This Rose Cafe session was on the difficult subject of torture. It is a concept and practice that I find abhorrent, but nonetheless, it was great to have our speakers Dr. Cheesman and Pornpen Khongkachonkiet provide us with a richer understanding of the matter. I thought it was especially neat them as speakers, since Dr. Cheesman’s theoretical and academic-based work on torture complemented Pornpen’s activism in fighting torture. I was actually previously unaware that any academic work was actually being performed on the subject of torture, but I felt the ideas and results that Dr. Cheesman shared were certainly important. For example, a question commonly associated with torture is whether it “works”. Dr. Cheesman stated that it is problematic to be asking such a question in the first place, since it legitimizes the practice to an extent and ignores the severe ethical and moral issues with torture. I also felt Pornpen raised a great point in regards to this question when she discussed the concept of “value”. In many ways, asking whether something works is a question of what is valued, and it is deeply immoral to value any perceived gains like “information” over the value and dignity of a human life.

Like in many fields, having a two-fold approach combining the academics/theory with practice seems especially effective for fighting torture. Activists like Pornpen deserve the highest admiration for their efforts, and the research of individuals like Dr. Cheesman can lead to deeper understandings of the subject, which is also crucial since it is difficult to combat what one can’t understand or perceive. Thus, ideally, researchers and academics can constantly share their work and findings with activists in order to better inform them in their approach to tackling torture.