"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The United States was founded on the idea that all men are equal and deserves to live free for their entire life, birth to death. But throughout the world, prejudice and power has brought out the worst side of mankind. It's not just the third world countries. The entire world is or has been guilty of this cruelty.
Torture, as defined by the UN Convention Against Torture, is..any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions.
Some of the ways people were tortured in the Spanish inquisition are still used, as unbelievable as it sounds. There are two types of torture: Physical ad Mental.
Physical Torture Methods
Abacination Kneecapping 
Beatings or physical violence Keelhauling
Blindingwith light Mutilation
Boiling Oxygen deprivation
Bone breaking Picquet
Branding Pitch capping
Castration Pressure points
Chinese water torture Rat torture
Choking/Strangling 
Riding the Rail
Crushing Sexual assault
Cutting Sawing
Denailing Scalping
Disfigurement Scaphism
Drowning Sleep deprivation
Dunking Sound
Flagellation Starvation
Flaying Strappado/squassation
Foot roasting Stress positions
Foot whipping Ta'liq(hanging from a metal bar)
Force-feeding Tarring and feathering
Garrotting Tickle torture
Genital mutilation Tooth extraction
Glasgow smile Water cure
Hamstringing Waterboarding
People who are physically tortured (and live), not only have physical scars and in some cases extreme deformities, they also have severe mental scars. "Survivors of torture often suffer from a combination of physical and psychological effects. Physical effects may include scars, broken bones, muscle swelling, stiffness or atrophy, chronic pain, headaches, deafness, blindness and loss of teeth. Victims often suffer from psychological symptoms such as lack of sleep, nightmares, and problems with concentration, anxiety, depression, irritability, adjustment disorders, impotence, and feelings of powerlessness, shame and guilt," says Physicians for Human Rights.
The governments of the world don't just beat people and break their bones. They also break their minds and drive them insane. The human psyche is fragile. There is a limit of how much one can take before they break. The break can be just a release such as tears or screaming in anger or it can be where the person has been pushed so much that they have literally lost their minds. Insane people no longer have control of their own head. The government mostly uses psychological torture. Someone can be tortured as a way of the torturer gaining power or money.
Mental Torture
Blackmailing
Shaming
Public Humiliation
Shunning
Being subjected to interrogation for long periods of time
Sleep deprivation
Solitary confinement
Public Condemnation
Threatening to hurt or kill the victim's loved ones
Sensory deprivation
Threat of permanent, severe disfigurement
Pharmacological torture
Exploitation of phobias; e.g., mock execution, leaving arachnophobes in a room full of spiders
It has been used in war for all of known time. If you became a war prisoner you were starved, beaten, and shackled in the enemies' war camps. The United States has even taken part in this. Places like Guant?namo Bay, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib have been accused of using torture often. 
Guantanamo Bay:
Solitary confinement for over a year
Sleep deprivation for days, weeks or months
Long exposure to temperature extremes
Beatings
Sexual harassment and rape/ threats of rape
Threats of transfer to a foreign country for torture
Short-shackling, wrists and ankles are tied together
and to the floor for hours/days
Lack of medical treatment for serious conditions
Bagram airbase
Sleep deprivation for weeks
Beatings
Shackling prisoners while standing
Forced nudity
Sexual taunting by women soldiers
Making prisoners to lie on frozen ground
Abu Ghraib:
Scared by dogs (sometimes to where they urinated/defecated)
Beating with a broom handle/a chair
Pouring cold water on naked prisoners
Acts of sexual assault/degradation (forced nudity, forced sexual acts)
Pouring the phosphoric liquid on them
I'm not defending any country or organization that uses torture, but torture is mostly used to gain information. It is a powerful way to get ahead in the game of war and a good strategy to get your way. People of the medieval ages didn't find torture wrong. They used it like we now use jail time or a fine. You broke the law then you got tortured or killed. The world is already a cruel place. With torture, the worst people who walk this earth could gain the information they need to gain power. We don't need another threat against us.
The Justice Department has tried to shut down Guantanamo bay. But that is not enough. People deserve to be free. Guant
anamo needs to cease operation and other countries should be informed on what they are doing. The wool is pulled over their eyes so tight that not even a speck of light shines on what their government is doing. What normal people, like ourselves, can do is minimal. I say, inform yourself. Speak out against it and support the foundations and organizations that are anti - torture. That is all we really have influence on. People have taught us from day one treat others the way you wanna be treated. That's why this chart is so shocking. How one human being can do that to another and the people of the world agree with it is shocking. We need to be informed and we need to support.
Resources
Quote from the Declaration of Independence
