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Showing papers on "Torture published in 2005"


BookDOI
03 Jan 2005
TL;DR: The Torture Papers as mentioned in this paper document the so-called "torture memos" and reports which US government officials wrote to prepare the way for, and to document, coercive interrogation and torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib.
Abstract: The Torture Papers document the so-called 'torture memos' and reports which US government officials wrote to prepare the way for, and to document, coercive interrogation and torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib. These documents present for the first time a compilation of materials that prior to publication have existed only piecemeal in the public domain. The Bush Administration, concerned about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, understood the need to establish a legally viable argument to justify such procedures. The memos and reports document the systematic attempt of the US Government to prepare the way for torture techniques and coercive interrogation practices, forbidden under international law, with the express intent of evading legal punishment in the aftermath of any discovery of these practices and policies.

416 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) deal with the dilemmas posed by this situation, how they develop protocols standardizing their expertise, and how their medical authority progressively substitutes itself for the asylum seekers' word.
Abstract: Whether through traditional law or modern torture, the body has always been a privileged site on which to demonstrate the evidence of power. But for immigrants, the poor, and, more generally, the dominated-all of whom have to prove their eligibility to certain social rights-it has also become the place that displays the evidence of truth. In France, as immigration control increases, asylum seekers are more and more submitted to the evaluation of their physical sequels and psychic traumas, as if their autobiographical accounts were not sufficient. In this article, we show how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) deal with the dilemmas posed by this situation, how they develop protocols standardizing their expertise, and how their medical authority progressively substitutes itself for the asylum seekers' word. In this process of objectification, it is the experience of the victims as political subjects that is progressively erased.

288 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Danner et al. as mentioned in this paper found that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents but the result of a chain of deliberate decisions and failures of command and that the real scandal here is political: it is not about revelation or disclosure but about the failure, once wrongdoing is disclosed, of politicians, officials, the press, and, ultimately, citizens to act.
Abstract: In the spring of 2004, graphic photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by American soldiers in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison flashed around the world, provoking outraged debate. Did they depict the rogue behavior of "a few bad apples"? Or did they in fact reveal that the US government had decided to use brutal tactics in the "war on terror"? The images are shocking, but they do not tell the whole story. The abuses at Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents but the result of a chain of deliberate decisions and failures of command. To understand how "Hooded Man" and "Leashed Man" could have happened, Mark Danner turns to the documents that are collected for the first time in this book. These documents include secret government memos, some never before published, that portray a fierce argument within the Bush administration over whether al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were protected by the Geneva Conventions and how far the US could go in interrogating them. There are also official reports on abuses at Abu Ghraib by the International Committee of the Red Cross, by US Army investigators, and by an independent panel chaired by former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger. In sifting this evidence, Danner traces the path by which harsh methods of interrogation approved for suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Guantanamo "migrated" to Iraq as resistance to the US occupation grew and US casualties mounted. Yet as Mark Danner writes, the real scandal here is political: it "is not about revelation or disclosure but about the failure, once wrongdoing is disclosed, of politicians, officials, the press, and, ultimately, citizens to act." For once we know the story the photos and documents tell, we are left with the questions they pose for our democratic society: Does fighting a "new kind of war" on terror justify torture? Who will we hold responsible for deciding to pursue such a policy, and what will be the moral and political costs to the country?

244 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The distinction between torture, coercion, and manipulation has been studied extensively in the literature as discussed by the authors, and there is no clear agreement on the distinction between the three categories of torture, or whether such techniques as sleep and sensory deprivation, isolation, or prolonged questioning should count as forms of torture.
Abstract: Why is torture morally wrong? This question has been neglected or avoided by recent moral philosophy, in part because torture is by its nature especially difficult to discuss. Torture involves degrees of pain and fear that are often said to be utterly indescribable; indeed, these experiences are sometimes said to destroy in their victims the very hope of any sort of communication or shared experience whatsoever. Torture has proved surprisingly difficult to define. There is no clear agreement on the distinction between torture, coercion, and manipulation, or whether such techniques as sleep and sensory deprivation, isolation, or prolonged questioning should count as forms of torture. In addition, we may be fearful of deriving some sort of perverse titillation from the subject, or of being able to dispassionately contemplate the agonies of real victims of torture. Those who have not suffered torture may well feel What’s Wrong with Torture? DAVID SUSSMAN

130 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The most notorious lynchings that occurred in the United States between 1890 and 1940 involved publicity, crowds, ritual, and abnormal cruelty as mentioned in this paper, most of them in the Deep South.
Abstract: The most notorious lynchings that occurred in the United States between 1890 and 1940 involved publicity, crowds, ritual, and abnormal cruelty. Several hundred of these "public torture lynchings" took place, most of them in the Deep South. The author develops an interpretation that takes seriously the specific forms and discourses that lynchers and their supporters used to describe and justify these events-characterizing them as criminal punishments, albeit summary, informal ones that were shaped by a white supremacist culture and a politics of racial domination. An interpretation of the penal context and meanings of these public torture lynchings helps us understand their specific forms and their claims to legitimacy. The penal character of these lynchings increased the probability that they would be tolerated by local (and even national) audiences and thus made them a strategic form of violence in struggles to maintain racial supremacy. The author argues that a consideration of these events should lead us to revise our standard narratives about the evolution of modern punishments. In the early 1890s-nearly 30 years after Emancipation, 20 years after the end of Reconstruction, and at precisely the moment when Progressives elsewhere were establishing a new reformist penology-Southern crowds began to torture and burn alleged offenders with unprecedented ferocity and public ceremony. These new kinds of lynching continued in small towns and rural areas throughout the South until the end of the 1930s. The exact number of these "public torture lynchings" is uncertain, but of the nearly 4,000 lynchings that were recorded in newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts between 1882 and 1940, several hundred of them were spectacular events of this kind. Professional photographers set up shop at the scene of these lynchings and did a brisk business selling photo-souvenirs of the event. Images of mutilated black bodies, some of them horribly burned and disfigured, were purchased as picture postcards, and passed between friends and families like holiday mementoes, dutifully delivered by the U.S. mail. One postcard, with a photograph showing a large crowd in downtown Dallas, is addressed to "Dr. J. W. F. Williams, Lafayette, Christian County, Kentucky" and reads, "Well John-This is a token of a great day we had in Dallas, March 3rd [1910], a negro was hung for an assault on a three year old girl. I saw this on my noon hour. I was very much in the bunch. You can see the Negro hanging on a telephone pole." Another, carrying an image of the charred, barely recognizable, corpse of Jesse Washington, suspended from a utility pole in Robinson, Texas, was sent by Joe Meyers to his parents in May 1916. The message reads, "This is the Barbecue we had last night my picture is to the left with a cross over it your son Joe." A third carries a photograph showing a group of onlookers (including several young boys), posing with Lige Daniels, who had been hung from an oak in the town square of Center, Texas, in August 1920. The message on the reverse says, "This was made in the court yard, In Center, Texas, he is a 16 year old Black boy, He killed Earl's Grandma, She was Florence's mother. Give this to Bud. From Aunt Myrtle."1 As so often when cruelty is viewed up close, it is the banality of these messages-their homely, small-town ordinariness-that most disconcerts. That torture killings could be so casually and nonchalantly represented stops us in our tracks, evoking a sensibility and a culture that seem puzzling as well as repellent. In his book The Great Cat Massacre, cultural historian Robert Darnton writes, "When we cannot get a proverb, or a joke, or a ritual, or a poem, we know we are on to something. By picking at a document where it is most opaque, we may be able to unravel an alien system of meaning" (Darnton 1985:5). To anyone familiar with the history of race relations in the American South, there is of course nothing particularly surprising about evidence of racial violence. …

117 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: The authors argue that the prohibition on torture is not just one rule among others, but a legal archetype, a rule which is emblematic of our larger commitment to break the link between law and brutality.
Abstract: Revelations of ill-treatment of prisoners by American forces at Abu Ghraib and the publication of memoranda showing that Bush administration lawyers have been seeking to narrow the application of the Convention against Torture and other similar provisions – these developments make it necessary for us to think afresh about the character and significance of the various legal prohibitions on torture. This paper argues that the prohibition on torture is not just one rule among others, but a legal archetype – a rule which is emblematic of our larger commitment to break the link between law and brutality. Characterizing the prohibition as a legal archetype affects how we think about the implications of authorizing torture (or interrogation methods that come close to torture); it affects how we think about issues of definition in regard to torture; and it affects how we think about the fragility and contingency of the provisions of positive law that stand between us and barbarism.

115 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors employed a variant of Extreme Bounds Analysis to analyze the robustness of a growing body of important but contradictory inferences about the relationship between trade and investment indicators and government repression, and argued that cumulative knowledge across studies still remains limited by the sensitivity of many indicators to conditioning sets of information.
Abstract: A growing number of studies provide quantitative evidence that economic globalization encourages government protection of human rights: trade and investment advance civil and political rights and encourage governments to refrain from violations of the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person. Other studies provide evidence that globalization promotes government repression of human rights: the arbitrary arrest, torture, forced disappearance, or extra-judicial killing of citizens, activists, or dissidents by state security forces under the control of ruling state elites. This article employs a variant of Extreme Bounds Analysis in order to analyze the robustness of this growing body of important but contradictory inferences. It argues that (1) we can make robust empirical claims about the relationship between certain trade and investment indicators and government repression, but shows that (2) cumulative knowledge across studies nevertheless remains limited by the sensitivity of many indicators to conditioning sets of information. This problem stems from vaguely specified theoretical mechanisms linking economic processes to government repression and is of potentially great consequence for scholarship seeking to explain the causes of human rights violations, in particular, and the effects of economic globalization, in general.

114 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Erik Melander1
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of political gender equality on personal integrity rights abuse is tested using multiple regression techniques and a dataset spanning most countries of the world during the period 1977-96.
Abstract: Feminist theorists argue that more equal societies that are not based on gender hierarchies ought to be less plagued by collective violence. This study tests whether political gender equality is associated with lower levels of personal integrity rights abuse carried out by state agents, such as fewer political imprisonments, torture, killings, and disappearances. Two indicators of political gender equality are used: (1) a dummy indicating that the chief executive of a state is a woman; and (2) the percentage of women in parliament. The impact of political gender equality on personal integrity rights abuse is tested using multiple regression techniques and a dataset spanning most countries of the world during the period 1977-96. Female chief executives are rare, and their tenures are not significantly associated with the level of abuse. The percentage of women in parliament is associated with lower levels of personal integrity rights abuse. Results show both a direct effect of female representation in parliament and an effect in interaction with the level of institutional democracy. These results hold when controlling for the most important factors known or suspected to influence human rights behavior: democracy, leftist regime, military regime, British colonial experience, civil war, international war, wealth, population, ethnic heterogeneity, and regime transition and collapse.

109 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the range of strategies employed by states to obfuscate their responsibility in state crime through "othering" both perpetrators and victims, and conclude that a more subtle grasp of the different modalities of proxy agency and othering encourages us to look beyond retributive-centred international and national criminal law as but one of the mechanisms for attributing responsibility for state deviance.
Abstract: This paper explores the range of strategies employed by states to obfuscate their responsibility in state crime through ‘othering’ both perpetrators and victims. It draws upon a range of frameworks of international humanitarian law, human rights, transitional justice as well as criminological theory to explore the historical and contemporary techniques of obfuscation. The first part of the article focuses upon the ways in which state agency is either exercised covertly or by proxy. Strategies include ‘resort to perfidy’, the expanded use of ‘specialist’ forces, collusion with indigenous paramilitaries and the use of private-sector mercenaries and military firms to outsource state deviance. The second part of the article then examines the ‘othering’ of the enemies of the state. These strategies include holding detainees outside national territories, using third-party nations to carry out torture or redefining the status of individuals to designate them as juridical ‘others’, with few national or international legal protections. The authors conclude that the notion of state crime should move beyond a monolithic conceptualization of the state and that a more subtle grasp of the different modalities of proxy agency and othering encourages us to look beyond retributive-centred international and national criminal law as but one of the mechanisms for attributing responsibility for state deviance.

100 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: Gurr and Quiroga as discussed by the authors conducted a review of the literature on torture rehabilitation from 1998 through mid-2004, focusing on the treatment of politically motivated torture survivors.
Abstract: Objective This desk study intends to update and complement the desk study review of the torture rehabilitation literature completed in 1998 (Gurr and Quiroga, 2001), emphasizing areas not covered by the original study but updating the torture rehabilitation literature from the publication of the original desk study. Some selected earlier references have been retained, but the focus remains primarily on the published literature from 1998 through mid-2004. This paper intends to stand alone but will refer back to original study. The target audience is those working in or interested in the field of rehabilitation of politically motivated torture survivors. Findings since 1998 Perhaps the most important finding is that either torture has increased worldwide or the exposure of torture events has improved. Publications: Much has been written about trauma and torture, especially since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001 (9/11) and the Abu Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq. The print and visual media has fostered a virtual explosion of information about torture and terrorism. Even in the professional literature, the relevant books are too numerous to catalogue here and beyond our scope. Research on PTSD and on the prevalence of torture has been notable. In addition, much information is more readily available with the increased access and availability of internet resources and publications. Changing Nature of Torture: After 9/11, terrorism and its relationship to torture became an issue.The use of torture methods to extract information from suspected terrorists became controversial. Evidence of torture by "civilized" western countries was uncovered. Worldwide, the context of torture has broadened to include many aspects of organized violence, often occurring during war. Antiimmigrant sentiment has not improved and, if anything, has worsened in the US Europe, and in many other Western countries. METHODS: The Abu Ghraib prison abuses and alleged torture by coalition forces in Iraq has fueled an international discussion about what methods constitute torture. Assessment: Progress has been made on the legal and forensic evaluation of torture survivors, notably publication of the Istanbul Protocol. Questions raised regarding the validity of memory recall have implications for assessment of torture survivors. Prevention: Passage of the UN Optional Protocol and formation of the International Criminal Court are significant advances in the effort to prevent and eradicate torture. Gaps in the literature since 1998 After a quarter of a century and dramatic expansion of rehabilitation efforts worldwide, there is still no consensus about the efficacy of treatment interventions for torture survivors. There is little additional literature about treatment outcome, models and structure of rehabilitation services, design of services, cost-effectiveness, or sustainability of services. General principles of assessment and treatment remain virtually unchanged. Controversies over PTSD applicability for torture survivors persist. Restructuring of the desk study New Structure: In order to focus the desk study on health issues, the sections with this emphasis will be presented as chapters while the remaining topics, which are more political, research, or prevention oriented will be included as appendices. Language: en

96 citations


Book
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, Robben analyzes the historical dynamic through which Argentina became entangled in a web of violence spun out of repeated traumatization of political adversaries, which culminated in a cultural war that "disappeared" more than ten thousand people and caused millions to live in fear.
Abstract: For decades, Argentina's population was subject to human rights violations ranging from the merely disruptive to the abominable Violence pervaded Argentine social and cultural life in the repression of protest crowds, a ruthless counterinsurgency campaign, massive numbers of abductions, instances of torture, and innumerable assassinations Despite continued repression, thousands of parents searched for their disappeared children, staging street protests that eventually marshaled international support Challenging the notion that violence simply breeds more violence, Antonius C G M Robben's provocative study argues that in Argentina violence led to trauma, and that trauma bred more violence In this work of superior scholarship, Robben analyzes the historical dynamic through which Argentina became entangled in a web of violence spun out of repeated traumatization of political adversaries This violence-trauma-violence cycle culminated in a cultural war that "disappeared" more than ten thousand people and caused millions to live in fear Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina demonstrates through a groundbreaking multilevel analysis the process by which different historical strands of violence coalesced during the 1970s into an all-out military assault on Argentine society and culture Combining history and anthropology, this compelling book rests on thorough archival research; participant observation of mass demonstrations, exhumations, and reburials; gripping interviews with military officers, guerrilla commanders, human rights leaders, and former disappeared captives Robben's penetrating analysis of the trauma of Argentine society is of great importance for our understanding of other societies undergoing similar crimes against humanity

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined the usefulness of parallels between the photographs taken at Abu Ghraib and lynching photographs from the early decades of the twentieth century, and explored the political responses to the AbuGhraib photos both through their public distribution and in contemporary artworks and civic displays.
Abstract: In the topical commentary on the moral disgrace of Abu Ghraib, several commentators have noted a resemblance between the torture photos from Iraq and American lynching photos. These similarities have remained largely unexplored, however, including perhaps the most significant effects of the two sets of photos, which is that both came to function as sites of resistance against the very acts they represent. Between deeds that are very different in nature and motivation, and which took place at very different times and places, what might we learn from the similarities? What indeed constitutes these similarities? In this essay, I examine the usefulness of parallels between the photographs taken at Abu Ghraib and lynching photographs from the early decades of the twentieth century, and explore the political responses to the Abu Ghraib photos both through their public distribution and in contemporary artworks and civic displays.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Several examples of genocide from Armenia, the Ukraine, and Rwanda, of systematic political slaughter (Cambodia), and of massacres in Nanking, My Lai, Viet Nam, and El Salvador are examined in this paper.

Book
20 Jul 2005
TL;DR: Evan's introduction to the politics of human rights examines the impact globalization is having on human rights worldwide He argues that the states role in protecting and promoting rights has been severely weakened under globalization and that the emerging global order may be a cause of many human rights violations as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the past, violations of human rights were commonly portrayed as atrocities perpetrated by tyrannical dictatorships Today, the images of torture at Abu Ghraib gaol, and the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, put the lie to this assumption State violations of human rights have a global reach This new edition of Tony Evan's introduction to the politics of human rights examines the impact globalization is having on human rights worldwide He argues that the states role in protecting and promoting rights has been severely weakened under globalization and that the emerging global order may be a cause of many human rights violations As the value of the market grows, the value of individual human rights decreases Tony Evans departs from traditional interpretations of human rights by focusing on the political economy of human rights, rather than on the philosophical or legal aspects He analyses how issues related to globalization, such as the environment, population movement patterns and free trade impact on individual human rights Rejecting liberal assumptions about globalization, Evans argues that human rights continue to be determined by hierarchies of knowledge and power

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors make the case that these abuses are systemic, resulting from dehumanization of the enemy and the long reliance on and refinement of torture by the United States national security agencies, and call on sociologists to become involved in the study of torture and prisoner abuse.
Abstract: The outrage over revelations of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison has faded from public discourse, but a number of questions remain unanswered. This paper criticizes official rationalizations offered for the abuse. We make the case that these abuses are systemic, resulting from dehumanization of the enemy and the long reliance on and refinement of torture by the United States national security agencies. We also consider the spread of torture in the current war on terror, and we call on sociologists to become involved in the study of torture and prisoner abuse.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article focuses upon girls in two fighting forces: the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and their roles as combatants whose primary strategy is perpetrating terrorist acts against civilians.
Abstract: Girls—both willingly and unwillingly—participate in terrorist acts within the context of contemporary wars. These acts range from targeting civilians for torture and killing to destroying community infrastructures so that people's physical and psychological health and survival are affected. Girls witness or participate in acts such as mutilation, human sacrifice, forced cannibalism, drug use, and physical and psychological deprivation. This article focuses upon girls in two fighting forces: the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and their roles as combatants whose primary strategy is perpetrating terrorist acts against civilians. In analyses of gender and terrorism, girls are typically subsumed under the larger category of female, which marginalizes their experiences and fails to recognize that they possess agency and power.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, from an anthropological point of view, the different paradigms that have prevailed over the last 50 years of mental health services for migrants and refugees in France are reviewed.
Abstract: As in most European countries, the mental health of immigrants in France has recently been the subject of scientific scrutiny. Since the end of World War II voluntary special mental health services for migrants and refugees have been created in France and especially in Paris, but none has been based on epidemiological data. Generally, this lack of objective data gave rise to the assumption that many immigrants might not be getting the type of services they required. The birth of a new type of service (e.g. for migrants, refugees, ethnic groups, trauma and torture victims) was a political reaction to what was, at the time, expressed as an essential unmet need regarding this very specific population. In this article we review, from an anthropological point of view, the different paradigms that have prevailed over the last 50 years.

Journal ArticleDOI
Steven Lukes1
TL;DR: In this paper, it is suggested that torture, unlike other cases of dirty hands considered, cannot be rendered liberal-democratically accountable, in the sense that it will sometimes be legitimate and, when not, punished, because its practice cannot be publicly recognized without undermining both the democratic and liberal components of liberal democracy.
Abstract: Liberal democracies have long practised torture, but should they ever permit their officials to torture (and, if so, when?), how should their citizens think and talk about it, and how should the law treat it? Is it just another instance of ‘dirty hands’ in politics? If it averts some terrible harm, can resorting to it be seen as choosing the ‘lesser evil’? What, then, is torture? The ‘torture memos’ of the Bush administration's legal advisers are reviewed and their attempt to narrow its definition criticized, as is Judge Posner's attempt to confine it to physical coercion. Attempts to evade the questions above (on the grounds that torture is never effective in averting disaster) are rejected. It is suggested that torture, unlike other cases of dirty hands considered, cannot be rendered liberal-democratically accountable, in the sense that it will sometimes be legitimate and, when not, punished, because its practice cannot be publicly recognized without undermining both the democratic and liberal components of liberal democracy. This suggestion is supported by adducing a ‘Durkheimian argument’ to the effect that our institutions and customs have been so penetrated by core elements of an egalitarian ‘religion of individualism’ that violating them threatens a kind of ‘moral disintegration’. This, it is argued, requires liberal democracies to reject the very idea of a scale that can allow comparison of the benefits against the costs of torturing. The absolute prohibition serves to maintain inhibitions, though these are currently being eroded by the fear of terrorism.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The secrecy provisions embodied in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment Act 2003 (Cwlth) are discussed in this article, where the authors argue that these provisions curb freedom of speech and remove ASIO's activities from the domain of public scrutiny.
Abstract: This article describes the secrecy provisions embodied in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment Act 2003 (Cwlth). The article explains how these provisions curb freedom of speech and remove ASIO's activities from the domain of public scrutiny. It argues that by effectively criminalising open discussion of ASIO's activities the provisions insulate much of the domestic 'war on terror' from the public gaze. It also argues that the provisions implicitly sanction lawlessness by ASIO in open breach of the rule of law. By undermining free speech and the rule of law, this legislation increases the risk of torture of persons detained by ASIO. The legislation also exacerbates the punitiveness of such detention. Moreover, the secrecy offences will distort Australian politics by enabling the government to control and manipulate 'security' information. The article concludes that the increase in state secrecy and its impact are part of a continuing shift in the relative distribution of power between state and subject in liberal democracies; a shift that signals a move to more repressive or authoritarian forms of rule.

01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: An evaluability assessment (EA) framework was used to assess a survivors of torture program for which one of the authors had been coordinator as discussed by the authors, and the results of the EA and the process are discussed in terms of the barriers to EA identified by Smith (2005).
Abstract: An evaluability assessment (EA) framework was used to assess a survivors of torture program for which one of the authors had been coordinator. Staff and other stakeholders were interviewed and documents reviewed. Program logic models were developed and discussed. The results of the EA and the process are discussed in terms of the barriers to EA identified by Smith (2005). The article suggests that an EA can be done with limited resources and still be valuable in developing real knowledge of the program, ownership, management for success, and pathways to accountability.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) and its companion documents (those of the Vienna Conference on Human Rights (1993) and the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) took important steps toward securing recognition for what we might call human rights of the body as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) and its companion documents – those of the Vienna Conference on Human Rights (1993) and the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) – took important steps toward securing recognition for what we might call human rights of the body. These are affirmative rights relating to sexual expression, reproductive choice and access to health care and negative rights pertaining to freedom from violence, torture and abuse. But ten years later, the violated male bodies of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and Gujarat seem to mock certain of Beijing's most basic premises: that women are primarily the victims rather than the perpetrators of bodily abuses; and that, as such, women are, or should be, the privileged beneficiaries of bodily integrity rights. This paper re-examines these premises in the shadow of the “war on terrorism”, religious extremism, and practices of racialised, sexual, and often homophobic violence against men that emerge in wars and ethnic conflicts. In particular it looks at the war in Iraq and how that war configures such practices in both old and new ways. My purpose is not to repudiate feminist visions but rather to challenge the exclusive privileging of women as the bearers of sexual rights and to open up discussion of new, more inclusive coalitions of diverse social movements for rights of the body.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is indicated that the prevalence of serious mental health disorders within this population is elevated and the reported incidence of torture and imprisonment is a possible contributor to the illnesses.
Abstract: Background: Many Tibetan refugees flee Tibet in order to escape physical and mental hardships, and to access the freedoms to practice their culture and religion. We aimed to determine the prevalence of mental illnesses within the refugee population and determine the prevalence of previous torture reported within this population. Methods: We performed a systematic literature search of 10 electronic databases from inception to May 2005. In addition, we searched the internet, contacted all authors of located studies, and contacted the Tibetan Government-in-exile, to locate unpublished studies. We included any study reporting on prevalence of mental illness within the Tibetan refugee populations. We determined study quality according to validation, translation, and interview administration. We calculated proportions with exact confidence intervals. Results: Five studies that met our inclusion criteria (total n = 410). All studies were conducted in North India and 4 were specifically in adult populations. Four studies provided details on the prevalence of torture and previous imprisonment within the populations. The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder ranged from 11–23%, anxiety ranged from 25–77%, and major depression ranged from 11.5–57%. Conclusion: Our review indicates that the prevalence of serious mental health disorders within this population is elevated. The reported incidence of torture and imprisonment is a possible contributor to the illnesses. Non-government organizations and international communities should be aware of the human rights abuses being levied upon this vulnerable population and the mental health outcomes that may be associated with it.


Book
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In the past, many people ask about this book as their favorite book to read and collect as discussed by the authors. And now, we present hat you need quickly. But, it will serve something that will let you get the best time and moment to spend for reading the book.
Abstract: It sounds good when knowing the truth torture and the american way the history and consequences of u s involvement in torture in this website. This is one of the books that many people looking for. In the past, many people ask about this book as their favourite book to read and collect. And now, we present hat you need quickly. It seems to be so happy to offer you this famous book. It will not become a unity of the way for you to get amazing benefits at all. But, it will serve something that will let you get the best time and moment to spend for reading the book.

Book
10 Jan 2005
TL;DR: This book discusses medical practitioners in the Frankish states, the practice of elective surgery and bloodletting, and the exchange of medical knowledge with the crusades.
Abstract: List of illustrations List of tables Preface Introduction 1. Medical practitioners in the Frankish states 2. Hospitals on the battlefield and in the towns 3. Archaeological evidence for trauma and surgery in the medieval period 4. Torture and mutilation 5. Injuries and their treatment 6. The practice of elective surgery and bloodletting 7. Exchange of medical knowledge with the crusades 8. Frankish medical legislation Conclusion Bibliography Index.


Dissertation
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: The authors argue that the situation is not primarily one of war between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda, but instead a form of mass torture, which they call Social Torture.
Abstract: This thesis addresses the question of why, when almost everyone says they wish it would end, suffering such as that in northern Uganda continues. I argue that, contrary to popular presentations, the situation is not primarily one of war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda, but instead a form of mass torture, which I call Social Torture. The principal victims are the population within the ‘war zone’, particularly in ‘protected villages’ for the internally displaced, where tactics and symptoms typical of torture, including violation, dread, disorientation, dependency, debilitation and humiliation, are widespread. The most visible perpetrators are the Government and LRA, but a range of less visible actors are also involved, not least donor governments, multi-lateral organisations, academics, churches and NGOs. In many instances these can be regarded as complicit bystanders; like doctors in a torture situation, they appear to be there to ease the suffering of victims, but in reality they enable the process to be prolonged by keeping the victim alive for further abuse. This serves a number of interlinked economic, political and psychological functions for perpetrators and bystanders alike, and is underpinned by psychological and discursive processes of justification, most importantly the idea that this situation is first and foremost a ‘war’ between the LRA and the Government. In short, in a situation such as northern Uganda, means and ends are inverted: rather than torture being a tactic with which to prosecute war, here war is the guise under which Social Torture is perpetrated. War continues because Social Torture is not addressed. Given that those who in principle have the most power to do so are implicated in Social Torture themselves, the focus has to shift from the intentions of visible perpetrators to the responsibilities of a far wider range of actors.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the question whether the domestic amnesty law is counterproductive to the ICC's work and argue that those who 'bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed' should be brought to justice.
Abstract: The armed conflict in northern Uganda, between the Lord`s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the Ugandan government, is one of Africa`s longest running armed conflicts not of an international character. It has lasted for nearly two decades. In the course of the conflict, serious war crimes of concern to the international community as a whole - particularly intentionally directing attacks (regular use of torture, mutilation, murder and abduction) by the LRA against the civilian population not taking direct part in hostilities - have been committed with complete impunity. This has led to a gross and consistent pattern of human rights violations. Through amnesty, the Ugandan government has, since 2000, expressed readiness to forgive the LRA rebels and their leader, Joseph Kony, of war crimes, if they denounced the rebellion. Yet, the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has, since 2004, at the request of the Ugandan government, been investigating war crimes committed in the nineteen-year-old conflict between the LRA and the government and recently expressed readiness to issue arrest warrants for the LRA leader Joseph Kony and several of the top brass of the LRA. It has been argued that the ICC`s effort to attain justice through prosecution while peace still eludes the region risks, in the end, achieving neither justice nor peace. This article considers the question whether the domestic amnesty law is counterproductive to the ICC`s work. While acknowledging the need for forgiveness and reintegration, it is argued that those who `bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed` should be brought to justice. However, it is acknowledged that since almost 80 per cent of the LRA`s soldiers are children who have been abducted from their families and forced to commit horrendous crimes against their own people, the ICC faces the difficulty of categorising members of the LRA as victims (those who deserve amnesty) or perpetrators (those who should be prosecuted). The ICC needs to be successful in Uganda - one of its first operations - in order to demonstrate to the international community that it is an effective instrument.