Stress Positions
A stress position is a form of punishment or torture in which a person is forced into a painful physical position, often one that places a great amount of weight on very few muscles. For example, a subject may be forced to stand on the balls of their feet, then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates an intense amount of pressure on the legs, leading first to pain and then rapid onset of muscle fatigue.
In interrogation, stress positions are used to pressure prisoners into giving information. Courts have ruled the practice inhuman and degrading, and in some cases torture. In the Indian subcontinent, a stress position known as murga is used as a corporal punishment, particularly in schools. Elsewhere, stress positions have been documented mainly as instruments of interrogation and abuse: in prisons in Eritrea, by British forces in Northern Ireland and Iraq, by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, and in U.S. military detention during the War on terror.
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