Introduction

This chapter moves to outline forms of torture documented historically, and how torture (in its narrowest definitional sense) is documented. This primarily considers two substantial works: Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali, and This Side of Silence by Tobias Kelly. It outlines physical inflictions such as electrotorture, waterboarding, prolonged bath submersion and neardrowning, prodding, beating, induced stress positions and tortures such as noise, light and mock execution. Importantly, Rejali's work has been fundamental in exploring the silencing effects of ‘clean’ torture – that is, torture which is inflicted in more subtle ways through stealth that become difficult or impossible to physically evidence. As Kelly went on to highlight, this has significant implications for survivors of torture who are seeking asylum, as well as obtaining justice for their subjections, since evidence is diminished and thus so is the burden of proof.

From this, we look at the forms of torture identified by practitioners working with survivors of torture and/or sexualized violence. This chapter broadens the scope of practitioner narratives included to draw correlations between forms of violence documented as torture, and those which are not. The latter part of this chapter shifts focus to look at the consequences and impacts of torture. It is important to highlight the complex specificities of these impacts here, so we can later draw correlations and distinctions in other chapters, as we then shift away from narrow definitions and towards the conceptualization of torturous violence in a broader and more experiential sense.

Prologue: why outline forms of torture?

In his introduction to the text Torture and its Definitions in International Law, Metin Başoğlu reflects on being asked to develop the book. His thoughts were that ‘what the world needed was not yet another book on the consequences of torture but one that promotes a sound theory – and evidence – based understanding of torture’ (2017: xxiv). It is an excellent point, and one which drew me to consider whether there was any real value in what Chapter 2 aims to do: outline forms of violence that are recognized here as torture, and their impacts, or whether this ground is too well trodden already.