“The world is still plagued by torture,” an independent human rights expert told the United Nations General Assembly this week, noting an “increasing acceptance of the idea” that such an “abhorrent practice should be permissible in certain circumstances, or against certain groups”.

For the past two years, Professor Nils Melzer has served as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Lidiya Loukinykh sat down with him for UN News and asked him what the latest worrying trends in the use of torture and physical abuse are, around the world.