The World - News from March 7, 1986

Torture remains widespread in the world and may be “the plague of the second half of the 20th Century,” a U.N. report said. The report, compiled by Dutch jurist Peter Kooijmans for the U.N. Human Rights Commission, was based on reports in 33 countries. “Most cases involved people tortured during interrogation while being held incommunicado by security police,” the report said. “Some countries appear to have institutionalized torture.”