Amnesty: 'Global torture crisis'

Amnesty International warned on Tuesday that torture remains widespread, even 30 years after a blanket prohibition on its use was agreed by the United Nations.

The London-based group made the claims as it launched a new campaign condemning the practice on Tuesday.

"Three decades from the convention and more than 65 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights torture is not just alive and well. It is flourishing.

Amnesty said that, in the past five years, it had recorded incidents in 141 countries, including 79 of the 155 that signed the 1984 Convention Against Torture.

A global survey of 21,000 people in 21 countries revealed that torture remained a widespread threat to many, with 44 percent saying they feared abuse by officials if they were taken into custody.

'Growing tolerance of torture'

At the start of a Stop Torture launch in London, Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty told reporters that, in some parts of the world, respondents said torture was sometimes necessary and acceptable.

"It's almost become normalized, it's become routine," Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty said, at the launch of the "Stop Torture" campaign in London.

"Since the so-called war against terrorism, the use of torture, particularly in the United States and their sphere of influence... has got so much more normalized as part of national security expectations."

Depending on geography, support for torture varied widely - standing at some 74 percent in both India and China, and just 12 percent in Greece.

Amnesty - which, in its campaign, stresses that torture is never justified - claimed that a growing acceptance of torture in some countries, such as Britain, appeared to have been fostered by the popularity of anti-terror themed television dramas such as "24" and "Homeland."

The group recommends numerous safeguards to prevent torture, including keeping official records of arrests, videotaping of interrogations and access to lawyers.

rc / crh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)