Germany in the 1930s, Russia in the '40s, Algeria in the 1950s, Chile and Argentina in the '70s, South Africa in the '80s?. All these governments used prison camps, torture and intimidation to silence dissent, take control and eliminate opposition. They all had one other feature - ultimately, they failed. The political systems that they sought to uphold have crumbled as the rights of the individual to justice based on respect for international human rights were increasingly vindicated.

We must ensure that those who currently use torture and prison camps and who set out to undermine the international system of human rights protection in the name of the "war on terror" are also doomed to failure. As the detention of prisoners in Guantánamo enters its fifth year, Amnesty International demands that the United States government either release all remaining prisoners or charge and bring them before a properly constituted court to examine any evidence against them. Evidence extracted under torture should be excluded from such courts.

Humanitarian quagmire Human rights, globally, are under serious threat. Not alone from rogue regimes and terrorist groups, but increasingly also from legitimate governments. The ban on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment - perhaps the most universally accepted of human rights - is being undermined. In the "war on terror", governments are not only using torture and ill-treatment, they are increasingly making the case that this is justifiable and necessary. They speak of "coercive interrogation" but once the lines are blurred, anything goes. When the door to torture is opened, the pressure is always upward.

If a beating doesn't work, maybe rape will. Or maybe they will make you watch your child being tortured. We see the photographs, hear the testimonies. It is cruel, it is inhuman - it degrades us all.

Those who claim to set their human rights standards high are currently at the forefront of this assault. The USA is one such government. Their conduct influences governments everywhere, giving comfort to those who commit torture routinely and undermining the very values that the "war on terror" is supposed to defend. The UK government is as much at fault as the US for its support, under false pretences, for the invasion of Iraq and its shared responsibility for the humanitarian quagmire into which Iraq has descended. As the occupying powers, the US and UK have a legal responsibility to protect the civilians of Iraq and to ensure that human rights law is respected.

Instead, the rule of law is non-existent, and the occupying N1 CMYK forces have been directly implicated in torture and illegal killings. Claims like "How could we have known?" have no validity whatsoever. In 2003, in advance of the invasion, Amnesty specifically and directly warned Mr Bush and Mr Blair that the likely cost of the invasion in terms of human life would be 50,000 civilian deaths, 500,000 civilians injured, 2 million displaced, 10 million in need of humanitarian assistance. Amnesty's assessment was met with ridicule by the US and UK governments and by some commentators. As we can now see, if anything Amnesty's assessment was an understatement.

Secret detention centres Saddam Hussein's trial and execution were a farce, and by undermining the rule of law as the US and UK administrations have done, they place everyone's security in danger. Every accused has a right to a fair trial, whatever the magnitude of the charge against them. This plain fact was routinely ignored through the decades of Saddam's tyranny. His overthrow opened the opportunity to restore this basic right and, at the same time, to ensure accountability for the crimes of the past. It is an opportunity missed and made worse by the imposition of the death penalty.

In the context of the "war on terror" and renditions to Guantánamo and other secret locations, Ireland is not immune from criticism. As the rumours of secret detention centres multiplied and as the US government continued with its denials, the Irish government was happy to accept the diplomatic assurances of George W Bush and Condoleezza Rice that Ireland was not involved in "anything untoward". This despite the fact that the so called "Guantanamo Express" had been sighted in Shannon on numerous occasions and that there is no system in place at Shannon for checking any of these suspicious flights.

Then, last September Mr Bush was forced to acknowledge that the CIA does indeed operate secret detention centres around the world, while the Council of Europe and the EU inquiries identified Ireland as being engaged in passive collusion. At a minimum the Irish Government should insist that any plane suspected of links to the renditions process should only be granted access to Irish air space if they are willing to submit a full flight plan, a list of all passengers on board, and to facilitate random inspections by Irish security forces - to guarantee Ireland's compliance with our obligations under international law to take all possible steps not just to oppose the use of torture but to actively seek to prevent its use.

Torture degrades us all and the judgement of history will simply ask - which side of the line did you stand on - for or against.