A man was in the kitchen on what promised to be another relaxing night at home. He washed up and plopped on the living room couch next to his wife who wore a smile, perhaps glad to have her husband around after another hectic day at work; a typical scene repeated in households worldwide. In most stories, what follows next is another night’s sleep. Not many end with armed forces bursting through your door and dragging your husband away.

In our post 9/11 world, the word ‘torture’ has been overused up to the point that the shock factor at the mention of its happenings is almost non-existent. ‘Waterboarding’ is now a household term and, just like the Mexican drug wars, the proverbial starving children of Africa and what’s now a disturbingly all too common Middle Eastern civilian deaths, there is an information overload regarding government tortures that we are now numb to it.

Amnesty International’s new video titled Hooded lets us see what it’s like to be tortured. The viewer is given a first person view on the terrifying ordeals of being abducted and having your face covered with a hood, but the worse is yet to come. Coupled with the abductee’s growing sense of disorientation, he became subject to electro-shock and water boarding. The torture is portrayed so powerfully in this video with the intention of depicting the ordeal exactly the way the detainee would see it. Blinded, except for streams of light that penetrates through small holes in the hood, perhaps the only thing worse than the actual torture is not knowing what will happen next.

Amnesty International provided a description to accompany the video stating its purpose:

“Hooded is an exploration of visual and auditory senses to convey the horrific nature of torture. It combines extensive sound design with abstracted visuals to provide a disturbing experience. It is a powerful reminder that torture is barbaric and never justifiable.

This film has been made as part of Amnesty International’s Security with Human Rights campaign, which aims to end abuses of human rights which take place in the context of terrorism, countering terrorism and national security.”

Though many countries have prohibited torture in the past century, what is now labeled ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ has brought the issue back into the public eye, with some nations even practicing it openly. Amnesty International reported that torture is more prevalent in G-20 nations. Torturers are trained and most wouldn’t exist without government backings. The acceptance of using cruel treatment on anyone signifies a serious erosion to fundamental human rights, and though some argue that it’s a necessary tool in the ongoing war against terror, a four-decade study by the US Intelligence Science Board reported torture as being ineffective in obtaining reliable intelligence.

CIA Veteran, Bob Baer, admitted, “To be honest, in those situations (of interrogation) I really had no idea what I was doing.”

In plenty of cases, the victims who are subjected to these interrogation techniques are merely suspects with little to no evidences regarding their involvement in the crimes they were accused of. Such is the case with Maher Arar, a Canadian who was held for a year and tortured in Syria after the US authorities had relied on accurate information to detain him. Although Arar received compensations and a formal apology, no amount of either can compensate for the trauma and emotional scarring suffered by such torture victims.

Torture is the most widespread human rights crime in the world and we find ourselves in yet another situation where we are left to ponder: how can something so horrific be so prevalent? As a civilization that aims to move forward, this is one barbaric act that we can do without because as the video stresses: Nothing justifies this. Nothing makes it right.

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At the general meeting for the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck and its investors, the polemics surrounding the use of Lundbeck’s product Nembutal in American executions, once again, raised discussion. The head of the company, Ulf Wiinberg, addressed the issue directly in his address to the assembly, reiterating the company’s position on the unintended use of the drug Nembutal. Wiinberg told the Danish daily Berlingske Tidende business section that the board had reviewed the possibility of discontinuing the product in question once they were told about its use in the US. Despite claiming that the drug has little financial value to the company’s overall business, the company had decided not to take it out of their product line. They cite the warnings of American doctors who prescribe the drug to their patients for the final decision but point out that the company is very much against the drug’s use in executions.

However, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the British Reprieve have not found this position satisfactory. On the contrary, the Danish branch of Amnesty have invited Wiinberg for a meeting where they intend to discuss the pro-active strategy which they would like Lundbeck to adapt towards abolishing the death penalty in the US.

“We do not agree that this is the end of the road. That is why we are asking the top leaders of Lundbeck to meet with us to discuss how Lundbeck can strategically and actively influence effort to abolish the death penalty in the USA. On this issue, we believe that Lundbeck and Amnesty have parallel interests. Because Lundbeck’s problem goes away if the death penalty is eradicated” says Lars Normann Joergensen, the General Secretary of Amnesty International.

Joergensen is critical of Lundbeck’s effort to date. He believes the firm gave up on securing a demand for an end-user agreement with the American distributors in advance and that Lundbeck have proven unwilling to pressure the FDA for position on the arguably ‘misuse’ of their product. The General Secretary of Amnesty is hoping that “by trying to get the use [of Nembutal in executions] stopped, Lundbeck would force the distributors and the officials to make up their minds and make clear that they actually support the death penalty.”

So far, Lundbeck has denied that the company has been lacking in response. After having been made aware that their drug was being taken up in American execution processes, the board contacted grassroots organizations to review alternative solutions to discontinuing the product. “We got to the conclusion that the role of Lundbeck is to prioritize the interest of the patients and that there’s not much else we can do besides what we have done – that is to make our opinion on the matter clear. We have actually been quick to express our standpoint. It is very unusual for a company to be so clear about their positions in an American context,” says Ulf Wiinberg who do not think an activist approach would be useful.

At the general meeting, Mr. Wiinberg avoided to answer more questions from the investors by saying that the American prison authorities had been made aware that their use of Nembutal was against the wished of Lundbeck. Many investors seemed satisfied with this answer so for now, the discussion seems to have been put to rest from the company’s side.

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