International Human Rights: Torture versus Ill-Treatment
Why does international human rights law distinguish between the concepts of ‘torture’ and ‘ill-treatment’? Do you consider this distinction well-founded? The distinction between torture and ill-treatment is not well-founded because there is no functional framework defining the purposes of these two differentiated concepts. To rectify this lack of clarity, torture and ill-treatment should be understood as completely distinct tools that address separate issues. Cleaving the two ideas apart and setting them against different social ills not only creates a clearer distinction that simplifies the legal regime addressing coercive state action (torture), but it also develops a more comprehensive human rights framework that can now use one of its foundational concepts (ill-treatment) to address systemic failures. International human rights distinguishes between torture and ill-treatment. The distinction exists throughout human rights legal documents, starting with the Universal Declar...