הוועד הציבורי נגד עינויים בישראל

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) believes that torture and ill treatment of any kind and under all circumstances is incompatible with the moral values of democracy and the rule of law.

PCATI advocates for all persons - Israelis, Palestinians, labor immigrants and other foreigners in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) – in order to protect them from torture and ill treatment by the Israeli interrogation and law enforcement authorities. These include the Israel Police, the General Security Service (GSS), the Israel Prison Service and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). PCATI acts in accordance with moral and democratic values, and the standards set in Israeli and International law.

PCATI was founded in 1990 in reaction to the ongoing policy of the Israeli government, which permitted the systematic use of torture and ill treatment in GSS interrogations.

In September 1999, following petitions filed by PCATI and other human rights organizations (the Association for Civil Rights, Hamoked-the Center for the Defense of the Individual), the High Court of Justice ruled to prohibit some of the methods of torture and ill treatment that had been employed until this time.. Although the ruling significantly improved the situation that existed at the time, it left an opening for the use of torture and ill treatment in Israel (the "necessity defense/ticking bomb" scenario).