Entangling Intentionality: Reflections on Torture and Structure

Torture, as structural violence, can be inflicted slowly, routinely, and undramatically. It implicates, instrumentalizes, and entangles both individual and institutional agents, and must be viewed as emerging from a complex apparatus responsible for its instigation and infliction. Failing this, we f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social justice (San Francisco, Calif.) Calif.), 2021-01, Vol.48 (3), p.1-159
Main Author: Cakal, Ergün
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case studies
Domestic violence
Health care
Health services
Human rights
Intention
Intentionality
Prisons
Torture
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Summary:Torture, as structural violence, can be inflicted slowly, routinely, and undramatically. It implicates, instrumentalizes, and entangles both individual and institutional agents, and must be viewed as emerging from a complex apparatus responsible for its instigation and infliction. Failing this, we fail to attend to torture s totality, particularly for the purposes of its socio-legal analysis. Leaving directness or explicitness of torturous acts of the individual behind (although equally important), a focus on the insidious and structural is warranted. This requires looking beyond individual and toward institutional logics, thus turning to systemic and systematic aspects. This article will discuss the implications emerging from such doctrinal individual centricity, as epitomized by the element of intentionality, a constitutive element of torture under Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture. Then, it will endeavor to shift perspective from perpetrating individuals to perpetrating institutions, taking the denial of health care in Egyptian prisons as a case study through which to illustrate these dynamics.
ISSN:1043-1578
2327-641X