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Torturing people is a mortal sin, a grave sin, says Pope Francis.
In a Tuesday message for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Francis said that torture didn’t end in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“Today people are being tortured. Many prisoners are tortured. Today in many places where there is war the same thing happens.
“Jesus carried this reality on his own shoulders. He asks us to pray,” Francis says.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says “victims of torture have a right to an effective remedy, rehabilitation and redress.”
Guterres said observing International Day in Support of Victims of Torture was instituted to acknowledge and honour the “many survivors of torture worldwide.”
Victims include those who have been tortured for “their political or other views, those caught in the fight against terrorism or those who have been tortured simply because of their differences.”
Although torture is condemned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the United Nations Convention against Torture, Guterres says more action is needed to eradicate torture fully.
We should pay tribute “to all those who stand in solidarity with victims and their families and … reaffirm our commitment to ending this abominable and useless practice,” he says.
Source
- YouTube
- Vatican News
- Image: New Scientist
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