Democratic governments have an obligation not just to refrain from torture but also to protect people from torture, according to Shami Chakrabarti, director of the UK human rights organisation, Liberty.
Referring to the issue of extraordinary renditions, she said: "That includes investigating allegations of torture."
The prohibition against torture is absolute in international law, while the guarantee to the right to life is qualified in a narrow set of circumstances, she said.
Ms Chakrabarti was speaking last night at a lecture to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).
The anniversary was also marked by the publication of a booklet on the history of the ICCL by Irish Times Social Affairs Correspondent Carl O'Brien, and by a press conference to introduce its new director, Mark Kelly, who took up office earlier this week.
Ms Chakrabarti pointed out that in the European Convention on Human Rights and other international instruments, the prohibition on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment is absolute, permitting no derogation. "Why is the intentional ending of another human life sometimes permissible but torture never, even in the hackneyed and infamous ticking bomb scenario?" she asked.
She said the use of the word "inhuman" offered a clue, "a suggestion that some acts of cruelty cross a line beyond which they debase perpetrator, victim and wider society - even to the point of robbing us of some of that which makes us human".
She said she disagreed with the proposition, put forward by the Blair government, that "the rules of the game are changing". She also stressed that doing away with democratic rights was counter-productive. "How can they tell the terrorists that it is wrong to torture people and kidnap people if people are disappearing and turning up in Guantanamo?" she asked.
Mr Kelly, who previously worked for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in the Council of Europe, said the priorities of the ICCL in the coming years were to push for the human rights treaties the Republic had signed up to to become part of the political and legal culture. The ICCL would also be pressing further for Garda accountability, and for equality of rights among various groups and families.
It would be co-operating with other groups and organisations, both statutory and non-statutory, in this, he told The Irish Times.
Carl O'Brien's booklet points out how many of the issues raised by the ICCL over the past 30 years have eventually found their way into legislative and political change.