lawfully authorized to use “physical means” or a “moderate degree of physical pressure” during interrogation, particularly where such interrogation could involve serious physical injury and the risk of death. In relation to interrogation techniques, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has concluded that the simultaneous use of exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation for several days, prolonged isolation and use of dogs (especially if it is clear that a phobia exists) are likely to amount to torture. He has also pointed out that stripping detainees naked, particularly in the presence of women, can, taking into account cultural sensitivities in individual cases, cause extreme psychological pressure and can amount to degrading treatment, or even torture.362 At the same time, he has also pointed out that certain methods of force-feeding “definitely” amount to torture. The fact of torture cannot be sidestepped through semantics or language changes. Unacceptable and illegal practices remain unacceptable by whatever name. Therefore, simply labelling treatment as “physical means” or “pressure”, rather than “torture” cannot mitigate the violation. The universal prohibition of torture cannot be overcome by trying to reclassify it in a less threatening way. Similarly, attempts to redefine torture to include only the most extreme examples of treatment are also not permissible.363 OSCE participating States have committed themselves to ensuring “that effective measures will be adopted, if this has not already been done, to provide that law enforcement bodies do not take undue advantage of the situation of a detained or imprisoned person for the purpose of compelling him to confess, or otherwise to incriminate himself, or to force him to testify against any other person.”364 The OSCE/ODIHR publication Preventing Torture: a Handbook for OSCE Field Staff contains a checklist of good practice in regard to interrogation. The recommendations include: • at the outset of each interrogation, the detainee should be informed of the identity (name and/or number) of all persons present; • the identity of all persons present should be noted in a permanent record that should detail the time at which interrogations start and end and any request made by the detainee during the interrogation; • the detainee should be informed of the permissible length of an interrogation; the procedure for rest periods between interviews and breaks during an interrogation, places in which interrogations may take place; whether the detainee may be required to stand while being questioned; • blindfolding or hooding should be forbidden as these practices often make the prosecution of torture virtually impossible, as victims are rendered incapable of identifying their interrogators; • the detainee should have the right to have a lawyer present during any interrogation; 362 Op. cit., note 178, Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, paras. 49-52. 363 For example a memorandum prepared by the US Justice Department in August 2002 was withdrawn two months later because it defined torture too narrowly. That memorandum, while accepting that torture was prohibited, defined it as follows: “physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, even death. See US Department of Justice (Office of the Legal Counsel), Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. ss 2340 – 2340A, 1 August 2002. 364 Op. cit., note 5, 1991 Moscow Document, para. 23.1(vii). Countering Terrorism, Protecting Human Rights 129