Showing papers on "Torture published in 1995"

Women, War, and Rape: Challenges Facing The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Abstract: This article analyzes the challenges facing the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia Since 1991 (the Tribunal) as it investigates "savage rape on a horrifying scale ... as torture mutilation femicide and genocide ... as a military strategy." After an introductory section the article examines the occurrence of rape in war as it has generally been characterized in legal discourse as it has occurred in the former Yugoslavia and as it occurred in other armed conflicts. This section also looks at the relationship among militarism misogyny and rape. The third section considers the confusion existing about the characterization of war rape under international humanitarian law (IHL) and argues that IHL is gender-biased because it views rape only as a challenge to honor. This analysis is explained in sub-sections that discuss rape as a crime against honor and dignity as a crime against humanity and as a crime against gender. Section 4 reviews the various prospects for prosecuting rape before the Tribunal that are offered by the framework created by the subject matter jurisdiction of the Tribunal and by its rules of procedure and evidence. The final section concludes that war is a "male habit" that victimizes tragic numbers of women and that the Tribunal must overcome the legacy of a legal system that overlooks womens pain and a war system that uses rape as a weapon.

Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of "Ethnic Cleansing"

Abstract: Few events in history have received as much real-time exposure as the atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Few dilemmas have perplexed peacekeepers and negotiators as has the victimization of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. With the memories of the Jewish holocaust so freshly etched in people's memories, could such genocide have happened again? What catalysts vault nationalism across the threshold into inhumanity? In this compelling and thorough study, Norman Cigar sets out to prove that genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not simply the unintentional result of civil war nor the unfortunate by-product of rabid nationalism. Genocide is, he contends, the planned and direct consequence of conscious policy decisions taken by the Serbian establishment in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its policies were carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner as part of a broader strategy intended to achieve a defined political objective--the creation of an expanded, ethnically pure Greater Serbia. Using testimony from congressional hearings, policy statements, interviews, and reports from the western and local media, the author describes a sinister policy of victimization that escalated from vilification to threats, then expulsion, torture, and killing. Cigar also takes the international community to task for its reluctance to act decisively and effectively. "The longer the world did nothing concrete about Bosnia-Herzegovina, the more unlikely it became that the situation would be reversed, as the country was torn apart or its population scattered or killed." "Genocide in Bosnia" provides a detailed account of the historical events, actions, and practices that led to and legitimated genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It focuses attention not only on the horror of "ethnic cleansing" and the calculated strategy that allowed it to happen but also offers some interesting solutions to the problem. Cigar's book is important reading for anyone interested in the inherent violence of overzealous nationalism--from Rwanda to Afghanistan and anywhere else.

Addressing Human Response to War and Atrocity

Abstract: According to studies undertaken for the International Symposium of Children and War in 1983, 5% of all casualties in World War I were civilians, 50% in World War II, and over 80% in the Vietnam war (UNICEF, 1986). In current armed conflicts, over 90% of all casualties are civilians, typically from the poorest sectors of society. What predominates is the use of terror to exert social control, if necessary by disrupting the fabric of grassroots social, economic, and cultural relations. The target is often population rather than territory, and psychological warfare is a central element. Atrocity, including public execution, disappearances, torture and sexual violation, is the norm, and those whose work symbolizes shared values are also targeted: community leaders, priests, health workers, and teachers. These strategies, frequently played out on the terrain of subsistence economies, can be devastatingly effective. Mozambique, Angola, Sudan, Somalia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, the Israeli occupied territories, and the former Yugoslavia have all provided examples of this pattern of war or civil conflict in the past decade. At present, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees counts about 18 million refugees who have fled across an international frontier, though there are at least as many again, no less destitute, who are internally displaced. There have been an estimated 150 wars in the Third World since 1945, which have left 22 million people dead. So far, we have learned little of the health and social costs for the millions left behind, let alone the patterns of their distress and adaptation over time.

Reservations to UN Human Rights Treaties: Ratify and Ruin?

Abstract: Foreword. I: Introduction. 1. Reservations to human rights treaties in the aftermath of the Genocide case. II: Theoretical Questions. 2. The law applicable to reservations. 3. Reservations to human rights treaties. III: Reservations in Practice. 4. Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 5. Reservations to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 6. Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 7. Reservations to the Convention against Torture. IV: Conclusions. 8. Restoring the ruins, concluding remarks. Selected bibliography.

Politics By Other Means: Law in the Struggle Against Apartheid, 1980-1994

Abstract: 1. Glossary of Acronyms and Foreign Words 2. Speaking with the Ogre 3. Politics by Other Means? 4. Carving Loopholes in the Pass Laws 5. White Resistance to the Military 6. Seeking Recognition 7. Mpophomeni and the War in Ntal 8. State Terrorism:The Response of Law and Medicine to Police Torture 9. Censorship and the Closure of the New Nation 10. The Alexandra Treason Trial 11. Bakwena ba Magopa:The Last Forced Removal 12. Moutse and KwaNdebele:Ethnicity and Gender in the Challange to Grand Apartheid 13. Disestablishing Oukasie 14. The Roles of Law

Aut Dedere Aut Judicare:The Duty to Extradite or Prosecute in International Law

Abstract: Preface. Part I: The Duty to Extradite or Prosecute as a Rule of Conventional and Customary International Law:- 1. Introduction: The Principle aut dedere aut judicare. 2. The Principle in International Conventions. 3. The Case for Customary Status. 4. The Principle aut dedere aut judicare and the Hypothesis of a civitas maxima. 5. Evidence of Customary Status. 6. The Principle as a Rule of jus cogens. Part II: International Criminal Law Conventions Establishing a Duty to Extradite or Prosecute:- Introductory Note. A: Substantive Conventions. 1. The Prohibition against Aggression. 2. War Crimes. 3. Unlawful Use of Weapons. 4. Crimes against Humanity. 5. The Prohibition against Genocide. 6. Racial Discrimination and Apartheid. 7. Slavery and Related Crimes. 8. The Prohibition against Torture. 9. Unlawful Human Experimentation. 10. Piracy. 11. Aircraft Hijacking and Related Offenses. 12. Crimes against the Safety of International Maritime Navigation. 13. Use of Force against Internationally Protected Persons. 14. Taking of Civilian Hostages. 15. Drug Offenses. 16. International Traffic in Obscene Publications. 17. Protection of National and Archaeological Treasures. 18. Environmental Protection. 19. Theft of Nuclear Materials. 20. Unlawful Use of the Mails. 21. Interference with Submarine Cables. 22. Counterfeiting. 23. Corrupt Practices in International Commercial Transactions. 24. Mercenarism. B: Procedural Conventions. 1. United Nations. 2. Council of Europe. 3. Organization of American States. List of Documents Discussed.

Mass rape : the war against women in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract: "How is one to explain the sudden reappearance of genocide on European soil less than a half century after the Nazi Holocaust and after three gen-erations of Europeans and Americans had come of age accepting the motto 'never again'?"-Roy Gutman, author of A Witness to Genocide. Alexandra Stiglmayer interviewed survivors of the continuing war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to reveal, to a seemingly deaf world, the horrors of the ongoing war in the former Yugoslavia. The women-primarily of Muslim but also of Croatian and Serbian origin-have endured the atrocities of rape and the loss of loved ones. Their testimony, published in the 1993 German edition, is bare, direct, and its cumulative effect overwhelming. The first English edition contains Stiglmayer's updates to her own two essays, one detailing the historical context of the current conflict and the other presenting the core of the book, interviews with some twenty victims of rape as well as interviews with three Serbian perpetrators. Essays investi-gating mass rape and war from ethnopsychological, sociological, cultural, and medical perspectives are included. New essays by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Rhonda Copelon, and Susan Brownmiller address the crucial issues of recognizing the human rights of women and children. A foreword by Roy Gutman describes war crimes within the context of the UN Tribunal, and an afterword by Cynthia Enloe relates the mass rapes of this war to developments and reactions in the international women's movement. Accounts of torture, murder, mutilation, abduction, sexual enslavement, and systematic attempts to impregnate-all in the name of "ethnic cleansing"-make for the grimmest of reading. However brutal and appalling the information conveyed here, this book cannot and should not be ignored. Alexandra Stiglmayer studied journalism at the University of Dortmund. Since 1992 she has been a freelance correspondent in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia for German and American radio and television. Marion Faber, the translator, is a professor of comparative literature at Swarthmore College and the translator of Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human (Nebraska 1984) and Sarah Kirsch's The Panther Woman (Nebraska 1989).

The prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain

Abstract: This article focuses in depth upon the prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain and challenges many of the assumptions that have commonly been made about women suffrage prisoners. Thus it is revealed that a number of the prisoners were poor and working-class women and not, as has been too readily assumed, bourgeois women. The assumption too that the women prisoners were single is challenged. Married women and mothers as well as spinsters, endured the harshness of prison life. Other differences between the women, such as disability and age, are also explored. Despite such differentiation, however, the women prisoners developed supportive networks, a culture of sharing and an emphasis upon the collectivity. Their courage, bravery and faith in the women's cause, especially when enduring the torture of forcible feeding and repeated imprisonments, should remain an inspiration to all feminists today.

Torture and its consequences

Abstract: This article was published in the journal TORTURE, Volume 5, Number 4, 72-76 p. 1995, and reproduced with the kind authorization of the publisher.

Psychological sequelae of torture and trauma in Chilean and Salvadorean migrants: a pilot study.

Abstract: Torture has existed since the earliest times, usually as public punishment prior to death. Today it is predominantly used in secret with the aim of destroying the individual's personality. The effects of torture include severe physical and psychological sequelae which have only recently come under scrutiny. In recent years many Chilean and El Salvadorean migrants have left their countries after being tortured and severely traumatised as a result of organised violence. The aim of this study was to pilot an investigation into the psychological sequelae of torture. Subjects were 30 Chileans and El Salvadoreans classified into three groups: torture, trauma and non-torture/trauma migrants. It was found to be feasible to access and interview survivors from a clinical research perspective without causing additional psychological morbidity. The subjects were interviewed and administered three scales: the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale, SCL-90-R, and the Impact of Event Scale. The results from the scales and the descriptive data presented indicate some support for the hypothesis that torture survivors show higher levels of PTSD, psychosomatic impairment and stress response disturbance than the trauma and non-torture/trauma groups. Methodological issues are discussed. The strengths and limitations of this preliminary study are considered in relation to future research.

International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT): experiences after two years of providing psychosocial support to women-victims of war and their families from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia

Abstract: The RCT/IRCT project in Croatia was aimed towards women, who represent one of the most tragic risk groups in war (particularly victims of sexual torture and detention) and their families. The project covered approximately 7, 000 refugees and displaced people, with 2, 071 persons in active psychtherapy. Our team provided psychosocial support mostly to the refugees and displaced persons in eight refugee settlements in Zagreb and to a lesser extent to those in private accomodation.

Assessment and treatment approaches for survivors of torture

Abstract: BACKGROUND Torture, with its personal, cultural, political and psychosocial effects, is presented as a complex trauma. The efficacy of different treatment modalities for those survivors who need assistance is examined critically. METHOD International literature searches using MEDLINE and Psych-Info, books and relevant book chapters were examined. RESULTS One hundred and twenty-five articles were selected for analysis; 30 of the most relevant are discussed. CONCLUSIONS Discrete approaches to treatment have been developed, but many have yet to be evaluated critically. Common therapeutic elements are outlined. It is recommended that an integrated, flexible, client-centred approach utilising several techniques is most likely to achieve best results. Wider socio-political aspects should be taken into account, and treatment must be consistent with cultural expectations. Future directions for research are outlined and the role of primary prevention is stressed.

Healing rituals with families in exile

Abstract: This paper describes work with families who have been subjected to torture and atrocity and forced into political exile. Exile is described as a state of limbo which may be resolved by involving families in rituals which reconnect them to communal life. Therapeutic dilemmas when working with families affected by torture and atrocity are discussed. The culture of refugee families is a resource which can be used to enable them to integrate experiences of atrocity and adapt to life in exile. Therapeutic strategies are discussed through case histories.

Crime and Memory

Abstract: The conflict between knowing and not knowing, speech and silence, remembering and forgetting, is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. This conflict is manifest in the individual disturbances of memory, the amnesias and hypermnesias, of traumatized people. It is manifest also on a social level, in persisting debates over the historical reality of atrocities that have been documented beyond any reasonable doubt. Social controversy becomes particularly acute at moments in history when perpetrators face the prospect of being publicly exposed or held legally accountable for crimes long hidden or condoned. This situation obtains in many countries emerging from dictatorship, with respect to political crimes such as murder and torture. It obtains in this country with regard to the private crimes of sexual and domestic violence. This article examines a current public controversy, regarding the credibility of adult recall of childhood abuse, as a classic example of the dialectic of trauma.

The Politics Of Pain: Torturers And Their Masters

Abstract: Introduction - the politics of pain, Ronald D. Crelinsten and Alex P. Schmid torturers and their masters, Pieter H. Kooijmans the social context of torture - policy process and authority structure, Herbert C. Kelman in their own words - the world of the torturer, R.D. Crelinsten the military, torture and human rights - experiences from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, Wolfgang S. Heinz torture - psychological and social origins, Ervin Staub Somoza's national guard - a study of human-rights abuses, psychological health and moral development, Federico Allodi the official torturer - a learning model for obedience to the authority of violence, Mika Haritos-Fatouros.

Government-Sanctioned Torture: Status of the Rehabilitation Movement:

Abstract: Government-sanctioned torture remains widespread despite expansion of the rehabilitation movement and efforts towards prevention. This paper describes how the cultural and socio political contexts ...

Torture and Ill-Treatment: Israel's Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories

Abstract: Human Rights Watch/Middle East, Human Rights Watch, $20, pp 316, ISBN 1 56432 136 3 To a human rights organisation whether a country is a liberal democracy or a dictatorship does not make much difference in assessing its human rights record. Even liberal states look to their security first. Human rights organisations look to internationally sanctioned moral principles. The two rarely meet. In Torture and Ill-Treatment there is little discussion of Israel's political problem, which continues to develop new forms, only Israel's reaction to acts of violence against it. Yet the real issue is whether it uses disproportionate violence to stop violent attacks against its citizens. The book is worth reading for the accounts it gives of torture, which should always be exposed; but it would be better if it could …

Working with survivors of torture and trauma: the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture in perspective

Abstract: The health and welfare needs of refugee survivors of torture and trauma have in recent years belatedly found a prominent place on the policy agendas of Federal and State Governments. The development of a statewide service to meet these needs provides an opportunity to illustrate some of the general issues in developing a model specialist community health service, as well as the specific and complex elements involved in the care and resettlement of refugee survivors of torture and trauma. The early experience of the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture is described and some descriptive data presented. Unresolved issues are highlighted, particularly the difficulty in providing skilled psychotherapeutic assistance to relatively large numbers of traumatised refugees.

White Man's Justice: South African Political Trials in the Black Consciousness Era

Abstract: The growth of black consciousness - BPC and SASO 1972-74 black consciousness on trial white students on trial from ideas to action - terrorism trials before Soweto 1976 - new dangers, new responses terrorism and torture breaking the structures - terrorism trials after Soweto black revolt on trial - sedition and the Soweto students.

Madonnas and martyrs: Militarism and violence in the Philippines

Abstract: TablesPrefaceGlossaryAgencies, institutions and organisationsIntroductionWomen in the PhilippinesThe body in trainingMilitary sex economiesThe violated body: Torture, rape and salvagingGovernments, the military and civilian dislocation:A return to the folds of God and the lawPolitical activismConclusionNotesAppendixReferences

The Development of Treatment Approaches for Victims of Human Rights Violations in Chile

Abstract: The dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, was accused of human rights abuses throughout this period. Gross human rights violations have been described, including the systematic use of torture against political prisoners. The cases of detainees who disappeared, people who were executed, and attacks against people’s lives committed by individuals justified by political pretext, were the basis for the creation of the National Commission of Truth and Reconciliation in 1990.1

Counselling and Therapy with Refugees

Abstract: Guus van der Veer, Wiley, pounds sterling14.95, pp 275, ISBN 0 471 95175 7 The past five years have seen striking increases in the number of refugees from organised violence seeking sanctuary in Western countries and a burgeoning medical and psychological literature to match. Many such books and papers discuss “trauma” and “torture” as if they were definitive and can be isolated, but this practical guide offers a more contextualised account. The main author is a psychotherapist at the Social Psychiatric Service for Refugees in Amsterdam. Half of his patients have been tortured, but he seeks to ground their …