TY - JOUR

T1 - Entangling Intentionality

T2 - Reflections on Torture and Structure

AU - Cakal, Ergun

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Torture, as structural violence, can be inflicted slowly, routinely, and undramatically. It implicates, instrumentalizes, and entangles both individualand institutional agents, and must be viewed as emerging from a complexapparatus responsible for its instigation and infliction. Failing this, we failto attend to torture’s totality, particularly for the purposes of its socio-legalanalysis. Leaving directness or explicitness of torturous acts of the individualbehind (although equally important), a focus on the insidious and structuralis warranted. This requires looking beyond individual and toward institutional logics, thus turning to systemic and systematic aspects. This article willdiscuss the implications emerging from such doctrinal individual centricity,as epitomized by the element of intentionality, a constitutive element oftorture under Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture. Then, it willendeavor to shift perspective from perpetrating individuals to perpetratinginstitutions, taking the denial of health care in Egyptian prisons as a casestudy through which to illustrate these dynamics.

AB - Torture, as structural violence, can be inflicted slowly, routinely, and undramatically. It implicates, instrumentalizes, and entangles both individualand institutional agents, and must be viewed as emerging from a complexapparatus responsible for its instigation and infliction. Failing this, we failto attend to torture’s totality, particularly for the purposes of its socio-legalanalysis. Leaving directness or explicitness of torturous acts of the individualbehind (although equally important), a focus on the insidious and structuralis warranted. This requires looking beyond individual and toward institutional logics, thus turning to systemic and systematic aspects. This article willdiscuss the implications emerging from such doctrinal individual centricity,as epitomized by the element of intentionality, a constitutive element oftorture under Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture. Then, it willendeavor to shift perspective from perpetrating individuals to perpetratinginstitutions, taking the denial of health care in Egyptian prisons as a casestudy through which to illustrate these dynamics.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 48

SP - 1

EP - 29

JO - Social Justice : A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order

JF - Social Justice : A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order

SN - 0094-7571

IS - 3

M1 - 1

ER -