Musicians condemn torture

07:27 | Friday October 3, 2008

The move follows a motion put to the International Federation of Musicians Congress by the Musicians’ Union. It calls on FIM to voice its united opposition to this inhumane practice, which may also infringe the moral rights of musicians.

Music torture involves bombarding prisoners with music at high volume for days and sometimes months on end in order to break them psychologically. Combined with stress positions, extremes of temperature, sleep deprivation and other cruel tactics, music torture leads to extreme anxiety, trauma and sometimes madness.

MU general secretary John Smith says, “Too many people remain unaware of music torture and of the very real damage that it causes to its victims. Prisoners who have experienced both physical torture and torture using music have testified to the fact that the music torture was the most unbearable of the two. It is high time that the use of music in interrogations was recognised for what it is: a horrific form of psychological torture.”

Clive Stafford Smith of the human rights charity Reprieve adds, “It is great news that international musicians’ unions are condemning the use of music as torture. I hope that this will herald the beginning of the music industry using its significant power to stand up against this abhorrent practice and demand that it stops.”

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 1977 that the use of harmfully loud music on prisoners is “degrading and inhuman”.