Global War on Terror Interplay with Prohibition of Torture in Public International & Indian Law

This paper discusses the impact that the Global War on Terror campaign had on the international human rights system and how has the international community responded to this impact. It proceeds to analyse specifically India’s position on the same though its domestic laws, which have been a brainchild of measures adopted by the US during GWoT. This paper employs a tracing approach for the sake of clarity and structure by giving a brief overview of concepts of torture and WoT and then, examines the role of International Courts and human rights bodies in protecting Human Rights and their response to the trend of a flexible interpretation of torture prohibition introduced by WoT. In its latter segment, it reaches the conclusion that India has been heavily influenced by GWoT and continues to adopt torture as a counter-terrorism measure while denying its use. It is argued that India must ratify UNCAT, a special Convention on the prevention of torture, in accordance with its international obligations.