This House believes that torture is only acceptable under legal supervision
Monday May 28 2007
MOTION REJECTED
by 42% to 58%
Details
A majority of the audience at the last Doha Debate of the third series held on May 28th agreed that the use of torture is never acceptable, even under legal supervision.
58.4% of the audience rejected the motion ‘This House believes that torture is only acceptable under legal supervision’.
Khawar Qureshi QC, a British barrister, and Colonel Bob Stewart, the first British commander under UN command in Bosnia, argued for the motion. They called torture a ‘last resort’ and told the audience that in very specific circumstances when terrorist acts could be prevented and many lives saved, torture should be allowed under the super vision of a judge.
The head of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, and Freshta Raper, a victim of torture in Iraq in the 1980s, argued passionately against the motion. They said that there can never be any circumstances under which torture is acceptable and gathering intelligence through torture is unreliable and open to abuse.
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