Before we discuss an overview of the history of torture, it is important to set a definition of what torture exactly is. According to the UN resolution against torture, torture is every act that intentionally inflicts intense pain or intense distress, physically or mentally, with intents such as obtaining information, punishment, intimidation or force, when such pain is inflicted by, or with the consent of a government official.

The reasons for torturing have not changed throughout the centuries
1) To get information or a confession out of someone who is not willing to give it out of his- or herself. In this way it is not uncommon that people are forced to confess to something they have not done.
2) As a punisment. In multiple countries such as Iran punishments as whip lashes, stick beatings, or amputions of hands or feet exist.
3) As a means of control against crime or political resistance. In many countries police officers torture to scare and intimidate criminals. Nowadays, this is the most occurring reason for torture.
4) As a means of terror. In recent wars (for instance Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Chechenia) often random people were tortured to scare an entire population.

One of the most prominent human rights organizations, Amnesty International, has done research and has concluded that torture, and other severe forms of assault take place in at least 150 countries.
Of those, seventy countries apply systematical torture on a regular basis.
Countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan for instance, have a long history of systematical and oppression and torture. This goes on untill this day, but more and more governments appear to be willing to explicitly acknowledge and condemn torture. Pressure of human rights organizations has played a big part in bringing this about.
A lot of people do not know that systematic torture takes place in certain countries in the first place.
That is why Project Aware tries to make people Aware that human rights violations still take place often. This process of Awareness is necessary because a lot of people are often ignorant about it and for that reason action cannot be taken.

In ancient Greece torture was used only on slaves, but from the Roman empire torture became common for arrested civilians. In the German common law of the early middle ages torture was not widely used. The practise revived from the 12th century on when interest in Roman right rose.
In the 14th century the torturing of suspects was a usual practice in entire Europe, however more in southern than in the northern countries.
Torture became a part of a procedure in which the suspect needed to confess, in order to be convicted. The suspect had to confirm his confession after being tortured, but if he refused he could be tortured again.
Especially the medieval inquisition (13th to 17th century) developed a lot of torturing techniques for those who were suspected of heresy or witchcraft. Known are the horrific torture practises the Spanish Inquisition applied to those of other religions.

The Enlightenment in this case literally brougt enlightenment. The most important principal the supporters of the Enlightenment had was that one could find the truth about certain things with the help of ratio (reason, intellect) in stead of taking what for instance church authorities said for granted. This found expression in, among other things, a larger tolerance and a clear decline in the number of torture cases by inquisition and religion related institutes.
During the Enlightenment several leading thinkers declared themselves against torture. The Italian lawyer Cesare Beccaria (1735-1794) became famous thanks to his strong plea for unconditional abolishment of torture and the death penalty. In the beginning of the 20th century people assumed that torture in the west was as good as banished.
However, after the horrors of the nazi prisoner interrogations and the concentration camps became known, torture became important once again. In part because of the enormous violations of human rights during World War II the Universal decleration of Human Rights took effect in 1948. It was the first international comfirmation of the universality of human rights. The declaration has no binding power, but throughout the years has gotten a big moral meaning as the most important international standard of human rights.
Nevertheless since then torture and human rights violations have continued on a large scale. During the Algerian war (1954-1962) French soldiers applied torture on a large scale, which led to sharp protests of, among other things, the famous philosopher and writer Jean Paul Sartre.
It turned out later that the Regime of the Colonels in Greece (1967-1974) and the military regime in Portugal and its colonies (untill 1974) frequently applied torture. In Yugoslavia, Rwanda, lots of African, South American, and various Asian countries torture has been, and is present to this day.

Nowadays torture is applied in about 150 countries, but the seriousness of the torture varies. A distinction is made between incidental cases of torture and serious assault by police (15% of the countries) and countries in which torture or assault is reported on a regular basis (55%), countries that apply systematic torture (20%), and countries where torture occurs on a large scale because of an armed conflict (10%). Various Western European countries, among which France, Italy and Spain fall in the first category.

Tibet and torture

Project Aware's roots lie in the contact with Tibetan refugees. Thus, as an example we take the human rights situation in Tibet:
In Tibet, criticizing China is sufficient to get arrested and to be taken for interrogation. This has been going on since the invasion China executed in 1949. Since then, Tibet has been occupied by a substantial army force without there being control on what is going on in Tibet. By China 'subversive' expressions are still being considered as antirevolutionary and as a violation of the unity of the Motherland. Tibetans can be arrested for taking part in independance demonstrations, spreading posters and pamphlets that call for independance, singing political songs, property of photo's of the Dalai Lama, speaking to foreigners about the situation in Tibet, and so on.
The biggest part of the political prisoners is locked up without any form of trial. If and when a trial takes place, the verdict is often prefixed. Less than two per cent of cases are won by the defense. In China there is a reversed burden of proof; a suspect is considered guilty untill proven innocent. The problem of course is, that Chinese authorities do not allow independant observers in, so these can also not officially attend public lawsuits.

In the period from 1987 untill 1989 spontanious protest actions of monks and nuns found response with big groups of Tibetans who subsequently joined these protests. This resulted in six mass demonstrations in which 200 unarmed demonstrators died. Hundreds of others were arrested. The average penalty length for them was three years and four months. In March 1989 a state of emergancy was declared as a result of which the number if demonstrations declined drastically. Although the state of emergancy was abolished in April 1990, the fear of reprisals was so big, that things remained calm. The sporadic demonstrations that did take place were spontaneous actions in which less than ten people (often nuns and monks) were involved. These demonstrations often took place on the Barkor, the pilgrim path round the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, and consisted of screaming independance slogans. It was not untill 1993 that the number of demonstrations increased again. 180 people were arrested that year, during 44 protests. We can presume that they were tortured by Chinese authorities. Shortly after that, there were extra hard repercussions and in 1996 campaigns started in the whole of China in which extra strong action was taken in Tibet against anti Chinese protests and most forms of political activity. To this day, just showing a picture of the Dalai Lama is forbidden and can lead to random arrests, detention and torture. Since the relaunching of the so called 'Strike Hard' campaign in April 2001, not only Tibetans who 'bring the national security in danger', but also those who 'help others to flee the country illegally' are being arrested for 'political activism'. Between 1996 and 2001 a total of about 2500 Tibetans were arrested, among which also a large number of Tibetans under the age of 18. In 2001 the number of Tibetan political prisoners was estimated at 254.
Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York China uses exceptionally cruel practices to opress Tibetans in the name of fighting terrorism.

One could think of the following:

Very bad circumstances for prisoners who have been arrested on the ground of very doubtful arbitrariness. These circumstances do not comply with international accepted minimum conditions.
There is a shortage of sufficient food, which increases the chance of illnesses. In addition, medical care is completely inadequate.

Letting people perform heavy work under bad circumstances. Sufficient precautions for instance lack, because of which deadly accidents can happen. A common punishment for political prisoners in Tibet is the so called 're-education-through-penal servidtude'.
China refuses to abolish this punishment that is in violation of human rights.

Torture that involves physical violence. Prisoners are being beaten with sticks, exposed to extreme temperatures, hung up on their wrists that are tied to their backs, attacked by dogs or shocks are being applied in the mouth or women genitals by electric sticks.

The effects of the torturings are being strengthened by the lack of food and proper medical care.
The number of prisoners that have died as a direct result of such torture practises has increased since the wave of pro-independance demonstrations in 1987. There is a lot of proof of this practises of Tibetan refugees such as Pasang Lhamo and Choeying Kunsang, two nuns from the Drapi prison who have been free since 2002.
Psychological or mental torturing techniques are also often used to mentally break someone and in this way get statements or information out of someone. Mental pressure can be exerted by degrading someone, playing very loud music, talking someone into false accusations, causing sleep deprivation through which a person can be psychologically manipulated and exhausted.
These kinds of techniques often bring more damage than pure physical violence and can lead to lifelong complexes.

China and UN Treaties

China has signed certain treaties that should contribute to a gradual improvement of human rights situations very late. China signed, among others, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. China instantly declared that they would not be able to live up to the covenant on certain key points, for they said that it would be contrary to the Chinese constitution. China did guarantee freedom of speech and fair trial and it gives protection against assault and random imprisonment.
To this day however, the people's congress has still not ratified the treaty and experts doubt that this will change any time soon.
Despite signing or ratification of such treaties we cannot speak of improvement of the human rights situation in Tibet. Since the beginning of the 90's the Chinese policy has shifted from ' controling' to opression.
Torture continues to this very day

After the invasion in 1949 a year-long struggle between the Chinese army and the Tibetan rebels followed. The Chinese army used guerilla tactics at which numerous villages and convents were burnt down and hundreds of summary executions took place. Massive demonstrations in 1959 were violently suppressed by China, and in the region Lhasa alone 87000 people were killed.
According to the Tibetan government in exile between 1949 and 1979 more than 1.2 million Tibetans met their deaths as a direct result of Chinese acts. The Tibet policy of the Chinese government has been condemned repeatedly by among others the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and human rights organizations. Tibet is still opressed and in the course of years almost all Buddhist monestaries have been attacked by Chinese soldiers, plundered and destroyed. Many monks and nuns did not survive and were tortured or forced to have sexual relations with one another for years.
Lots of Tibetan monks have fled abroad and have started new lives there. This has been an important factor in the growing popularity of Tibetan Buddhism in the west. Wanting to attribute to the consciousness that Tibet is still in fact occupied territory where there is no freedom is one of the biggest challenges Project Aware faces and dedicates itself to.

At the end of 2004 there were150 Tibetan polical prisoners in China, of which 100 were Buddhist munks. On a regular basis political prisoners die during their imprisonment, and stories about torture still reach us every day. The Panchen Lama has been imprisoned for more than 10 years and was the youngest political prisoner of the world in 1995. He was then 6 years old.
The current Dalai Lama has said that the next Dalai Lama will not be born in Tibet, for nowadays it is not a safe place for a Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama nowadays does not strive for a free Tibet, but for a truly autonomous Tibet within China in which the Tibetans have a good living situation and can practise their religion freely.