Torture, Justification, and Human Rights: Toward an Absolute Proscription

This article critically examines and develops an important approach in the international human rights community to the moral justification of an absolute proscription of torture, or, alternatively put, to the cogency of a non-derogative right not to be tortured. This approach involves elements of moral intuitionism, a minimal natural law position, and consequentialist arguments that ought—taken together or independently—to be convincing to all people of good will, regardless of their cultural location. The essay deploys sources from international human rights, comparative and philosophical ethics, and empirical and NGO studies about the intrinsic nature and pervasive deleterious effects of torture practices.