Terrorism & Rule of Law / Comment
Fighting against the Universalization of Torture
10/12/2005 By Luis Peral
The prohibition of torture is absolute in international law, and consequently it is prevailing law in all States and cannot be suspended in any place nor under any circumstances.
This prohibition responds to two fundamental reasons. On the abstract level, torture is forbidden as a basic guarantee of respect for human dignity. Human dignity is the essence that we share as human beings, the irrevocable condition that unites all of us who belong to this species, that which unfailingly remains with us after we have been stripped of office, honours and ornaments.
Human dignity is what, underneath it all, makes us equal, over and above any differences, and for this reason if only one person suffers torture in any place in the world, human dignity is universally outraged.
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Keywords
Human rights Terrorism War on terrorRelated publications
Bio author: Luis Peral
Luis Peral is PhD in Law, MA in Law of the European Union, MA in Law, BA in Political Sciences, with specialisation in International Relations (Universities Complutense and Carlos III of Madrid), and Diploma in English Law (University of Kent, Canterbury, UK). He has collaborated with FRIDE as Researcher and currently works as Director of the Conflict Prevention and Resolution programme at the Toledo International Centre for Peace. He also works at the Centre for Constitutional Studies of the Ministry of the Presidency under the Ramón y Cajal Research Programme of the Spanish Government, and is Senior Research Fellow at FRIDE.
