A/75/179 security-based justifications of torture and ill-treatment tend to be reinforced with policies of secrecy, 52 which remove any realistic likelihood of perpetrators being held to account, thus strongly facilitating the moral disengagement not only of th e perpetrators, but also of internal bystanders, the media and the general public. 53 (b) Freedom, independence and self-determination 60. The purposes of freedom and self-determination have often been used to legitimize torture and ill-treatment, for example during struggles for national self-determination, political and economic independence, and freedom from exploitation and discrimination of any kind. In the extreme, the achievement of freedom and self-determination, which may well be a legitimate aim in itself, is claimed to justify all means, including torture and ill-treatment. Struggles for freedom and self-determination usually go along with group-based identifications and the desire for justice, so that related moral dilemmas tend t o be additionally suppressed through narratives of self-justification and of “us” against “them”, which may exclude individuals associated with the opposing group from the protection of moral considerations. Thus, utilitarian justifications based on claims of freedom and self-determination can trigger revenge and atrocity crimes, including sexual violence, mass murder, ethnic cleansing and even genocide. 54 (c) Honour, dignity and self-affirmation 61. Especially after traumatic experiences of military defeat or national, religious, ethnic or racial humiliation, but also those of political or social embarrassment, the restoration of collective honour, dignity and patriotism is frequently invoked to suppress the moral dilemma resulting from the degradation of others. 55 Utilitarian moral disengagement for the purpose of self-affirmation often involves the self-aggrandizement of the political leadership and the promotion of an idealized society devoid of any fault or wrongdoing. The process is facil itated by invoking struggles between “civilization and barbarism” and “good and evil”, “democracy and tyranny” or even the “will of God and satanic forces”. Similar dynamics play out at the level of families in the context of “honour killings”. In order to maintain the fragile sense of collective honour and dignity, any views or criticism deviating from self-affirming and idealizing narratives are suppressed at all costs, including through the use of group-based violence and abuse. 56 __________________ 52 53 54 55 56 20-09728 Greg Martin, Rebecca Scott Bray and Miiko Kumar, eds., Secrecy, Law, and Society (Routledge, 2015). Courtenay Conrad and others, “Threat perception”; Krista De Castella, Craig McGarty and Luke Musgrove, “Fear appeals in political rhetoric about terrorism: an analysis of speeches by Australian Prime Minister Howard”, Political Psychology, vol. 30, No. 1 (February 2009), pp. 1–26; Joseph Spino and Denise Dellarosa Cummins, “The ticking time bomb: when the use of torture is and is not endorsed”, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, vol. 5, No. 4 (August 2014), pp. 543–563. On Nazi propaganda “justifying” their genocidal policies with a purported struggle for liberation from an allegedly looming Jewish World Government, see, for example Brendan Fay, “The Nazi conspiracy theory: German fantasies and Jewish power in the Third R eich”, Library and Information History, vol. 35, No. 2 (2019), pp. 75–97. See also Aida Arosoaie, “In the name of honour and freedom: the sacred as a justifying tool for ISIS’ and secular violence”, Culture and Religion, vol. 18, No. 3 (2017), pp. 278–295; Joyce Dalsheim, “Settler nationalism, collective memories of violence and the ‘uncanny other’”, Social Identities, vol. 10, No. 2 (2004), pp. 151–170; Fatma Ulgen, “Reading Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the Armenian genocide of 1915”, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 44, No. 4 (2010), pp. 369–391. Thus, the need to reverse the “shame of Versailles” was used by Nazi Germany to suppress moral concerns over its aggressive stance leading up to the Second World War. Caroline Kennedy, “The Manichean temptation: mora lising rhetoric and the invocation of evil in US foreign policy”, International Politics, vol. 50, No. 5 (September 2013), pp. 623–638. 19/25