FROM the “Jesus Christ” crucifixion technique in Eritrea to the Uzbek practice of chilli pepper enemas, torture is a routine practice for authorities.

“One can reasonably estimate that more than half of the member states of the United Nations resort to torture,” said the 370-page report released yesterday by the Paris-based Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture.

The report, titled “A World of Torture”, paints a chilling picture of state abuse based on a study of 22 countries on five continents. It concludes that the practice’s use is “endemic in a large number of countries”.

While the torture of journalists, union activists or rights campaigners tends to get much media coverage, most victims are ordinary people “who come from the under-privileged and vulnerable categories of the population”.

Totalitarian states, dictatorships and many Islamic regimes are major offenders, as are countries that face political violence and instability, says the ACAT study.

Torture has become a “veritable system of investigation and of repression at the service of the security apparatus” in African states run by dictatorial governments or by governments “with dictatorial tendencies”.

In Eritrea, for example, torture is “practically institutionalised”, and its practitioners give their techniques names such as the “Jesus Christ” practice, wherein the victim is tied to a cross and beaten.

ACAT said Latin America was a region where the heritage of decades of military dictatorship meant that “recourse to violent methods, notably torture, remains widespread among the security forces”.

The report noted that the UN definition of torture describes the practice as a state representative inflicting severe mental or physical pain on a person with the aim of getting information or a confession or as punishment.