satanic Ritual Abuse as well as the effects of “Satanic Panic.” Please research all these topics thoroughly. Satan Wants You has its Canadian premiere April 27 at the Hot Docs Film Festival in…

Co-creating a better world by working to eradicate human trafficking
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Co-creating a better world by working to eradicate human trafficking

“Responding Together” is the theme of the 5th annual Bon Secours St. Francis seminar Watch video here. Ending human trafficking is in the hands of every individual and it begins with awareness. That’s what the organizers of the fifth annual Bon Secours St. Francis Human Trafficking Seminar believe, so they are hosting this half-day summit…

Understanding and Pursuing Labor Trafficking Cases Collaboratively – MDPI
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Understanding and Pursuing Labor Trafficking Cases Collaboratively – MDPI

1. Introduction The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was introduced in 2000, defining sex and labor trafficking and creating criminal statutes to facilitate investigations, prosecutions, and provide victim services in the United States [1]. Despite the TVPA, most local law enforcement agencies required years to begin investigating street level prostitution and residential brothels as potential…

“A scandalous industry”: Catholic Bishop on Human Trafficking in Southern Africa
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“A scandalous industry”: Catholic Bishop on Human Trafficking in Southern Africa

Factors behind human trafficking in the countries of IMBISA, he said, “are the issues we need to talk about as the church.” “All the causes point at poverty,” the Ugandan-born Catholic Bishop further said, adding that the victims of human trafficking are subjected to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual torture, thus the need for the…

Bons Secours St. Francis Health System Human Trafficking Symposium to take place April 4
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Bons Secours St. Francis Health System Human Trafficking Symposium to take place April 4

Bon Secours St. Francis Health System’s 5th Annual Human Trafficking Symposium will be taking place at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena this year, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4. The half-day of presentations will feature three experts: Ana Isabel Vallejo, JD, Mollie Gordon, MA, MD, and Cardell T. Morant. Vallejo works…

Exploiting Prison Workers for Cheap Sheets
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Exploiting Prison Workers for Cheap Sheets

It took Johnny Perez over four years of making hundreds of bedsheets every day at a factory to reach the top pay tier: about 32 cents an hour, nearly double his starting wage. He was one of the highest-paid workers at Coxsackie Correctional Facility—a textile manufacturer run by the New York State prison system. When…

The Situation of the Rohingya and Deadly Sea Crossings – Refugees International
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The Situation of the Rohingya and Deadly Sea Crossings – Refugees International

This piece was jointly submitted with Women’s Peace Network to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons in response to their call for inputs. For decades, as an ethnic minority group, the Rohingya people have faced discrimination, oppression, and persecution in Myanmar. Stripped from their access to property, citizenship, and other basic rights,…

Ontario seeing more Newfoundlanders being trafficked, says Durham victim services – CBC
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Ontario seeing more Newfoundlanders being trafficked, says Durham victim services – CBC

The executive director of victim services in one of Canada’s human trafficking hotspots says she’s seeing an increase in people from Newfoundland and Labrador in her caseload. Krista MacNeil is the executive director of Victim Services of Durham Region, encompassing the Greater Toronto Area towns of Ajax, Oshawa, Whitby and several smaller communities. As a Mi’kmaw woman born and raised in Stephenville, N.L., MacNeil said…