not binding upon non-participating member states of the Council of Europe, this ruling is a useful indicator of international judicial views on the "stress and duress" methods authorised for use by the US administration. In 1978 in the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) trial "Ireland v. the United Kingdom" the judges court published the following in their judgement: These methods, sometimes termed "disorientation" or "sensory deprivation" techniques, were not used in any cases other than the fourteen so indicated above. It emerges from the Commission's establishment of the facts that the techniques consisted of ...wall-standing; hooding; subjection to noise; deprivation of sleep; deprivation of food and drink. The Court ruled that the five techniques used together and combined with other abuses of the met the European definition of torture under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court found that the five techniques, combined together, consisted of torture and inhuman treatment, hence fell under the Article 3 (art. 3), the practice of "inhuman and degrading treatment"., i.e. ''147. In its report, the Commission expressed the opinion....(iv) unanimously, that the combined use of the five techniques in the cases before it constituted a practice of inhuman treatment and of torture in breach of Article 3 (art. 3); (v) unanimously, that violations of Article 3 (art. 3) occurred by inhuman, and in two cases degrading, treatment" See also Command responsibility Enhanced interrogation techniques UN Convention Against Torture References External links http://waybackmachine.org/*/http://www.phrusa.org/past_news/iraq051004_stressandduress.html Human Rights Groups Respond to the Torture of Iraqi Detainees United States of America: "We don't torture people in America", Amnesty International report Amnesty International calls for a commission of inquiry into ‘war on terror’ detentions, Amnesty International Interrogations