A Comparative Analysis of Mental and Psychological Suffering as Torture, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment under International Human Rights Treaty Law

(…) The main target of any kind of ill-treatment, physical or psychological, is human dignity. However, the infliction of physical pain attracts more attention than mental suffering. Torture is the most serious form of physical ill-treatment which directly hurts human dignity. The individual is reduced to a position of extreme helplessness and distress, which causes his cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions to deteriorate.
The victim is treated as an object at the hands of the torturer. At this point, the psychological destruction of the victim becomes no less important than the physical pain. Cruel and inhuman treatment is somewhere between physical and psychological ill-treatment, but includes both. When compared with torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, degrading treatment is much more related to human psychology. It consists of subjective psychological elements such as humiliation and debasement. (…)

Sources:

• A Comparative Analysis of Mental and Psychological Suffering as Torture, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment under International Human Rights Treaty Law http://projects.essex.ac.uk/ehrr/V4N1/Neziroglu.pdf
• Commentary on the provisions contained in the Geneva Convention, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Penal Code on the basis of selected excerpts from judgments http://not.surgery/legal/2018/06/14/excerpts-from-publications.html
• What do the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Penal Code have to say about this? http://not.surgery/legal/2018/06/14/conventions-constitution-and-penal-code.html

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