Take a Step to Stamp Out Torture

Three quarters of the world`s governments have used torture in the past three years. In police stations and prison cells, on city streets and in remote villages, torturers continue to devastate the lives of countless victims. For some the result is an agonizing death. For survivors life can never be the same again. Some scars heal. Others continue to disfigure the mind and the body long after the torture has ended.

This report draws on recent reports of torture and ill-treatment from more than 150 countries. The victims are criminal suspects as well as political prisoners, the disadvantaged as well as the dissident, people targeted because of their identity as well as beliefs. They are women as well as men, children as well as adults.

Action to eradicate torture is needed urgently, and this report launches a worldwide Amnesty International campaign against torture. Drawing on decades of experience in researching and working against torture, Take a step to stamp out torture focuses on three major areas - preventing torture, confronting discrimination and overcoming impunity.

It aims to galvanize people around the world in a collective effort to eradicate torture from the face of the earth.