This is a revised version of a paper presented by Jim Welsh and Mary Rayner from Amnesty International at the meeting “Caring for Survivors of Torture: challenges for the medical and health professions”, which took place in Cape Town, South Africa, between 15-17 November 1995. It discusses the reasons for torture and gives details of cases illustrating the practice of torture in contexts other than narrowly political ones. These include the torture of alleged criminals to gain confessions, torture occurring in the context of poor discipline, torture of women and the marginalized in society, torture on the grounds of ethnicity, “foreignness”, and asylum-seekers, and torture as an instrument of war. It also discusses the difficulties for victims in obtaining redress.
