Depriving prisoners of medical treatment

Depriving prisoners of medical treatment is a part of the techniques to torture people. Some victims are left to die; others are provided with enough medical treatment to continue suffering. This increases the sense of isolation, and humiliation and prolongs the pain of physical tortures. Sometimes the deprivation is not deliberate, but due to a lack of medical facilities for prisoners, as in the UK.

Denial of medical treatment has been reported in the following countries: Africa – Comoros, Mali, Morocco, Tanzania UR, Zambia; America – Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Paraguay, Uruguay; Asia – Afghanistan, Indonesia, Korea Rep; Europe – USSR.

1. Torture by deprivation
2. Refusal to provide medical treatment
3. Infringement of rights of prisoners

1. Disabled victims of torture

1. Lack of mental hospital services for prisoners

1. Refusal to accept treatment for mental illness
2. Mentally ill prisoners
3. Inhumane participation of the medical profession in torture

1. Maltreatment
2. Deprivation