On Liberty by Shami Chakrabarti

Author:Shami Chakrabarti [Chakrabarti, Shami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846148101
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

Quite so.

5

No Torture, No Compromise? The Heart of Darkness, Secrets and Lies

Torture cannot be justified in any set of circumstances at all.

– Tony Blair, 7 December 2005

Well it all depends on what you mean by rendition. If it is something that is unlawful I totally disapprove of it; if it is lawful, I don’t disapprove of it.

– Tony Blair, 22 December 2005

Let’s face it – if you really think there are only fifty shades of grey, you probably need a bigger box of crayons. I’ve already discussed some of the many necessary ethical dilemmas confronting democrats who treasure fundamental human rights, especially in the face of challenges to law, order and national security. While we cherish our privacy, liberty, free expression and association rights among so many others, few of us would suggest that they can ever be completely absolute or unqualified. So we argue for any interference with these rights to be proportionate rather than counterproductive to the threats we seek to address. We demand tight and accessible legal process protections, especially for the application of a calm and even hand to ensure equal treatment and avoid the discrimination that divides us by fostering injustice and the natural resentment that follows.

Yet if human rights are to mean anything they must have hard edges as well as smooth corners. They must be robust as well as flexible. Some absolutes do exist. The rules against torture and slavery in particular. Since 9/11 many have questioned why this should be the case. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have asked me why it is that the Human Rights Convention allows killing – for example on the battlefield or even in peace time if strictly necessary to save life – but forbids inhuman and degrading treatment and torture in all circumstances, including emergencies such as war or a terrorist attack. From the routine way in which the scenario is trotted out to justify ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, another classic War on Terror euphemism, you would think that ticking nuclear bombs are found every other day at tube stations all over the democratic world. Nonetheless, this depressing or even shocking, oft repeated question deserves a serious answer.

Remember how the modern notion of international human rights was born. The drafters of the Universal Declaration and the European Convention on Human Rights did not just witness the barbarity of conventional armed conflict during the Second World War, but saw images and heard testimony from survivors of Nazi concentration and extermination camps and Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the concepts of torture, inhumanity and degradation were foremost in their minds. If that provides a historical context for the absolute rule against torture, what is the philosophical justification, especially if you are not a pacifist and are prepared to tolerate killing as a lawful and moral action in certain extreme circumstances?

Human rights instruments take life and death extremely seriously. The right to life in Article 2 of the Convention and Human Rights

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