Iran In Iran, white torture () has been practiced on political prisoners by the Islamic republic regime. Most political prisoners who experience this type of torture are journalists held in the
Evin prison. According to Hadi Ghaemi, founder of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), such tortures in Evin are not necessarily authorized directly by the Iranian government. It can include prolonged periods of solitary confinement, the use of continual illumination to deprive sleep (listed in the
Geneva Convention on Basic Human Rights, 1949) often in detention centers outside the control of the prison authorities, including Section 209 of Evin Prison.
Ahmed Shaheed, the
United Nations special human rights reporter in Iran, mentioned in a statement that human rights activist
Vahid Asghari was psychologically tortured by means of long-term detention in
solitary confinement and with threats to arrest, torture or rape his family members. He was also reportedly tortured with severe beatings for the purpose of eliciting confessions. A 2004
Amnesty International report It states that "his cells had no windows, and the walls and his clothes were white. His meals consisted of white rice on white plates. To use the toilet, he had to put a white piece of paper under the door. He was forbidden to speak, and the guards reportedly wore shoes that muffled sound". In a telephone call to the
Human Rights Watch in 2004, the Iranian journalist
Ebrahim Nabavi said: Since I left Evin, I have not been able to sleep without sleeping pills. It is terrible. The loneliness never leaves you, long after you are "free". Every door that is closed on you ... This is why we call it "white torture". They get what they want without having to hit you. They know enough about you to control the information that you get: they can make you believe that the president has resigned, that they have your wife, that someone you trust has told them lies about you. You begin to break. And once you break, they have control. And then you begin to confess.
United States in January 2002, wearing goggles, masks, gloves, and earmuffs. The United States has held
Guantanamo Bay detention camp prisoners under sensory deprivation, with their ears and eyes covered, hands and feet tied, hands in thick gloves, and held in cages without any privacy, always observed under a light that is on day and night. The organization of
European Democratic Lawyers (EDL) said that this constitutes white torture and has accused the United States of violating prisoners' fundamental rights. Prisoners are also held in "extreme isolation", confined to windowless cells, going days "without seeing daylight" suffering what
Amnesty International and other international
human rights organizations have said are torture techniques approved by the
George W. Bush administration under the euphemism "
enhanced interrogation".
Rainer Mausfeld, a researcher in the field of psychology and cognitive science, has criticized the practice.
Venezuela According to human rights organizations and other NGOs, the
Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) of the Venezuelan government holds political prisoners in the lower levels of SEBIN's headquarters, which has been deemed by government officials
La Tumba "The Tomb". The cells are with a cement bed, white walls, and security barriers between one another so that there is no interaction between prisoners. Such conditions according to the NGO Justice and Process are to make prisoners plead guilty to the crimes that they are accused of. ==In media==