Torture remains widespread throughout Asia. Several Asian states use extremely high levels of violence against their peoples, virtually without restraint. Each of these states perpetuates a framework of fear and intimidation to suppress popular participation in day-to-day affairs of the society. Thus the violence prevalent in Asian societies has become a threat to the functioning of democratic institutions.

In Asian countries, torture has its roots in violent feudal traditions that remain to the present. Ancient rulers and privileged social groups used extreme forms of violence to impose their model for control via absolute power; extremely cruel modes of punishment intimidated and silenced the people. This method of social control spread deep into the country, the village and the family.

In different countries such absolute control took different forms. In South Asia caste discrimination was the primary vehicle: the upper castes withdrew all rights from lower castes and constantly employed brutality to keep the caste order intact. Despite claims to the contrary, Indian and other South Asian societies have thoroughly violent histories. Under the façade of external civility, ordinary people were constantly exposed to savagery. In South East Asian societies too various feudal classifications of people for the purpose of social control were reinforced by overt violence, such as the sakdina system in Thailand and other status systems in China, Korea and Japan.

The wide use of torture and cruel and inhuman punishment in feudal societies has continued into modern times. The modernisation of Asia has not yet resulted in the abandoning of extreme use of violence by states against their people, as Asia’s modernisation often connotes an economic phenomenon and not social and political phenomena. In fact with the spread of globalisation the revival of ancient forms of violence has become even more blatant. While various economic projects are undertaken, the state machinery is not developed to act on the basis of respect for the human rights of the people. Often human rights and democracy exist only on paper and the actual practice of power is still carried out with historically rooted cruelty.

Torture is not purely physical. Modern states develop many forms of mental torture, such as that exercised in Malaysian prisons against political opponents.

It is becoming more and more difficult to ensure accountability of the state and its agents. The judiciary is often severely interfered with. In most countries there are no effective mechanisms that people can rely on to complain against acts of torture. Law enforcement officers continue such practices with impunity as the people lack effective remedies. Often torture leads to extra-judicial killings. Participants cited Aceh and Sri Lanka as examples: in both places torture and extra-judicial killings have reached extraordinary proportions, however the legal systems in those places have proved incapable of bringing such violence under control. Even in other countries where overt violence does not manifest itself so highly, its use on political opponents remains. Malaysia and Singapore are examples of countries where every form of dissent is treated with severe punishment.

It is becoming extremely clear that without popular movements against torture it will not be possible to achieve the aims of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The making of such popular movements depends on the imagination of people and their social organisations. Participants discussed the solidarity of Kwangju people’s resistance to military dictatorship in Korea; the Sri Lankan monument for disappeared persons; and the public suicide by Bishop John Joseph of Pakistan as an act of protest against the suppression of minority rights, which has become a platform for common action.

Participants discussed the need for symbolic actions to mobilise the people and create solidarity. They observed that widespread demoralisation and disintegration of solidarity results in a lack of reaction to violence. Demoralisation can be overcome when actions built on genuine solidarity are developed through symbolic action. People’s suffering must be constantly brought to the attention of all and the memory of suffering must be commemorated through symbolic action. In this way resistance can be built among people against practices of torture. 

Modern communication facilities can be useful in developing solidarity action against torture. Unfortunately, most human rights organisations in Asia have not yet learnt the use of these facilities in an efficient manner for quick dissemination of information on torture and other abuses of human rights; the typewriter culture still prevails. This lack of communication skills and reluctance to use these facilities needs to be overcome if proper services are to be provided for the victims of such violations. Through the application of modern technology, Asian groups can use worldwide networks such as OMCT and Christians Against Torture to eliminate human rights violations.

The role for modern communications in promoting the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment

In Asia the chief mode of communication has traditionally been oral. However modern communication systems provide hitherto unimaginable possibilities for human rights monitoring and lobbying, including activities for elimination of torture. Modern communications are typically written. Vast lobbies can be activated with properly recorded information, and the time required for this communication is becoming less and less with the increasing speed of technology. Thus any well-documented studies on torture can reach a vast audience within a very short time: required are the skills for writing and using communications.

For effective written communication, one has to understand and be convinced about its uses for practically influencing people. Most activists have trained themselves to use oral communications and most NGO organisational patterns are also geared towards facilitating oral communication. With the possibility of influencing much larger sections of population through written communications – as compared with small numbers that may be contacted through oral communication – activists and NGOs need to review their work habits and programmes with a view to evaluate their actual effectiveness. Written communication skills require not only new habits relating to the use of technology but also new psychological habits.

Today activists cannot avoid being computer conscious. Use of computers is no longer a matter of access to this technology; it is a matter of consciously taking advantage of it, as it offers tremendous possibilities for communication. Computer consciousness requires the acquiring of skills: on the one hand, the need for technical use of computers; on the other, the need to develop writing skills. Activists are generally reluctant to engage in “quiet” activities such as writing, however under modern circumstances writing is also part of activism. In fact, without such skills activism may turn out to be ineffective. Today activism and the use of written communication have become intertwined. If transmitted into writing, the enormous amount of information that becomes available daily on torture can be very effective tool in the fight to eliminate it. To allow acts of torture to be forgotten after perhaps a few days of protest is one of the reasons for the lack of success so far in the fight against torture. If every event had been properly recorded and used there would have been far greater social movements against torture that states would not be able to ignore.

Modern communication is no longer the patrimony of big companies. A private individual or group using their own computers can now reach a vast audience: network upon network is available, but in Asia this private power has not yet been used to any satisfactory degree. Hopefully the greater use of this capacity available to individuals can be used in an Asia-wide campaign for the elimination of torture.

The use of such private communication reduces hindrances associated with publications in the past. It cuts down costs enormously. It is also free from dependence on printed media controlled by owners and marketing agents and cannot be controlled by legal restrictions over the publication of printed matter. Even in times of censorship private media can be effectively used to counter the aims of censorship.