Amnesty International has said in a report that torture is rife across the Asia-Pacific region, with China and North Korea among worst-affected countries.
The report, Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises, was released on Tuesday. It provides an overview of the use of torture in the world today. The report says that torture is used to force confessions or to silence activists in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
It is used to extort money in places such as Myanmar and Nepal, where poor and marginalised people are unable to bribe their way out of being tortured.
Amnesty has launched a two-year global campaign titled ‘Stop Torture’. It says that in a number of Asia-Pacific countries the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is routine — and accepted by many as a legitimate response to high levels of crime.
The vast majority of people in Asia-Pacific believe that there should be clear laws against torture, but in China and India almost three quarters of respondents (74 per cent) felt torture was sometimes necessary — the highest numbers in any of the countries polled.
In Indonesia, Pakistan and South Korea the majority of respondents feared they could be tortured if taken into custody.
The report says that torture in Pakistan is frequently practiced by police, intelligence services and the army, particularly in conflict-ridden tribal areas and Balochistan. Amnesty has received reports of torture used on human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists among others.