It has often been used disproportionately against the poor, against minorities, and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. The death penalty is brutalising to everyone involved. Amnesty International takes action to prevent condemned prisoners from being executed, and it campaigns to persuade governments to abolish the death penalty in law. She was blindfolded, sprayed with cold water under extreme pressure, hung with her arms behind her back and had electric shocks applied. Amnesty International condemns torture in all cases.
Torture degrades the victims and at the same time dehumanises the torturer.
The list of torture techniques used today includes not only archaic instruments like whips, clubs and thumbscrews, but also the modern technology of electricity, sophisticated methods of psychological assault and drugs that can cause dread, hallucinations, muscle spasms and paralysis. Victims are beaten, burned, raped, suffocated and subjected to mock executions. Where there is torture, Amnesty International takes urgent action in all individual cases. Where there is a pattern of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Amnesty International will act. Amnesty International condemns all executions, including those carried out without any pretence of legality.