The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading
treatment or punishment has a special status. It is the foremost
international human rights norm protecting persons from attacks on
their dignity and integrity. Consequently, it has been at the
forefront of a series of developments in international human rights
law and international law more broadly. Having withstood sustained
challenges to its absolute nature in the 'war on terror', it has
broadened its scope of application, becoming more sophisticated and
complex in the process. The prohibition of torture increasingly
interacts with other fields of human rights law, such as
non-discrimination law, international criminal law, international
humanitarian law, and international migration law. The Transformation
of the Prohibition of Torture in International Law analyses the nature
and significance of this transformation and looks into the scope of
the prohibition's further evolution. Empirical scholarship, innovative
human rights body practice, and challenges from activists,
particularly from the Global South, have focused on the relational
nature of torture and other ill-treatment, its embeddedness in wider
structures of power, and the role of international law in
legitimizing-if not facilitating-widespread suffering, from mass
incarceration to poverty and climate change. This analysis reveals an
inherent tension in the prohibition between a conventional, narrow
focus on direct State violence and a wide lens encompassing myriad
forms of suffering. To retain its validity and effectiveness in the
twenty-first century, argues Lutz Oette, the prohibition on torture
must navigate this tension and successfully address and transform
abusive power asymmetries.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780198885764
Publisert
2024
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter