Showing papers on "Torture published in 2006"

Variation in Sexual Violence during War

Abstract: Sexual violence during war varies in extent and takes distinct forms. In some conflicts, sexual violence is widespread, yet in other conflicts—including some cases of ethnic conflict—it is quite limited. In some conflicts, sexual violence takes the form of sexual slavery; in others, torture in detention. I document this variation, particularly its absence in some conflicts and on the part of some groups. In the conclusion, I explore the relationship between strategic choices on the part of armed group leadership, the norms of combatants, dynamics within small units, and the effectiveness of military discipline.

None Dare Call It Torture: Indexing and the Limits of Press Independence in the Abu Ghraib Scandal

Abstract: This paper considers the extent to which leading news organizations use independent documentation to build interpretations of events that challenge official framing. The data presented in this study show that despite available evidence and sources to support a counterframing of the Abu Ghraib prison story in terms of a policy of torture, the leading national news organizations did not produce a frame that strongly challenged the Bush administration's claim that Abu Ghraib was an isolated case of appalling abuse perpetrated by low-level soldiers. The press struggled briefly, and in limited fashion with the question of whether events at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere reflected an administration policy of torture, but "abuse" was by far the predominant news frame. The case of Abu Ghraib offers a critical test of agreement and differences among theories of event-driven news, cascading activation, and indexing. Although all the 3 models were implicated in this case, the data, drawn from a content analysis of the Washington Post, CBS Evening News, and a sample of national newspapers, fit most closely with the predictions of the indexing model.

A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror

Abstract: In this revelatory account of the CIAUs secret, 50-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy uncovers the deep, disturbing roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Far from aberrations, these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation.

Explaining Commitment: States and the Convention against Torture

Abstract: Why do states commit to international human rights treaties that may limit state sovereignty? Existing arguments focus on either the fear of domestic democratic instability or on international norms. We focus instead on the variation in three kinds of costs that states must pay to commit: policy change, unintended consequences, and limited flexibility. We use a discrete time-duration model to test all of these explanations on state commitment to the international Convention Against Torture, one of the most important international human rights treaties. We find strong evidence for the importance of norms and all three types of costs, but no evidence supporting state desires to lock in the benefits of democracy in the face of domestic democratic instability.

On crimes and punishments and other writings

Abstract: Published in 1764, On Crimes and Punishments by Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) courted both success and controversy in Europe and North America. Enlightenment luminaries and enlightened monarchs alike lauded the text and looked to it for ideas that might help guide the various reform projects of the day. The equality of every citizen before the law, the right to a fair trial, the abolition of the death penalty, the elimination of the use of torture in criminal interrogations-these are but a few of the vital arguments articulated by Beccaria. This volume offers a new English translation of On Crimes and Punishment alongside writings by a number of Beccaria's contemporaries. Of particular interest is Voltaire's commentary on the text, which is included in its entirety. The supplementary materials testify not only to the power and significance of Beccaria's ideas, but to the controversial reception of his book. At the same time that philosophes proclaimed that it contained principles of enduring importance to any society grappling with matters of political and criminal justice, allies of the ancien regime roundly denounced it, fearing that the book's attack on feudal privileges and its call to separate law from religion (and thus crime from sin) would undermine their longstanding privileges and powers. Long appreciated as a foundational text in criminology, Beccaria's arguments have become central in debates over capital punishment. This new edition presents Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments as an important and influential work of Enlightenment political theory.

The human rights effects of world bank structural adjustment, 1981-2000

Abstract: Does the implementation of a World Bank structural adjustment agreement (SAA) increase or decrease government respect for human rights? Neoliberal theory suggests that SAAs improve economic performance, generating better human rights practices. Critics contend that the implementation of structural adjustment conditions causes hardships and higher levels of domestic conflict, increasing the likelihood that regimes will use repression. Bivariate probit models are used to account for World Bank loan selection criteria when estimating the human rights consequences of structural adjustment. Using a global, comparative analysis for the 1981‐2000 period, we examine the effects of structural adjustment on government respect for citizens’ rights to freedom from torture, political imprisonment, extra-judicial killing, and disappearances. The findings show that World Bank SAAs worsen government respect for physical integrity rights. World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment conditions require loan recipient governments to rapidly liberalize their economies. According to previous research, these economic changes often cause at least shortterm hardships for the poorest people in less developed countries. The Bank and IMF justify the loan conditions as necessary stimuli for economic development. However, research has shown that implementation of structural adjustment conditions actually has a negative effect on economic growth (Przeworski and Vreeland 2000; Vreeland 2003). While there has been less research on the human rights effects of structural adjustment conditions, most studies agree that the imposition of structural adjustment agreements (SAAs) on less developed countries worsens government human rights practices (Pion-Berlin 1984; McLaren 1988; Franklin 1997; Camp Keith and Poe 2000). This study focuses on the effects of structural adjustment conditions on the extent to which governments protect their citizens from extra-judicial killing, torture, disappearances, and political imprisonment.

Somali and Oromo refugee women: trauma and associated factors.

Abstract: This paper reports a study identifying the demographic characteristics self-reported trauma and torture prevalence and association of trauma experience and health and social problems among Somali and Oromo women refugees. Nearly all refugees have experienced losses and many have suffered multiple traumatic experiences including torture. Their vulnerability to isolation is exacerbated by poverty grief and lack of education literacy and skills in the language of the receiving country. Using data from a cross-sectional population-based survey conducted from July 1999 to September 2001 with 1134 Somali and Oromo refugees living in the United States of America a sub-sample of female participants with clearly identified parenting status (n = 458) were analysed. Measures included demographics history of trauma and torture scales for physical psychological and social problems and a post-traumatic stress symptom checklist. Results indicated high overall trauma and torture exposure and associated physical social and psychological problems. Women with large families reported statistically significantly higher counts of reported trauma (mean 30 P < 0.001) and torture (mean 3 P < 0.001) and more associated problems (P < 0.001) than the other two groups. Women who reported higher levels of trauma and torture were also older (P < 0.001) had more family responsibilities had less formal education (P < 0.001) and were less likely to speak English (P < 0.001). These findings suggest a need for nurses and especially public health nurses who work with refugee and immigrant populations in the community to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the range of refugee womens experiences and the continuum of needs post-migration particularly among older women with large family responsibilities. Nurses with their holistic framework are ideally suited to partner with refugee women to expand their health agenda beyond the biomedical model to promote healing and reconnection with families and communities. (authors)

Torture : a collection

Abstract: Torture is perhaps the most unequivocally banned practice in the world today. Yet within six weeks after September 11, articles began appearing suggesting that torture might be "required" in order to interrogate suspected terrorists about future possibilities of violence. The United States and some of its allies are using methods of questioning relating to the war on terrorism that could be described as torture or, at the very least, as inhuman and degrading. It is known that the United States sent some suspected terrorists to allied countries that are well known to engage in torture. And in terror's wake, the use of such methods, at least under some conditions, has gained some prominent defenders. Torture: A Collection brings together leading lawyers, political theorists, social scientists, and public intellectuals to debate the advisability of maintaining the absolute ban and to reflect on what it says about our societies if we do - or do not - adhere to it in all circumstances. One important question is how we define torture at all. Are "cruel and inhumane" practices that result in profound physical or mental discomfort tolerable so long as they do not meet some definition of "torture"? And how much "transparency" do we really want with regard to interrogation practices? Is "don't ask, don't tell" an acceptable response to those who concern themselves about these practices? Addressing these questions and more, this book tackles one of the most controversial issues that we face today. The noted contributors include Ariel Dorfman, Elaine Scarry, Alan Dershowitz, Judge Richard Posner, Michael Walzer, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and other lawyers from both the United States and abroad.

Fueling Our Fears: Stereotyping, Media Coverage, and Public Opinion of Muslim Americans

Abstract: Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 1 Muslim Americans in the News before and after 9/11 Chapter 3 2 The First 9/11 Anniversary and Beyond Chapter 4 3 The Visual Portrayal of Arabs and Muslims Chapter 5 4 How Americans View Islam and Muslims at Home and Abroad Chapter 6 5 Torture: When the Enemy Fits Prevalent Stereotypes Chapter 7 6 American Muslims' Sentiments in the Post-9/11 Years Chapter 8 Epilogue: Covering American Muslims and Islam Chapter 9 Appendix Chapter 10 Selected Bibliography

Gendered Subjects of Transitional Justice

Abstract: Transitional societies must contend with a range of complex challenges as they seek to come to terms with and move beyond an immediate past saturated with mass murder, rape, torture, exploitation, disappearance, displacement, starvation, and all other manner of human suffering. Questions of justice figure prominently in these transitional moments, and they do so in a dual fashion that is at once backward and forward looking. Successor governments must think creatively about building institutions that bring justice to the past, while at the same time demonstrate a commitment that justice will form a bedrock of governance in the present and future. This is no easy task, and shortcuts, both in dealing with the past and in building a just future, often appear irresistible. In Martha Minow's words, justice at this juncture amounts to replacing "violence with words and terror with fairness," (1) and steering a "path between too much memory and too much forgetting." (2) The template of mechanisms available to undertake transitional justice are familiar to those who work in this field: prosecutions (domestic and international); truth and reconciliation commissions; lustration (the shaming and banning of perpetrators from public office); public access to police, military and other governmental records; public apology; public memorials; reburial of victims; compensation or reparation to victims and/or their families (in the form of money, land, or other resources); literary and historical writing; and blanket or individualized amnesty. In most cases, justice demands the deployment of a number of these tools, given that no one of them can adequately address and repair the injuries of the past nor chart a fully just future. Transitional justice will always be both incomplete and messy. Justice is, of course, a very complex ethical, legal, institutional, and emotional problem, and its aspirations are rendered all the more difficult in transitional societies that are struggling with unstable governance, security, and economic institutions. To better illuminate these complexities, particularly as they relate to gender, I will borrow a framing device from political scientist Nancy Fraser. In Justice Interruptus, Fraser discusses one of the key dilemmas of justice projects: whether they should be fundamentally committed to redistribution or recognition. (3) Justice as redistribution is a familiar concept entailing the reordering of material and symbolic resources based upon a particular account of culpability, desert, accountability, injury, and fairness. These transitional justice projects could be primarily committed to redistributing money or land (in the form of reparations), but they could also redistribute shame (from the injured to the injurer) or power--resources that might be best understood as symbolic and cultural. By contrast, justice projects that emphasize recognition seek the establishment of official bodies, be they courts, tribunals, officially appointed commissions, or boards of inquest, whose task it is to find facts, and, more importantly, recognize, acknowledge, or call up the identities of the parties and acts that are brought to their official attention. The facts to be recognized may be culpability, harm, injury, or causation. Individual identities to be recognized would be that of criminal, victim, conspirator, or rights-holder, while the identity of particular criminal practices may be recognized as well, such as genocidal, gender, or ethnic-based crimes. Of course, a preference for redistribution over recognition, or vice versa, does not tell you which of the tools of transitional justice to prefer. Courts can both recognize and redistribute, as can truth and reconciliation commissions that possess the power to order reparations. However, I think it fair to say that while transitional justice mechanisms can undertake either or both justice as redistribution and justice as recognition, at the end of the day most of them end up accomplishing more recognition than redistribution. …

9/11: The Culture of Commemoration

Abstract: After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a general sense that the world was different - that nothing would ever be the same - settled upon a grieving nation; and the events of that day were received as cataclysmic disruptions of an ordered world. Refuting this claim, David Simpson examines the complex and paradoxical character of American public discourse since that September morning, considering the ways the event has been aestheticized, exploited, and appropriated, while "Ground Zero" remains the contested site of an effort at adequate commemoration. In 9/11, Simpson argues that elements of the conventional culture of mourning and remembrance - grieving the dead, summarizing their lives in obituaries, and erecting monuments in their memory - have been co-opted for political advantage. He also confronts those who labeled the event an "apocalypse," condemning their exploitation of 9/11 for the defense of torture and war. In four elegant chapters - two of which expand on essays originally published in the "London Review of Books" to great acclaim - Simpson analyzes the response to 9/11: the nationally syndicated "Portraits of Grief" obituaries in the "New York Times"; the debates over the rebuilding of the World Trade Center towers and the memorial design; the representation of American and Iraqi dead after the invasion of March 2003, along with the worldwide circulation of the Abu Ghraib torture photographs; and the urgent and largely ignored critique of homeland rhetoric from the domain of critical theory. Calling for a sustained cultural and theoretical analysis, "9/11" is the first book of its kind to consider the events of that tragic day with a perspective so firmly grounded in the humanities and so persuasive about the contribution they can make to our understanding of its consequences.

Justice Ignited: The Dynamics of Backfire

Abstract: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Sharpeville Chapter 3 Dili Chapter 4 Dharasana Chapter 5 The Beating of Rodney King Chapter 6 Target: Whistleblowers Chapter 7 The Dismissal of Ted Steele Chapter 8 Environmental Disasters Chapter 9 The Invasion of Iraq Chapter 10 Abu Ghraib Chapter 11 Countershock: Challenging Pushbutton Torture Chapter 12 Terrorism as Predictable Backfire Chapter 13 Theory and Backfire Chapter 14 Conclusion

Torture and the Ticking Bomb: The War on Terrorism as a Geographical Imagination of Power/Knowledge

Abstract: Torture can be understood as part of a geopolitical response to a discursively inflated threat. Public discussions of torture in the United States between 11 September 2001 and the May 2004 revelations of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison cautiously justified brutal interrogation methods by couching the threat of terrorism in the language of the ticking-bomb scenario. Terrorist acts constitute a real threat to material security, specifically to the “topological” presuppositions of the forms of power/knowledge that Foucault and others have argued are central to modern social orders. Techniques of biopower and governmentality can only operate effectively if “normally empowered” biopolitical subjects allow populations and governing authorities to orient their governing and self-governing activities according to “mappable landscapes of expectation.” The threat of terrorism, especially in the person of the suicide bomber, renders landscapes of expectation more difficult to map, at least locally. The ticking...

Sexual Decoys: Gender, Race and War in Imperial Democracy

Abstract: 1. War as Gender in Another Form 2. Women in the Wars of/on Terror, or Re-sexing the Wars of/on Terror 3. Global Capital and Torture, or Anti-democratic Wars 4. Racial Diversity and the Crisis of Neoliberalism 5. Feminisms in and against War

International Law and Its Others: From ‘savages’ to ‘unlawful combatants’: a postcolonial look at international humanitarian law's ‘other’

Abstract: Through an exploration of the colonial genesis of the laws of war, specifically their exclusion of non-European people, this paper seeks to understand how contemporary exclusions are part of a continuity within international humanitarian law, rather than a break with it.

Trauma healing in refugee camps in Guinea: a psychosocial program for Liberian and Sierra Leonean survivors of torture and war.

Abstract: From 1999 to 2005, the Minneapolis-based Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) served Liberian and Sierra Leonean survivors of torture and war living in the refugee camps of Guinea. A psychosocial program was developed with 3 main goals: (a) to provide mental health care, (b) to train local refugee counselors, and (c) to raise community awareness about war trauma and mental health. Utilizing paraprofessional counselors under the close, on-site supervision of expatriate clinicians, the treatment model blended elements of Western and indigenous healing. The core component consisted of relationship-based supportive group counseling. Clinical interventions were guided by a 3-stage model of trauma recovery (safety, mourning, reconnection), which was adapted to the realities of the refugee camp setting. Over 4,000 clients were provided with counseling, and an additional 15,000 were provided with other supportive services. Results from follow-up assessments indicated significant reductions in trauma symptoms and increases in measures of daily functioning and social support during and after participation in groups. The treatment model developed in Guinea served as the basis for CVT's ongoing work with survivors in Sierra Leone and Liberia. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychological consequences of rape on women in 1991-1995 war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Abstract: Rape is defined as unlawful sexual intercourse without consent of the victim (1) However, given all the consequences of rape for victims, this definition is rather limited Investigations into psychological consequences of peacetime rape in women victims have found that it produces polymorphous psychological difficulties, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (2-5), depression (2-4), anxiety (3), sexual dysfunctions (5), dissociative disorders (5), suicide attempts (2), and alcohol or substance abuse (2) Guidelines for the optimal management of rape victims include evidence-gathering activities, prophylaxis against sexually transmitted diseases, provision of emergency contraception, and psychiatric help (6) Providing counseling and psychiatric care immediately after the rape might be crucial in promoting recovery and preventing later problems Unfortunately, in war circumstances, implementation of most of these recommendations often remains impossible The wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda in early 1990s were characterized by systematic mass rapes of civilians, mostly women (7) According to the Geneva Convention from 1949 and Additional Protocols from 1977 (8), rape and sexual assault against women during the war are considered an offense of crime against humanity However, they often remain unreported and unrecognized An important step in the recognition and legal persecution of war-time rapes was made with the establishment of The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which recognized rape as a specific war crime (9) Understanding that perpetrator can be caught and punished might encourage the victim to report the crime In our study, we tried to find the most suitable method to motivate the victims to talk about the trauma This allowed us to document the features of crime while providing psychotherapeutic treatment at the same time Assessments on the number of women raped in the war against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are available, but there are no precise data on all features and consequences of those crimes Out of 1926 Muslim (Bosniak) and Croat refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who answered the first 16 questions of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, about 6% had been victims and/or witnesses of sexual torture (10) A study of 55 women victims of sexual torture in wars against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina found that almost all of them were raped during 1992, mostly in the region of city of Banja Luka, the site of the infamous Bosnian Serb concentration camps Omarska, Trnopolje, and Keraterm (11) According to the Final Report of United Nations Commission issued in 1995 (12), there were 480 camps for civilian and military prisoners under Serbian control after 1991 The system of Serbian war camps included all previously known types of camps, but the ones for carrying out mass rapes presented the most drastic novelty in the history of war camps According to the place and manner of crime, it was possible to discern three different models of rapes during the war against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (13) The first included rapes committed by individuals or small groups to spread fear among the targeted ethnic group and to rob it It occurred before the commencement of widespread armed conflict in the region Women were raped in their own homes, and the word about it spread through their villages That caused many people to flee in fear that it might happen to them too The second type of systematic rapes was committed by individuals or small groups during the battles and occupation of territories This model often included public rapes, which were also aimed to frighten people and make them flee The third model was committed by individuals and groups who raped women captured in camps, hotels, and private brothel-camps set up for Serbian soldiers to “have fun” The aim of this study was to determine the psychological consequences in women victims of systematic mass rapes committed during the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Music as torture / Music as weapon

Abstract: One of the most startling aspects of musical culture in the post-Cold War United States is the systematic use of music as a weapon of war. First coming to mainstream attention in 1989, when US troops blared loud music in an effort to induce Panamanian president Manuel Norriega’s surrender, the use of “acoustic bombardment” has become standard practice on the battlefields of Iraq, and specifically musical bombardment has joined sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation as among the non-lethal means by which prisoners from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo may be coerced to yield their secrets without violating US law. The very idea that music could be an instrument of torture confronts us with a novel—and disturbing—perspective on contemporary musicality in the United States. What is it that we in the United States might know about ourselves by contemplating this perspective? What does our government’s use of music in the “war on terror” tell us (and our antagonists) about ourselves? This paper is a first attempt to understand the military and cultural logics on which the contemporary use of music as a weapon in torture and war is based. After briefly tracing the development of acoustic weapons in the late 20th century, and their deployment at the second battle of Falluja in November, 2004, I summarize what can be known about the theory and practice of using music to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. I contemplate some aspects of late 20th-century musical culture in the civilian US that resonate with the US security community’s conception of music as a weapon, and survey the way musical torture is discussed in the virtual world known as the blogosphere. Finally, I sketch some questions for further research and analysis.

A Narrative Study of Refugee Women Who Have Experienced Violence in the Context of War

Abstract: Although women are rarely on the frontlines of battle, as in many other realms of contemporary life they bear a disproportionate burden of the consequences of war. Many have experienced torture firsthand or been witnesses to the torture or killing of family, friends, and loved ones. The use of rape and other forms of sexual torture has been well documented. For those who are forced to flee their homes and countries, separation from spouses, children, and other family members is common. Because of the sheer magnitude of global conflict, the number of refugees and displaced persons throughout the world has risen exponentially. It has been estimated that women constitute more than half of the world's refugee population. The purpose of this narrative study was to examine the experiences of refugee women who experienced violence in the context of war. Data analysis revealed 8 themes: lives forever changed, new notions of normality, a pervasive sense of fear, selves obscured, living among and between cultures, a woman's place in Canada, bearing heavy burdens--the centrality of children, and an uncaring system of care. Implications for research and practice, including limitations associated with individualized Western approaches, are discussed.

Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancien Régime

Abstract: In "Torture and the Law of Proof "John H. Langbein explores the world of the thumbscrew and the rack, engines of torture authorized for investigating crime in European legal systems from medieval times until well into the eighteenth century. Drawing on juristic literature and legal records, Langbein's book, first published in 1977, remains the definitive account of how European legal systems became dependent on the use of torture in their routine criminal procedures, and how they eventually worked themselves free of it. The book has recently taken on an eerie relevance as a consequence of controversial American and British interrogation practices in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In a new introduction, Langbein contrasts the "new" law of torture with the older European law and offers some pointed lessons about the difficulty of reconciling coercion with accurate investigation. Embellished with fascinating illustrations of torture devices taken from an eighteenth-century criminal code, this crisply written account will engage all those interested in torture's remarkable grip on European legal history.

The Effects of Torture: Two Community Studies

Abstract: The goal of the 2 studies discussed in this article was to explore how persons who have undergone torture and other general trauma differ from persons who have undergone only general trauma and to compare the effects of torture to other kinds of traumas. The studies were conducted in 2001 and 2003. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found that although tortured individuals have a significantly higher trauma dose, they are more resilient, are more socioculturally adjusted, have more posttraumatic growth, and practice their religion more. They are more tolerant of differences in religion, race, and culture, and feel more supported. However, they are less healthy physically than individuals in the community who were not tortured. We used theories of attribution, identity trauma, and cumulative trauma to understand the results. Recommendations for counseling and therapy are discussed.

Investigative interviewing : rights, research and regulation

Abstract: Part I: Developments in Rights 1. Investigative interviewing and human rights in the war on terrorism, Tom Williamson 2. Al-Qaeda-related subjects: a law enforcement perspective, Michael G. Gelles, Robert McFadden, Randy Borum and Bryan Vossekuil 3. American interrogation methods in the war on terror, David Rose 4. The interrogation of terrorist suspects: the banality of torture, John J. Pearse Part II: Developments in Research 5. The psychology of rapport: five basic rules, Michel St-Yves 6. Confessions by sex offenders, Michel St-Yves 7. The psychology of interrogations and confessions, Gisli H. Gudjonsson 8. Towards greater professionalism: minimizing miscarriages of justice, Tom Williamson 9. Will it all end in tiers? Police interviews with suspects in Britain, Andrew Griffiths and Becky Milne 10. The Reid Technique of interviewing and interrogation, Joseph P. Buckley 11. A critical appraisal of the Reid Technique, Saul M. Kassin 12. Investigative interviewing and the detection of deception, Mark G. Frank, John D. Yarborough and Paul Ekman Part III: Developments in Regulation 13. Recovered memories, James Ost 14. Investigative interviewing: suspects' and victims' rights in balance, Robert Roy 15. Regulating police interrogation, David Dixon 16. Conclusion, Tom Williamson

Torture, Terrorism and the State: a Refutation of the Ticking-Bomb Argument

Abstract: It should not come as a surprise that human rights are among the first casualties in the War on Terrorism.1,2,3 Yet recent policy proposals in the fight against terrorism are threatening to take human rights violations to a level until recently unimaginable. In the corridors of the White House, and perhaps behind the doors in Downing Street, arguments have begun to surface that in certain extreme cases the use of torture may be justified, and therefore ought to be legalized.

What Practices Constitute Torture? US and UN Standards

Abstract: This article is a response to the attempts of the US government to redefine torture in a highly restrictive sense and at the same time distinguishing it from other forms of cruel inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT). To this end, the author undertakes a short analysis of the understanding of the concept of torture and CIDT by the present US Government and asks whether this interpretation corresponds to the definition of torture in Article 1, Convention against Torture (CAT). An analysis of the techniques authorized by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the interrogation of Guantanamo detainees is also carried out in light of applicable UN standards and international case law.

Torture in Abu Ghraib

Abstract: Iraqi detainees subjected to torture and mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison may continue to suffer from significant physical and psychological consequences of their abuse. This article reports two cases of Iraqi individuals allegedly tortured at Abu Ghraib. Detailed forensic evaluations were conducted approximately one year after their abuse in accordance with international guidelines. The findings of these evaluations substantiate their allegations of torture and confirm the profound health consequences of torture. Furthermore, these cases support assertions that abuse of prisoners was not limited to being perpetrated by guards, but also occurred systematically in the context of interrogations. These cases also raise concerns about inadequate medical care for Iraqi detainees.

Prevalence of torture survivors among foreign-born patients presenting to an urban ambulatory care practice

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The prevalence of torture among foreign-born patients presenting to urban medical clinics is not well documented.

The distinction between torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Abstract: The present article seeks to clarify the distinction between torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment The author argues that the decisive criteria for distinguishing torture from CIDT is not, as argued by the European Court of Human Rights and many scholars, the intensity of the pain or suffering inflicted, but the purpose of the conduct and the powerlessness of the victim and that as such the distinction is primarily linked to the question of personal liberty He concludes that the "scope of application" of CIDT is a relative concept, that outside a situation of detention and similar direct control, the prohibition of CIDT is subject to the proportionality principle Here, only excessive use of police force constitutes CIDT In a situation of detention or similar direct control, however, no proportionality test may be applied Any use of physical or mental force against a detainee with the purpose of humiliation constitutes degrading treatment or punishment and any infliction of severe pain or suffering for a specific purpose as expressed in Art1 CAT amounts to torture

Torture in Dreamland: Disposing of the Ticking Bomb

Abstract: ION Gross and I both think, it seems, that torture should remain, as it is, absolutely non-derogably illegal. But we both also wished that if a public official honestly, upon careful reflection, judged that the ultimate catastrophe loomed but that it could be prevented if and only if some one personor even some small number of persons-were tortured, he could act on his conviction and conduct the torture outside the law. I say "outside the law" in order to fudge some differences between us that, although they are important, I do not want to pursue very far here. As his comments regarding the quotation from Carl Schmitt that I introduced at the beginning of this piece indicate, Gross believes that the arrival of what he calls the "catastrophic case" heralds, or perhaps simply constitutes, the suspension of normality that, Schmitt claimed, is a necessary condition for the rule of law. Schmitt seems to me to have matters backwards. It is when conditions are eroding that one really needs the rule of law. But that is a long story for another time. Gross characterizes the non-normal situation as "extra-legal,' which is worrisome because it seems much too wholesale. To be fair to him, however, he insists that any entry into the extra-legal be considered for "ex 18 Id. at 240. 2006] CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. post ratification."' 19 In his hypothetical, if the move to the extra-legal is not granted ex post ratification, then any official who ordered torture as an act of "official disobedience" may be punished criminally and sued civilly for violating the laws against torture. 20 My 1978 proposal was much more limited and simple: essentially, that the torture would be like an act of civil disobedience at least in the respect that the conscientious torturer would willingly submit to charges and trial. If the torture had demonstrably prevented the end of the world, the charges would presumably be dropped or the sentence suspended. The difficulty, which seems equally severe for Gross's suggestion and mine, is that our reluctant torturer would probably also be an incompetent torturer, most unlikely to succeed at what might well be his first try at extracting information. Successful torturers must avoid sympathy and empathy, or they will go too easy. But they must also avoid anger and cruelty, or they will go too hard and merely knock the victim senseless, or drive him into a dissociative state, and learn nothing useful for the prevention of catastrophe. Torture is not for amateurs-successful torturers need to be real "pros", and no one becomes a "pro" overnight. At a minimum, one must practice-perhaps do research, be mentored by the still more experienced. In short, torture needs a bureaucracy, with apprentices and experts, of the kind that torture in fact always has. Torquemada was not an independent consultant. Torture is an institution. 21 Arrigo sums it up this way: The use of sophisticated torture techniques by a trained staff entails the problematic institutional arrangements I have laid out: physician assistance; cutting edge, secret biomedical research for torture techniques unknown to the terrorist organization and tailored to the individual captive for swift effect; well trained torturers, quickly accessible at major locations; pre-arranged permission from the courts because of the urgency; rejection of independent monitoring due to security issues; and so on. These institutional arrangements will have to be in place, with all their unintended and accumulating consequences, however rarely terrorist suspects are tortured .... [T]he harm to innocent victims of the terrorist should be

Rehabilitation of traumatised refugees and survivors of torture

Abstract: After almost two decades we are still not using evidence based treatments In a 1988 BMJ editorial,1 Marks and I reviewed the available knowledge on the mental health effects of torture and their treatment and presented a critical look at rehabilitation programmes for survivors. Eighteen years later, it is time to cast another look at the advances in our understanding of torture and its treatment and how this progress has translated into rehabilitation work with survivors. Such an update is timely: given the political developments of the last two decades, torture has become an ever more serious problem. An important advance in the 1990s was the demonstration of an association between torture and post-traumatic stress disorder through controlled studies using standardised assessment instruments.2 Further work provided insight into the psychological mechanisms that played a part in torture-induced post-traumatic stress. In a controlled study survivors who felt that those they held responsible for the torture did not receive the punishment they deserved were more likely to have a sense of injustice, …