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Showing papers on "Torture published in 1999"


Book ChapterDOI
01 Aug 1999
TL;DR: In this article, a theory of the stages and mechanisms through which international human rights norms can lead to changes in behavior is presented, where case studies that explore the linkages between international human right norms and changing human rights practices are explored.
Abstract: Fifty years ago, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). At the time, the delegates clearly noted that the Declaration was not a binding treaty, but rather a statement of principles. Eleanor Roosevelt said that the Declaration “set up a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations,” and “might well become an international Magna Carta of all mankind” (Humphrey 1984). On the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration, it seems appropriate to evaluate the impact of these norms, now embodied in diverse international agreements and treaties. Have the principles articulated in the Declaration had any effect at all on the actual behavior of states towards their citizens? What are the conditions under which international human rights norms are internalized in domestic practices? In other words, what accounts for the variation in the degree to which human rights norms are implemented? And what can we learn from this case about why, how, and under what conditions international norms in general influence the actions of states? This book tries to tackle these questions. Our project relates to broader theoretical debates in the social sciences and law about the influence of ideas and norms on the behavior of individuals and states. Scholars of international relations are increasingly interested in studying norms and ideas, but few have yet demonstrated the actual impact that international norms can have on domestic politics. Using case studies that explore the linkages between international human rights norms and changing human rights practices, we develop and present a theory of the stages and mechanisms through which international norms can lead to changes in behavior.

865 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A model is proposed which suggests that torture and related abuses may challenge five core adaptive systems subserving the functions of "safety," "attachment," "justice," "identity-role," and "existential-meaning" which may provide a point of convergence that may link research endeavors more closely to the subjective experience of survivors and to the types of clinical interventions offered by trauma treatment services.
Abstract: Torture is a complex trauma that often occurs within the context of widespread persecution and human rights violations. In addition, the nature of modern warfare is such that whole populations are at risk of suffering extensive trauma, injustices, loss, and displacement. Refugees, in particular, experience sequential stresses that may compound each other over prolonged periods of time. The present overview examines whether contemporary notions of trauma, and especially a focus on the category of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are adequate in assessing the multiple effects of such experiences. Recent studies are reviewed to indicate the strengths and limitations of current research approaches. Rates of PTSD in such studies have varied with relatively low rates being found in recent epidemiologic studies undertaken on refugee populations. It is suggested that a focus on intervening psychosocial adaptive systems may assist in delineating more clearly the pathways that determine whether traumatized persons achieve psychosocial restitution or are at risk of ongoing psychiatric disability. A model is proposed which suggests that torture and related abuses may challenge five core adaptive systems subserving the functions of "safety," "attachment," "justice," "identity-role," and "existential-meaning." It is argued that a clearer delineation of such adaptive systems may provide a point of convergence that may link research endeavors more closely to the subjective experience of survivors and to the types of clinical interventions offered by trauma treatment services.

548 citations


Book
01 Apr 1999
TL;DR: Nelson explores the implications of this painfully graphic metaphor in her far-reaching study of the civil war and its aftermath as discussed by the authors, and investigates the notion of Quincentennial Guatemala, which has given focus to the overarching question of Mayan - and Guatemalan identity.
Abstract: Many Guatemalans speak of Mayan indigenous organizing as 'a finger in the wound' Diane Nelson explores the implications of this painfully graphic metaphor in her far-reaching study of the civil war and its aftermath Why use a body metaphor? What body is wounded, and how does it react to apparent further torture? If this is the condition of the body politic, how do human bodies relate to it - those literally wounded in thirty-five years of war and those locked in the equivocal embrace of sexual conquest, domestic labor, mestizaje, and social change movements? Supported by three and a half years of fieldwork since 1985, Nelson addresses these questions - along with the jokes, ambivalences, and structures of desire that surround them - in both concrete and theoretical terms She explores the relations among Mayan cultural rights activists, ladino (nonindigenous) Guatemalans, the state as a site of struggle, and transnational forces including Nobel Peace Prizes, UN Conventions, neo-liberal economics, global TV, and gringo anthropologists Along with indigenous claims and their effect on current attempts at reconstituting civilian authority after decades of military rule, Nelson investigates the notion of Quincentennial Guatemala, which has given focus to the overarching question of Mayan - and Guatemalan - identity Her work draws from political economy, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis, and has special relevance to ongoing discussions of power, hegemony, and the production of subject positions, as well as gender issues and histories of violence as they relate to post colonial nation-state formation

331 citations


Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: Rosenfeld as mentioned in this paper discusses the necessity and impossibility of being a Jew Translator in his book At the Mind's Limits Torture How Much Home Does a Person Need? Resentments On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a JewTranslator's Notes Afterword by Sidney Rosenfeld
Abstract: Preface to the Reissue, 1977 Preface to the First Edition, 1966 At the Mind's Limits Torture How Much Home Does a Person Need? Resentments On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a Jew Translator's Notes Afterword by Sidney Rosenfeld

245 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present high profile case studies that were selected for their notoriety and their ability to connect the reader to fundamental ethical questions, such as torture (Abu Ghraib), impeachment (Clinton), competence (FEMA), electoral violation (DeLay), and historical corruption (machine politics).
Abstract: This book is designed to show readers how ethics can constrain improper behavior. To demonstrate the relationship of ethics to good government, the author presents high profile case studies that were selected for their notoriety and their ability to connect the reader to fundamental ethical questions. Themes of public interest, natural law, and rule of law provide a framework for the case studies, which include torture (Abu Ghraib), impeachment (Clinton), competence (FEMA), electoral violation (DeLay), and historical corruption (machine politics). The chapters discuss concepts that help to define responsible behavior in terms of behavior in elections, honesty and competence, and international law.

241 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that after the end of the Cold War, there was a significant improvement in government respect for the right against political imprisonment, but this improvement was not due to the long-term effects of post-Cold War democratization.
Abstract: By directly affecting democratization, globalization, domestic conflict, and interstate conflict, the end of the Cold War was hypothesized to exert an indirect effect on the propensity of governments to respect the human rights of their citizens. The findings for a sample of 79 countries showed that torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings continued at about the same rate even after the Cold War ended. However, after the end of the Cold War, there was significant improvement in government respect for the right against political imprisonment. Contrary to expectations, it was found that governments that decreased their involvement in interstate conflict or experienced decreased domestic conflict did not tend to increase respect for the right against political imprisonment. As hypothesized, it was found that governments that became more democratic or increased their participation in the global economy after the end of the Cold War tended to manifest higher levels of respect for the right of their citizens not to be politically imprisoned. However, a closer look at several recent examples of democratization in Africa suggests that any human rights improvements resulting from post-Cold War democratization may be short-lived. In the cases examined, improved government respect for the right against political imprisonment resulted from short-term manipulations by the leaders of 'illiberal' or 'demonstration' democracies who were not committed to democratization or to the advancement of the human rights of their citizens.

182 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Aug 1999
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate the processes by which human rights principles and norms found their way from the international into the domestic political arena and claim that these global norms have made a real difference in the daily practices of national governments toward their citizens.
Abstract: Introduction In adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10,1948, the delegates to the United Nations General Assembly established a common set of principles against which the human rights practices of individual member states could be measured. Although these principles were not initially binding on UN member states, they included the seeds of an international legal system in the realm of human rights. In the meantime and following the Universal Declaration, a global human rights regime has emerged consisting of numerous international conventions, specific international organizations to monitor compliance, and regional human rights arrangements (see Alston 1992; Donnelly 1986; Forsythe 1991). Moreover, the global human rights regime has led to the emergence of a huge network of transnationally operating advocacy coalitions and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs; see Brysk forthcoming; Keck and Sikkink 1998; Smith, Chatfield, and Pagnucco 1997; Smith, Pagnucco, and Lopez 1998). As a result, some have argued that human rights have increasingly become part of the shared knowledge and collective understandings informing a “world polity” (Boli and Thomas 1997, 1998). International human rights, thus, have become constitutive elements of modern and “civilized” statehood. But it is one thing to argue that there is a global human rights polity composed of international regimes, organizations, and supportive advocacy coalitions. It is quite another to claim that these global norms have made a real difference in the daily practices of national governments toward their citizens. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration, we thought it appropriate to evaluate the processes by which human rights principles and norms found their way from the international into the domestic political arena.

137 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Kenneth Cmiel1
TL;DR: In the summer of 1996, the Nike Corporation was buffeted by claims that it mistreated its workers in Asian countries and agreed to sit down at the White House and negotiate international labor standards as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the summer of 1996, the Nike Corporation was buffeted by claims that it mistreated its workers in Asian countries. This was part of a string of such complaints all against corporations with headquarters in the United States, Canada, or western Europe but with work forces stretching around the globe. Nike responded by agreeing to sit down at the White House and negotiate international labor standards. Sitting at the negotiating table were representatives from Nike, other clothing manufacturers, the Clinton administration, and international labor unions. Also present were representatives from two human rights organizations: the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the Center for Human Rights of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center. While the setting as a whole is worth an essay, I want here to draw your attention to the human rights groups. Why were representatives of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights or the Kennedy center, without a dollar of their own capital in play and unelected by anyone in the whole sweet world, sitting at the table of what potentially were some of the most important international negotiations of the day?1 The answer has to do with the emergence of a politics of human rights in the last third of the twentieth century. For the first time since the early 1900s, a set of private organizations has been founded to reshape global practices. And this international civil society is not only interested in the labor policies of corporations like Nike. Human rights claims now challenge the exclusive control of nations over immigration policy. They have been instrumental in reawakening the world to the continued practice of torture. They have been used to attack customs such as female circumcision. Human rights claims have contributed to the delegitimation of Communist East Europe, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's Iran, and South American military dictatorships. By shifting the focus from the sovereignty of the people to the rights of individuals "regardless of nationality," Saskia Sassen notes, human rights are becoming "a force

125 citations



Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: Abrahamian compared Iran's public recantations to campaigns in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format, language, and imagery as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The role of torture in recent Iranian politics is the subject of Ervand Abrahamian's important and disturbing book. Although Iran officially banned torture in the early twentieth century, Abrahamian provides documentation of its use under the Shahs and of the widespread utilization of torture and public confession under the Islamic Republican governments. His study is based on an extensive body of material, including Amnesty International reports, prison literature, and victims' accounts that together give the book a chilling immediacy. According to human rights organizations, Iran has been at the forefront of countries using systematic physical torture in recent years, especially for political prisoners. Is the government's goal to ensure social discipline? To obtain information? Neither seem likely, because torture is kept secret and victims are brutalized until something other than information is obtained: a public confession and ideological recantation. For the victim, whose honor, reputation, and self-respect are destroyed, the act is a form of suicide. In Iran a subject's 'voluntary confession' reaches a huge audience via television. The accessibility of television and use of videotape have made such confessions a primary propaganda tool, says Abrahamian, and because torture is hidden from the public, the victim's confession appears to be self-motivated, increasing its value to the authorities. Abrahamian compares Iran's public recantations to campaigns in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format, language, and imagery. Designed to win the hearts and minds of the masses, such public confessions - now enhanced by technology - continue as a means to legitimize those in power and to demonize 'the enemy'.

96 citations


Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that people in the Middle Ages examined images of Christ's crucifixion on Mount Calvary, did they ever consider them as representations of capital punishment, and traces connections between religious devotion, physical pain, criminal justice and judicial spectatorship.
Abstract: When spectators in the Middle Ages examined images of Christ's crucifixion on Mount Calvary, did they ever consider them as representations of capital punishment? This work argues that they did, and traces connections between religious devotion, physical pain, criminal justice and judicial spectatorship, to explain why. The author's focus is not on the crucified Christ as he was represented in altar pieces during the late-medieval and Renaissance eras, but on his criminal counterparts, the Two Thieves of the gospels. Artists in Germany and elsewhere were constrained by church doctrine as to how they could represent Christ's Passion, but were free to explore the most abject of cruelties when they turned to the Thieves. The frequently shocking images of torture and death they depicted - notably the horrific process of breaking on the wheel - were the preferred means of executing contemporary malefactors. Insisting that pain as spectacle was central to the European experience, the author warns of its contemporary re-emergence in the public sphere.

01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The law provides for the free use of public facilities for persons with disabilities and the right to use cane or dog not negligence, and the application of service dogs and assistive animals.
Abstract: 216C.1 Participation by persons with disabilities. 216C.2 Public employment. 216C.3 Free use of public facilities. 216C.4 Accommodations. 216C.5 Use of guide dogs. 216C.6 Failure to use cane or dog not negligence. 216C.7 Penalty for denying rights. 216C.8 White cane safety day. 216C.9 Curb ramps and sloped areas for persons with disabilities. 216C.10 Use of hearing dog. 216C.11 Service dogs and assistive animals.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A Truth and Reconciliation Commission with power to grant amnesty after investigation, of the South African kind, may contribute to the achievement of peace and justice in a society in transition more effectively than mandatory prosecution.
Abstract: From time immemorial amnesty has been employed as a means of promoting a political settlement and advancing reconciliation in societies that have emerged from repression. At present there is a trend in support of prosecution of those who have committed international crimes, such as torture and crimes against humanity, which excludes the possibility of amnesty. That amnesty is no longer favored is illustrated by the failure of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to recognize amnesty as a defence to prosecution. While there is no place for unconditional amnesty in the contemporary international legal order an intermediate solution such as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission with power to grant amnesty after investigation, of the South African kind, may contribute to the achievement of peace and justice in a society in transition more effectively than mandatory prosecution.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the Pinochet case, the former head of state of a foreign country has been held accountable for the first time before a municipal court for acts of torture committed while he was in his post.
Abstract: In the Pinochet case the former head of state of a foreign country has been held accountable for the first time before a municipal court for acts of torture allegedly committed while he was in his post. The unprecedented character of the case causes one to ask whether municipal courts may properly complement international tribunals in the enforcement of international criminal law, and, if so, to what extent a plea of immunity or non-justiciability may be available. The divide within the House of Lords on the interpretation of the scope of application of jurisdictional immunities to foreign heads of state as regards crimes of international law hardly hides a more profound conflict based on the different perception of what values and interests should be accorded priority in contemporary international law. This article argues that neither jurisdictional immunities nor act of state and other doctrines of judicial self-restraint are consistent with the notion of crimes of international law and that the quest for normative coherence should induce a reappraisal of the relationship between human rights law and the law of jurisdictional immunities.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explain the prevalence of torture by modeling its institutional structure as a game of incomplete information involving the state, the torturer, and the victim, and explain why a culture of individual resistance is the only effective solution to torture.
Abstract: The authors explain the prevalence of torture by modeling its institutional structure as a game of incomplete information involving the state, the torturer, and the victim. Once the state endorses torture as a mechanism for extracting information, its will is carried out with positive probability. This is because (a) even a “soft” and “sensitive” state agent might torture the victim to test his or her ability to resist and (b) a weak victim might hold out momentarily to find out whether the torturer is sensitive or “sadistic.” When the state uses torture to intimidate political opposition, all types of torturers will behave sadistically. As a result, torture becomes more widespread and more cruel. The authors explain why a “culture” of individual resistance is the only effective solution to torture.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors used the tools of ethnography to analyze the gendered and ethnic patterns of militarization and torture in southern Mexico and argued that the insights of anthropological analysis are key in clarifying the rationales official for treating some people differently than others, and thus constructing them as suspects vulnerable to political violence and human rights abuses.
Abstract: I use the tools of ethnography to analyze the gendered and ethnic patterns of militarization and torture in southern Mexico Such patterns replay gendered and sexual stereotypes of indigenous men and women as captured in national myth and vision While such an analysis is useful for Mexico, it draws from and is applicable to other situations of political violence and provides a way of understanding the underlying culture wars—signaled by crises of representation at the margins of states—being waged to redefine nations I argue that the insights of anthropological analysis (particularly historical and cultural analysis) are key in clarifying the rationales official for treating some people differently than others, and thus constructing them as suspects vulnerable to political violence and human rights abuses, [ethnicity, gender, sexuality, human rights, political violence, militarization, Mexico]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the scope of protection afforded under the three treaties which provide an international enforcement mechanism to persons who have sought refugee status in the domestic jurisdiction, including the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the European Convention), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Political Covenant), and the Refugee Convention.
Abstract: A growing opinion has appeared in refugee and human rights discourse that the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the European Convention) provides more extensive protection against refoulement than the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention). However, uncertainties remain as to whether the protection offered by the 1984 UN Convention against Torture (the Torture Convention) and the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Political Covenant) may substitute, or, rather, reinforce, that of the European Convention. Which of these four instruments offers the greatest protection against a decision of refoulement from a European country? The answer to this question is far from being academic. The rule that an international organ may only be competent to consider an individual petition or communication provided “the same matter is not being examined under another procedure of individual investigation or settlement” is embodied in all three instruments providing a procedure for individual complaints. It is therefore crucial for an asylum-seeker to give his or her best shot first, even if, as rightly pointed out by Liz Heffernan, the Strasbourg organs and the Geneva organs are not in competition. This article will review the scope of protection afforded under the three of these treaties which provide an international enforcement mechanism to persons who have sought refugee status in the domestic jurisdiction.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors discusses gender violence domestic and beyond in wartime southern Sudan particularly among the Dinka of southwestern Sudan and discusses the efforts of rebel armies fighting against the northern government of Sudan to forge a womans role in the liberation struggle.
Abstract: This article discusses gender violence domestic and beyond in wartime southern Sudan particularly among the Dinka of southwestern Sudan. Furthermore it discusses the efforts of rebel armies fighting against the northern government of Sudan to forge a womans role in the liberation struggle. The effort has focused on the womens reproductive roles as their contribution. This "nationalization" of the womb has nearly licensed young violent men to assume rights over womens sexuality--often leading to rape. Coupled with traditional cultural notions of sexuality this wartime experience has reinforced mens domination over women. This article argues that much scholarly emphasis has been placed on the use of rape as a weapon for torture. But equally important are the myriad of ways in which violence is socially reproduced within communities and families. (authors)

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as mentioned in this paper investigated the role of business in its exploration of the past and found that some sectors of business were more involved with the apartheid regime than others, but that most businesses were culpable by virtue of having benefited from operating in a racially structured environment.
Abstract: Unlike truth commissions elsewhere, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) investigated the role of business in its exploration of the past. In so doing, it moved beyond its brief to examine gross human rights violations by individuals acting with political motives. The TRC found that some sectors of business were more involved with the apartheid regime than others, but that most businesses were culpable by virtue of having benefited from operating in a racially structured environment. Whereas apartheid agents were granted amnesty in return for full disclosure and encouraged to seek reconciliation with their victims, the TRC proposed that wealth taxes be considered as appropriate restitution with regard to business. The TRC thus shifted from a focus on individual perpetrators, to a systematic analysis that equated any profitable activity with prospering under apartheid and drew a link between benefiting from the system and moral culpability for it. This systemic approach directed attention away from those whose involvement with the apartheid regime was of graver moral concern than that of others, and took the heat off wealthy individuals who, by virtue of personal contacts and financial muscle, might have been able to effect change faster had iey acted more decisively. ONE OF THE PROBLEMS that confronted the negotiating parties during South Africa's transition to democracy was how to deal with gross human rights violations under apartheid. This was resolved through an agreement to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) with the power to grant amnesty to perpetrators of gross human rights violations that occurred between 1 March 1960 and 31 May 1994. In terms of the Act which established the TRC (Act no.34 of 1995), a gross human rights violation entailed the killing, abduction, torture or severe ill-treatment of any person (or conspiracy, incitement or instigation to commit such acts) by people acting with a political motive. Other (lesser) human rights violations, such as discrimination and dispossession, were thus excluded from this strict definition. According to Mahmood Mamdani, this narrow mandate resulted in the TRC producing a 'diminished truth' which focused on narrow categories of The author teaches in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town, and wishes to thank Jeremy Seekings for comments on earlier drafts.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings suggest that a simple checklist such as the one used in this study may assist health professionals to identify asylum seekers In need of further assessment and care to reduce long-term post-traumatic psycho-social disability and strengthen coping capability.
Abstract: Background: Because most asylum seekers come from regions in which war and human rights violations are common, a systematic investigation of exposure to traumatic events and their psychological impact was conducted. Methods: Over an eight month period, 573 asylum-seekers were Interviewed shortly after arrival In Geneva, Switzerland, using a questionnaire to collect information on physical and psychological symptoms and previous exposure to traumatic events. Results: Sixty-two per cent reported exposure to one or more traumatic events, and 18% reported having been tortured. Overall, 37% reported at least one severe symptom during the previous week, most often of a psychological nature, such as sadness most of the time, insomnia, and anxiety. Persons who reported torture were more symptomatic than those who did not, and symptoms were consistent with diagnoses of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. A follow-up visit was proposed to 28% of the entire sample, and to two thirds of those who reported torture. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a simple checklist such as the one used in this study may assist health professionals to identify asylum seekers In need of further assessment and care to reduce long-term post-traumatic psycho-social disability and strengthen coping capability.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Aug 1999
TL;DR: In contrast to Uganda, increased human rights abuses were not a result of the militarization of politics and subsequent civil war in Kenya as discussed by the authors, but instead, human rights conditions deteriorated in Kenya because an increasingly powerful executive showed declining tolerance for political dissent and developed a personal and paternalistic style of rule.
Abstract: Introduction Kenya and Uganda were both subject to intensive global human rights campaigns by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). Alarming reports on the Ugandan human rights situation appeared in the early 1970s shortly after Idi Amin had staged a successful military coup. The human rights situation worsened throughout Amin's dictatorship and hardly improved after he was himself removed from power by violent means in 1979. Until early 1986 a civil war between government troops and various rebel groups led to continued gross violations of human rights. The situation slowly improved after the National Resistance Movement (NRM) as the main rebel organization took control of the main capital Kampala in January 1986. Kenya came into the limelight of international attention in the mid- 1980s. In contrast to Uganda, increased human rights abuses were not a result of the militarization of politics and subsequent civil war. Moreover, the extent of human rights abuses was never comparable to the atrocities perpetrated in Uganda during the 1970s and early 1980s. Instead, human rights conditions deteriorated in Kenya because an increasingly powerful executive showed declining tolerance for political dissent and developed a personal and paternalistic style of rule. This development began under the independence president Jomo Kenyatta and continued until his death in 1978. During the 1980s, it was perfected by his successor Daniel arap Moi. After considerable transnational mobilization against the Kenyan government and subsequent domestic turbulence in 1991/1992, the executive was forced into a fragile political and constitutional reform process.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Six areas of ill-treatment and torture at the jail's medical facilities are identified: using medical care to humiliate prisoners, withholding medical care from HIV-positive prisoners and those with AIDS, exposing prisoners to temperature extremes and sleep deprivation, and falsifying prisoners' medical records.
Abstract: This article explores how the implementation of the penal harm movement within a correctional health care system can lead to the ill-treatment and torture of prisoners. Through an interpretive/inductive analysis of reports written by a federal court monitor and 103 letters written by prisoners to a federal court monitor overseeing a consent decree of a county mega jail located in the United States, we identify six areas of ill-treatment and torture at the jail's medical facilities: (1) using medical care to humiliate prisoners; (2) withholding medical care from HIV-positive prisoners and those with AIDS; (3) withholding medical care from other prisoners; (4) exposing prisoners to temperature extremes and sleep deprivation; (5) using dental care as a means of ill-treatment and torture; and (6) falsifying prisoners' medical records. Because correctional medical personnel work in a system that subordinates their professional canons to the efficiency-based rationality of the new penology and the ethical relat...

Book
01 Feb 1999

Book
12 Oct 1999
TL;DR: God's Assassins as mentioned in this paper explores what happens when a state turns on its citizens, and interviews many who were involved in the horror including military personnel who justified the torture and killings, Roman Catholic clergy who encouraged the state to save the country from liberation theology, citizens who refused to believe that their government could commit such atrocities, and survivors whose tragic personal experiences attest that a state can indeed terrify and kill its own people.
Abstract: In the words of both the perpetrators of terrorism and their victims, God's Assassins explores what happens when a state turns on its citizens. Between 1976 and 1983 an estimated 30,000 Argentines "disappeared" under the military junta. Most were imprisoned and tortured before being murdered by the military. Patricia Marchak interviewed many who were involved in the horror including military personnel who justified the torture and killings, Roman Catholic clergy who encouraged the state to "save" the country from liberation theology, citizens who refused to believe that their government could commit such atrocities, and survivors whose tragic personal experiences attest that a state can indeed terrify and kill its own people.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The manual includes comprehensive guidelines for clinical examinations to detect physical and psychological evidence of torture and ill treatment, and represents a consensus among clinicians working in the fields of human rights documentation and treatment of individuals.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The 1998 arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, based on the warrant of a Spanish court for crimes committed in Chile, was a landmark in the movement for international justice and accountability.
Abstract: The 1998 arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, based on the warrant of a Spanish court for crimes committed in Chile, was a landmark in the movement for international justice and accountability. The story behind the Spanish prosecutions, both legal and political, is little-known outside of a small circle of lawyers and activists who initially mounted the case in the Spanish Audiencia Nacional. This paper tells that story. Parallel actions against the military leadership of Chile and Argentina began in the Spanish courts in 1996 with the careful marshalling of evidence to show the pattern of torture and disappearances by the governments of both countries. This article documents the procedural history and the evidence offered in both the Chilean and Argentine prosecutions, and gives the context of Spanish law and procedure on which the prosecutions were based.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the important role taken by the Committee against Torture in protecting refugee rights and upholding the principle of non-refoulement is examined, and its case law with respect to asylum seekers is analysed.
Abstract: Many unsuccessful asylum seekers petition international human rights mechanisms for alternative protection against return to their countries of origin on the basis that they will be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This article examines the important role taken by the Committee against Torture in protecting refugee rights and upholding the principle of non-refoulement. The Committee's 'case law' with respect to asylum seekers is analysed, and its practice in drawing attention to the plight of asylum seekers when examining State party reports is also reviewed. The Committee's work has contributed positively to developing human rights standards benefiting asylum seekers and refugees. It has been able to prevent the refoulement in individual cases and its State party reporting procedure has prompted several States to re-examine their laws and practices relating to refugee protection. The trend for rejected asylum seekers to have recourse to the Committee is not free of concern, however, and this article also highlights some problems that may arise if the Committee continues to be used as a vehicle for refugee protection.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The experience of doctors at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, London, in documenting torture as recounted by survivors, mostly refugees from one of 63 countries, and in writing medico-legal reports to support their asylum claims is described.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The new tools of information and communication play an increasingly important role in many organisations, providing new opportunities and new challenges, and technology also introduces new barriers to human rights activity.
Abstract: The new tools of information and communication play an increasingly important role in many organizations, providing new opportunities and new challenges. The human rights world, for which good quality information is a prime requisite and information management is a vital skill, is equally faced with the opportunities and threats of these tools in promoting and protecting human rights. Human rights organizations have been quick to adopt the Internet and it is having a great number of impacts upon their work, creating change, providing new means of campaigning and challenging abuses of human rights. Reports results of a questionnaire survey, distributed via electronic mail throughout the networks operated by the Organisation Mondial Contre Torture (OMCT), to obtain information on how users use the Internet to obtain information on human rights issues (551 responses).

Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The ECHR legal system has been used in the UK courts and in the European Community law taking cases to the Court of Human Rights as discussed by the authors for the purpose of guaranteeing the right to life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Abstract: Part 1 Introduction: the Convention in the UK courts the Convention in European Community law taking cases to the Court of Human Rights. Part 2 The general principles of the ECHR legal system the right to life torture and degrading treatment slavery and forced labour the right to liberty and security the right to a fair hearing and to fair judicial sanctions retrospective legislation the right to privacy and family life freedom of thought, conscience and religion freedom of expression freedom of association the right to marry peaceful enjoyment of possessions the right to education rights of entry, movement and residence.