VOA慢速英语听力：战争期间接受酷刑数量持续上涨[1]

A new study has found changes in public opinion on the issue of torture and its use to get “important military information.”

The study found that the percentage of people who felt torture was a useful tool increased in 16 countries over a 17-year period. The approval rate this year was 36 percent, compared to 28 percent in 1999.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) organized the survey and reported the findings.

Researchers questioned more than 17,000 people between June and September of 2016. Most of those questioned were from countries in conflict. Other subjects lived in Switzerland or the five permanent members of the United Nations: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Morally Wrong

The president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, says the results were troubling.

"The percentage of those who think it is acceptable to torture a captured enemycombatant in order to obtain important military information has risen from 28 to 36 percent today in the poll. Even more shocking, only slightly less than half of the people - 48 percent as of this year - believe this behavior is wrong compared to 66 percent in the 1999 survey."

However, Maurer said he felt more hopeful after seeing the answers to other survey questions. Eighty percent of those surveyed believed that wars should have limits, and that fighters should not target civilians.

The same percentage also believed that attacking hospitals, emergency medical vehicles, and health care workers as a way to weaken the enemy is wrong.

Maurer noted that torture is illegal under international humanitarian law. “Torture is wrong,” he said, adding that it can harm communities for generations.

The ICRC president recently met with military officials in Russia. He told VOA that he did not find anyone in Moscow or Washington who thought that torture works. He said that not only is torture morally wrong, but it also is not effective in finding the tr英语听力