A/HRC/43/49 for purposes such as coercion, intimidation, deterrence or punishment, or for reasons related to discrimination of any kind, it may amount to psychological torture. 7. Torturous environments (accumulation of stressors) 68. The above outline of specific methods should not obscure the fact that, in practice, torture victims are almost always exposed to a combination of methods, techniques and circumstances deliberately designed to inflict both mental and physical pain or suffering. If applied in isolation or for a short period of time, some of these techniques and circumstances may not necessarily amount to torture. In combination and with increasing duration, however, they have a devastating effect. 50 Thus, a finding of torture may depend not only on the specific characteristics of particular techniques or circumstances, but also on their cumulative and/or prolonged effect, sometimes in conjunction with external stress factors or individual vulnerabilities that are not under the control of the torturer and may not even be consciously instrumentalized by him. As aptly stated by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, torture “may be committed in one single act or can result from a combination or accumulation of several acts, which, taken individually and out of context, may seem harmless ... The period of time, the repetition and various forms of mistreatment and severity should be assessed as a whole”.51 69. Particularly in the absence of physical pain and suffering, due consideration must always be given to the context in which certain methods are used. For example, while in normal circumstances, publicly expressed insults and defamation may amount to a criminal offence, but not to torture, such an assessment might change significantly when the same conduct becomes a matter of systematic, State-sponsored vilification and persecution involving additional measures such as arbitrary detention, constant surveillance, systematic denial of justice and serious threats or intimidation.52 Moreover, each person may react differently to a particular method of torture. In practice, therefore, torture techniques must always be evaluated by reference to the targeted victim’s individual vulnerabilities (A/73/152), whether attributable to disability (A/63/175), migration status (A/HRC/37/50) or any other reason. 70. In such situations, rather than looking at each factor in isolation and asking which ones cross the “severity” threshold, it is more appropriate to speak of a “torturous environment”, that is to say, a combination of circumstances and/or practices designed or of a nature, as a whole, to intentionally inflict pain or suffering of sufficient severity to achieve the desired torturous purpose.53 This reflects the reality that victims tend to experience and respond to torture holistically, and not as a series of isolated techniques and circumstances, each of which may or may not amount to torture. 54 E. Cybertorture 71. A particular area of concern, which does not appear to have received sufficient attention, is the possible use of various forms of information and communication technology (“cybertechnology”) for the purposes of torture. Although the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet has been repeatedly addressed by the Human Rights Council (see A/HRC/32/L.20; and A/HRC/38/L.10/Rev.1), torture has 50 51 52 53 54 18 Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights First, Leave No Marks: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and the Risk of Criminality (2007), p. 6. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Milorad Krnojelac, Case No. IT-97-25, Judgment, 15 March 2002, para. 182; see also, European Court of Human Rights, Ireland v. the United Kingdom, Application No. 5310/71, para. 168. Large-scale historical examples of such abuse were the so-called “struggle sessions” used during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) to publicly humiliate, abuse and torture political dissidents. See Tom Phillips, “The cultural revolution: all you need to know about China’s political convulsion”, The Guardian, 10 May 2016. For a recent individual case, see OHCHR, “UN expert says ‘collective persecution’ of Julian Assange must end now”, 31 May 2019. Pérez-Sales, Psychological Torture, p. 284. Luban and Newell, “Personality disruption as mental torture”, pp. 363 and 374.