„If it‘s perceived as torture or inhuman treatment — and it‘s the case, it‘s painful — then it is prohibited by international law,“ said Rupert Coville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights, AFP reported.

The UN bases its position on that of the World Medical Association, which consists of 102 nations including the United States, Coville explained. The international organization, a watchdog for ethics in healthcare, said back in 1991 that forcible feeding is „a form of inhuman treatment“ and “never ethnically acceptable.”