Stress position

A Viet Cong prisoner, tied and blindfolded in a stress position, awaits interrogation at the A-109 Special Forces Detachment at Thường Ðức Camp during the Vietnam War, January 23, 1967

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.

Use by region

Indian subcontinent

Murga (also spelled murgha) is a stress position in which the punished person squats, loops their arms behind their knees, and holds their earlobes.: 51  The name means "rooster."

It is used as a corporal punishment in India and Pakistan. In schools, it serves as a disciplinary method that can be humiliating for the children punished.: 51, 122  Police also use it as an informal punishment for petty crime and minor offences such as breaking COVID-19 lockdowns, sometimes administering it in public as a form of public humiliation.

In India, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 prohibits physical punishment and mental harassment of children in schools, and makes those who violate the ban liable to disciplinary action.

Eritrea

According to a 2004 report by Amnesty International, several stress-position torture methods were used in Eritrea, typically with the victim stripped to the waist.

Helicopter position

In the "helicopter position", the victim lies prone on the ground with their arms and feet bound behind their back. Victims are typically kept in this position for one or two weeks regardless of weather conditions, with only brief breaks for food and the toilet. In a variant, the cord binding the arms and feet is tied to a tree branch, suspending the victim off the ground.: 20 

One man, among a group of Eritreans deported from Malta in 2002, was tied in the helicopter position for 55 days after attempting to escape detention, at temperatures of up to 50 °C (122 °F), until his skin peeled off. He was then forced to live with one hand and arm tied behind his back for eight months. He later went on to study law in Canada.

Jesus Christ position

In the "Jesus Christ position", used at Adi-Abeto Prison since at least 2003, the victim stands on a block with their arms tied to the branches of a tree. The block is then removed, leaving them hanging in a position resembling crucifixion, and they are beaten on the back. The position is normally limited to ten to fifteen minutes so that the victim survives.: 21 

United Kingdom

In August and October 1971, fourteen detainees in Northern Ireland, twelve of them arrested during Operation Demetrius, were interrogated using the "five techniques": wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink. Wall-standing forced detainees to remain for hours spreadeagled against a wall, fingers high above the head and feet set back, so that they stood on their toes with their weight mainly on their fingers.: para. 96  In Ireland v. United Kingdom (1978), the European Court of Human Rights held that the combined use of the techniques was inhuman and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but did not amount to torture.: paras. 167–168  On March 20, 2018, the Court dismissed, by six votes to one, Ireland's request to revise the judgment. In 2021, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom stated that the treatment would likely be characterised as torture by present-day standards.: para. 186 

Stress positions continued to be used by British forces after the UK told the Court in 1977 that the techniques would not be reintroduced.: para. 153  The public inquiry into the 2003 death of Baha Mousa in British custody in Basra found that British soldiers had hooded Iraqi detainees and heard evidence that stress positions were also used.: paras. 10.113, 10.127 

United States

During the Vietnam War, both American and South Vietnamese forces subjected prisoners to stress positions, including chaining them by their raised arms so that their feet barely touched the ground, alongside other abuses such as confinement in barbed-wire cages and water torture.

In December 2002, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of aggressive interrogation techniques, including stress positions, at Guantanamo Bay. Responding to a proposed four-hour limit on standing, he added a handwritten note: "However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?": xix  A 2008 inquiry by the Senate Armed Services Committee found that this authorization was a direct cause of detainee abuse at Guantanamo and contributed to the use of stress positions in Afghanistan and Iraq.: xxviii 

During the Iraq War, U.S. military interrogators could seek approval from Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of coalition forces, to use stress positions and other coercive methods. In May 2004, amid the Abu Ghraib scandal, he stopped considering such requests. The Senate committee later concluded that interrogation policies approved by Sanchez, which included stress positions, were a direct cause of detainee abuse in Iraq.: xxix 

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Thuong Duc, Vietnam....A Viet Cong prisoner awaits interrogation at the A-109 Special Forces Detachment in Thuong Duc, 25 km west of Da Nang". National Archives Catalog. National Archives and Records Administration. January 23, 1967. NAID 531447; Local ID 111-SC-636742. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Stress positions". Hidden Harm. Center for Victims of Torture. August 4, 2023. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  3. 1 2 Graham, Bradley (May 15, 2004). "New Limits On Tactics At Prisons". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  4. 1 2 Madan Mohan Jha (September 1, 2010). From Special To Inclusive Education In India: Case Studies Of Three Schools In Delhi. Pearson Education India. ISBN 978-81-317-3217-5. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Coronavirus lockdown: Mumbai cops subject violators to 'murga' punishment". Deccan Herald. Press Trust of India. April 11, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  6. ↑ Platts, John T. (1884). A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English. London: W. H. Allen & Co. p. 1023, s.v. murg̠.
  7. ↑ Srivastava, Arunima (June 29, 2006). "Public prosecution: Crime and instant punishment!". The Times of India. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Video: Stunt bikers get served in Karachi". Daily Pakistan. January 18, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  9. ↑ "17". The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (PDF) (Act No. 35 of 2009). Parliament of India. August 26, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Eritrea: 'You have no right to ask' – Government resists scrutiny on human rights (PDF), Amnesty International, 18 May 2004, Wikidata Q126913055, archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2022
  11. ↑ "Eritrea: '10,000 political prisoners in awful conditions'". BBC News Online. 9 May 2013. Wikidata Q126913125. Archived from the original on 6 April 2026.
  12. ↑ Reljic, Teodor (November 18, 2015). "Learning the hard way | Elizabeth Chyrum". Malta Today. Archived from the original on July 4, 2026. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  13. 1 2 3 Ireland v. the United Kingdom, Application no. 5310/71 (European Court of Human Rights January 18, 1978).
  14. ↑ "Revision request in the case of Ireland v. the United Kingdom dismissed" (Press release). European Court of Human Rights. March 20, 2018. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  15. ↑ In re McQuillan, 2021 UKSC 55 (Supreme Court of the United Kingdom December 15, 2021).
  16. ↑ Sir William Gage (September 8, 2011). The Report of the Baha Mousa Inquiry (PDF) (Report). Vol. III. London: The Stationery Office. Retrieved October 13, 2026.
  17. ↑ Turse, Nick (2013). "Unbounded Misery". Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. New York: Metropolitan Books. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-8050-8691-1.
  18. 1 2 3 Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate (November 20, 2008). Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody (PDF) (Report). United States Senate. Retrieved October 13, 2026.