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- Title
Marks of Civilisation: The Special Stigma of Torture.
- Authors
Farrell, Michelle
- Abstract
The European Court of Human Rights attached a special stigma to torture in Ireland v United Kingdom , in its interpretation of the distinction between torture and other forms of ill-treatment. The concept is now central to the European Court's description of torture under article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is, I argue, significant that the Court reached for this particular phrase. I consider the special stigma as a parapraxis facilitating a reading of the Court's 'unconscious text'. I connect the power to stigmatise with torture to explore the special stigma's figurative, material and theological implications. Stigma, with its multi-layered meaning and its deep connections to torture, is useful in working out how Western powers generated their self-images as civilised whilst persisting with practices of torture. With the special stigma, the European Court rehabilitated the civilising standard and resurrected the historic association between torture and stigma.
- Subjects
TORTURE; SOCIAL stigma; CIVILIZATION; POLITICAL theology; EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights
- Publication
Human Rights Law Review, 2022, Vol 22, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1461-7781
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/hrlr/ngab029