Hunger: Deprivation and manipulation of food as a torture method. State of the art in research and ways forward

Deprivation of food is one of, if not the oldest method of punishment. Hunger and famine are described in the Bible as a way of retri-bution when God was offended. There are accounts of the use of forced imposition of hunger or starvation in places of detention and concentration camps worldwide. Sur-prisingly, however, the quantity and quality of academic research on the subject is unusually low. (Rubin, 2019). It is neither mentioned as a torture method in source handbooks (i.e. Rejali, 2009) nor in the Istanbul Pro-tocol, which mentions it marginally con-cerning conditions of detention without any other mention or guidance within its pages (UNHCR, 1999). In this Editorial, we would like to update the medical and psychologi-cal research on the impacts of starvation as a torture method and suggest some tentative conclusions and avenues for further research.