I am also a member of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Committee. I am here today to speak to you about the crime of torture and the devastating impact it has on the human mind, body, and spirit. According to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, torture consists of acts that are designed to cause extreme physical or psychological suffering and that are carried out by or with the approval of a public official or a person acting in an official capacity. Torture is designed to break down the human personality, to destroy the human spirit, and to terrorize communities. The effects of torture are not time-limited.
Torture changes a person for life.
Survivors are profoundly affected physically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually by unimaginably cruel acts,such as having one's head forced repeatedly into a barrel of filthy liquids to the point of near drowning, being forced to drink a gallon of gasoline, or being forced to watch a child be tortured. Sometimes what may sound to us as less traumatizing experiences than these are reported by a survivor as being intolerable to the point of madness, such as living for years in a small cell packed with sixty people, suffering from fleas, insect bites, hot, stagnant air, and the stench of excrement from the hole in the floor. The sequelae of torture are profound and can be disabling if the survivor does not have appropriate treatment. Severe sleep disturbances are common. Many survivors report being able to sleep only an hour every night.