June 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has commemorated this Sunday, the International Day of the Victims of Torture, with a condemnation of an “absolutely prohibited” practice that consists above all in the “denial of the inherent dignity of being human”.
Guterres laments that “torture persists in all regions of the world” and that “national security and border protection concerns are increasingly used to allow torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment.”
Its widespread consequences often go beyond the isolated act on an individual, and can be transmitted from generation to generation and give rise to cycles of violence.
This day has been chosen for the anniversary of the entry into force, in 1987, of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, one of the key instruments in the fight against torture. Today, the Convention has been ratified by 162 countries
The United Nations, recalls Guterres, condemns acts of torture “as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow men”, whose systematic or generalized practice of torture “constitutes a crime against humanity”.
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