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Details on the study
All countries where Amnesty International had published a report in their
Annual Report 2002 were listed, and each report was searched for the
keyword "torture". Torture regimes were defined as countries where a) the
word torture was mentioned in their annual report, and b) none of the
following arguments were applicable:
- it being emphasized especially that there were no clear evidence to
substantiate the reports of torture
- torture only being mentioned in one specific case
- torture only being mentioned when discussing the risk of torture of
expelled refugees
- torture only being mentioned as a historical phenomenon
- torture only being mentioned related to the signing or ratification
of conventions
- torture only being mentioned in a subheader
- torture only being mentioned related to human rights monitoring
- reports of torture not being expressly connected to the regime
About thirty countries were removed from the list for these reasons. The 96
countries left were defined as torture regimes. There are considerable
differences between them, but there's nothing to suggest that a broader or
narrower definition would change the results drastically in either
direction.
The list was then compared to parts of the U.S. military support for 2003,
according to the Bush administrations official budget as presented at the
Federation of American Scientists website.
In one case, Italy, a country were counted among those receiving another
form of support. Italy is a member of NATO, and is therefor entitled to
military support from the U.S. in the event of a military conflict.
Of the 96 torture states, 79 were found to receive some sort of military
support from the U.S. government in 2003. That would correspond to 82 per
cent of the total number of torture regimes.
The study was written by Mikael von Knorring in March 2003. Please send questions or comment to micke@socialist.nu.
Sources:
Amnesty International (2002), "Annual Report 2002", http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/home/home?OpenDocument 2003-03-09
Federation of American Scientists (2002), "U.S. Foreign Military Assistance", 020322, http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/aid/aidindex.htm 2003-03-09
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