Showing papers on "Torture published in 2013"

The Endtimes of Human Rights

Abstract: "We are living through the endtimes of the civilizing mission. The ineffectual International Criminal Court and its disastrous first prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, along with the failure in Syria of the Responsibility to Protect are the latest pieces of evidence not of transient misfortunes but of fatal structural defects in international humanism. Whether it is the increase in deadly attacks on aid workers, the torture and 'disappearing' of al-Qaeda suspects by American officials, the flouting of international law by states such as Sri Lanka and Sudan, or the shambles of the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh, the prospect of one world under secular human rights law is receding. What seemed like a dawn is in fact a sunset. The foundations of universal liberal norms and global governance are crumbling."—from The Endtimes of Human RightsIn a book that is at once passionate and provocative, Stephen Hopgood argues, against the conventional wisdom, that the idea of universal human rights has become not only ill adapted to current realities but also overambitious and unresponsive. A shift in the global balance of power away from the United States further undermines the foundations on which the global human rights regime is based. American decline exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies and weaknesses behind the attempt to enforce this regime around the world and opens the way for resurgent religious and sovereign actors to challenge human rights.Historically, Hopgood writes, universal humanist norms inspired a sense of secular religiosity among the new middle classes of a rapidly modernizing Europe. Human rights were the product of a particular worldview (Western European and Christian) and specific historical moments (humanitarianism in the nineteenth century, the aftermath of the Holocaust). They were an antidote to a troubling contradiction—the coexistence of a belief in progress with horrifying violence and growing inequality. The obsolescence of that founding purpose in the modern globalized world has, Hopgood asserts, transformed the institutions created to perform it, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and recently the International Criminal Court, into self-perpetuating structures of intermittent power and authority that mask their lack of democratic legitimacy and systematic ineffectiveness. At their best, they provide relief in extraordinary situations of great distress; otherwise they are serving up a mixture of false hope and unaccountability sustained by "human rights" as a global brand.The Endtimes of Human Rights is sure to be controversial. Hopgood makes a plea for a new understanding of where hope lies for human rights, a plea that mourns the promise but rejects the reality of universalism in favor of a less predictable encounter with the diverse realities of today's multipolar world.

Trauma, War, and Violence: Public Mental Health in Socio-Cultural Context

Abstract: 1. Public Mental Health, Traumatic Stress and Human Rights Violations in Low-Income Countries: A Culturally Appropriate Model in Times of Conflict, Disaster and Peace J.T.V.M. De Jong. 2. The Cambodian Experience W.A.C.M. Van de Put, M. Eisenbruch. 3. Community Based Psychosocial and Mental Health Services for Southern Sudanese Refugees in Long-Term Exile in Uganda N. Baron. 4. Psychosocial Consequences of War - Northern Sri Lankan Experience D. Somasundaram, C.S. Jamunanantha. 5. Addressing Human Rights Violations: A Public Mental Health Perspective on Helping Torture Survivors in Nepal M.H. Van Ommeren, et al. 6. Addressing the Psychosocial and Mental Health Needs of Tibetan Refugees in India E. Ketzer, A. Crescenzi. 7. Community Mental Health as Practiced by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme S. Qouta, E. el Sarraj. 8. Walks in Kaliti, Life in a Destitute Shelter for the Displaced in Addis Ababa L. Aptekar, R. Giel. 9. Terrorism, Traumatic Events and Mental Health in Algeria M.A.A. Sidhoum, et al. 10. How can participation on the community and traditional healers improve primary health care in Kinshasa, Congo? J. Le Roy.

The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance

Abstract: Part I. Introduction and Stock-Taking: 1. Introduction and overview Thomas Risse and Stephen C. Ropp 2. The power of human rights a decade after: from euphoria to contestation? Anja Jetschke and Andrea Liese 3. From ratification to compliance: quantitative evidence on the spiral model Beth A. Simmons Part II. Conceptual and Methodological Issues: 4. Human rights in areas of limited statehood: the new agenda Tanja A. Borzel and Thomas Risse 5. The 'compliance gap' and the efficacy of international human rights institutions Xinyuan Dai 6. Social mechanisms to promote international human rights: complementary or contradictory? Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks Part III. From Ratification to Compliance: States Revisited: 7. The normative context of human rights criticism: treaty ratification and UN mechanisms Ann Marie Clark 8. The United States and torture: does the spiral model work? Kathryn Sikkink 9. Resisting the power of human rights: the People's Republic of China Katrin Kinzelbach 10. The 'Arab Spring' and the spiral model: Tunisia and Morocco Vera van Hullen Part IV. From Commitment to Compliance: Companies, Rebel, Individuals: 11. Encouraging greater compliance: local networks and the United Nations Global Compact Wagaki Mwangi, Lothar Rieth and Hans Peter Schmitz 12. Business and human rights: how corporate norm violators become norm entrepreneurs Nicole Deitelhoff and Klaus Dieter Wolf 13. Taming of the warlords: commitment and compliance by armed opposition groups in civil wars Hyeran Jo and Katherine Bryant 14. Changing hearts and minds: sexual politics and human rights Alison Brysk 15. Conclusions Thomas Risse and Kathryn Sikkink.

On Complicity and Compromise

Abstract: We hear allegations of complicity all the time. Yet there are many ways of being mixed up with the wrongdoing of others. Not all of them are morally on a par; some are worse than others. Furthermore, contributing complicitly to wrongdoing, while still wrong in itself, might nonetheless be the right thing to do if that is the only way to achieve some greater good. Drawing on deep scholarship in philosophy, law and political science, and on a wealth of practical experience delivering emergency medical services in conflict-ridden settings, Lepora and Goodin summarize their analysis in a formula that can be used as a decision heuristic. Its usefulness is illustrated by applications both to stylized philosophical examples and to vexing cases of complicity in the real world, such as the complicity of humanitarian aid organizations with genocidaires controlling Rwandan refugee camps and the complicity of physicians treating patients who are being subjected to torture.

Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Abstract: 1. The Committee welcomes the submission of the second report of Kyrgyzstan, in response to the list of issues prior to reporting (CAT/C/KGZ/Q/2). However, the Committee regrets that it was submitted 10 years late, which prevented the Committee from conducting an analysis of the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in the State party following the consideration of its initial report in 1999.

International Law and Public Attitudes Toward Torture: An Experimental Study

Abstract: Domestic approaches to compliance with international commitments often presume that international law has a distinct effect on the beliefs and preferences of national publics. Studies attempting to estimate the consequences of international law unfortunately face a wide range of empirical and methodological challenges. This article uses an experimental design embedded in two U.S. national surveys to offer direct systematic evidence of international law's effect on mass attitudes. To provide a relatively tough test for international law, the surveys examine public attitudes toward the use of torture, an issue in which national security concerns are often considered paramount. Contrary to the common contention of international law's inefficacy, I find that legal commitments have a discernible impact on public support for the use of torture. The effect of international law is also strongest in those contexts where pressures to resort to torture are at their highest. However, the effects of different dimensions in the level of international agreements' legalization are far from uniform. In contrast to the attention often devoted to binding rules, I find that the level of obligation seems to make little difference on public attitudes toward torture. Rather, the relative precision of the rules, along with the degree to which enforcement is delegated to third parties, plays a much greater role in shaping public preferences. Across both international law and legalization, an individual's political ideology also exerts a strong mediating effect, though in varying directions depending on the design of the agreement. The findings have implications for understanding the overall impact of international law on domestic actors, the importance of institutional design, and the role of political ideology on compliance with international agreements.

The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza

Abstract: THE LEAST OF ALL POSSIBLE EVILS: HUMANITARIAN VIOLENCE FROM ARENDT TO GAZA by Eyal Weizman New York: Verso, 2011 (218 pages, index, illustrations) $26.95 (cloth)In that historical moment after the September 11 terrorist attacks, American politicians and pundits launched a debate about whether torture should be employed to combat terror. Those who endorsed the use of torture, and even some conflicted torture opponents, affirmed the consensus view that torture is unequivocally bad. But, they opined, if torture was necessary to elicit vital information to keep Americans safe, it would be a justiflable lesser evil in the service of national security. Nowadays, drone strikes have supplanted torture as the popular lesser evil.Eyal Weizman begins The Least of All Possible Evils with a history of lesser-evil thinking. "The principle of the lesser evil," he explains,is often presented as a dilemma between two or more bad choices in situations where available options are, or seem to be, limited. ... Both aspects of the principle are understood as taking place within a closed system in which those posing the dilemma, the options available for choice, the factors to be calculated and the very parameters of calculation are unchallenged. Each calculation is taken anew, as if the previous accumulation of events has not taken place, and the future implications are out of bounds. (6)Weizman's work is a profound and empirically rich engagement with developments in contemporary "humanitarianism," which, he argues, has evolved into various technocratic collusions among those who work to aid the vulnerable and those who mete out state violence in the name of security. He names this lesser-evil collusion "the humanitarian present."Weizman dates the start of the humanitarian present to the 1980s, specifically the "humanitarian crisis" in Ethiopia and the role Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) played there. The "crisis" was not the devastating famine in East Africa. It was rather the ways in which Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime co-opted MSF's relief work to seize and relocate starving people who came from rebel-controlled regions to the food distribution centers, ultimately leading to thousands of deaths.Weizman traces the contemporary history of humanitarianism to French left-radical politics in the late 1960s and the influence of Hannah Arendt's work on totalitarianism. Anti-totalitarianism supplanted revolutionary leftism, and activism shifted from proletariats and capitalists to the "passive quasi-religious dialectics of victims and perpetrators" (37). This elevation of victims as the focus of humanitarian concern and action congealed as a politics of compassion and a practice oriented to the humanitarian culture of emergency. The humanitarian ethic, in the words of Bernard-Henri Levy, was the utilitarian objective to "make the world a little more livable for the greatest number of people" (38). The nexus of compassion and practice found its infrastructure in humanitarian nongovernmental organizations, such as MSF.The logic of principled compromises can be seen in MSF's promotion of "humanitarianism in its minimalist form, ... as the practice of 'lesser evils' ... [to sustain] life without seeking to govern or manage populations, [or to make] political claims on their behalf, [or to seek] to resolve root causes of conflicts" (54). Weizman compares this willingness to compromise for the goal of keeping people alive to that of the world's most preeminent humani- tarian organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, where access to prisoners is traded for the promise not to publicize what is learned.Such political agnosticism involved a three-part move: creating humani- tarian spaces separate from the political spheres of armies or regimes, adhering to a logic of humanitarian minimalism to sustain life, and believing that the people whose lives were saved would create their own politics, someday. …

Treaties, Tenure, and Torture: The Conflicting Domestic Effects of International Law

Abstract: International human rights treaties are argued to increase both the likelihood of domestic mobilized dissent and judicial constraint. These pressures pull leaders in conflicting directions: mobilized challenges undermine a leader’s position in power, increasing incentives to repress; courts raise the probability of litigation, decreasing incentives to repress. We argue authorities balance these pressures based on their job security. Politically insecure leaders, desperate to retain power, repress to control the destabilizing effects of dissent. Secure leaders are less likely to fall to citizen pressures, but the probability of facing an effective judiciary weighs heavily in their expected costs. Consequently, they repress less to avoid litigation. We find empirical support for the implications of our formal theory using data on commitment to the UN Convention Against Torture. Treaties have no effect on repression in states with insecure leaders but have a positive effect on rights protection in states hea...

Asylum seekers, violence and health: A systematic review of research in high-income host countries

Abstract: We performed a systematic review of literature on violence and related health concerns among asylum seekers in high-income host countries. We extracted data from 23 peer-reviewed studies.Prevalence of torture, variably defined, was above 30% across all studies. Torture history in clinic populations correlated with hunger and posttraumatic stress disorder, although in small, nonrepresentative samples. One study observed that previous exposure to interpersonal violence interacted with longer immigration detention periods, resulting in higher depression scores.Limited evidence suggests that asylum seekers frequently experience violence and health problems, but large-scale studies are needed to inform policies and services for this vulnerable group often at the center of political debate.

Cassese's International Criminal Law

Abstract: Provides a clear account of the main substantive and procedural aspects of international criminal law. Adopting a combination of the classic common law and more theoretical approaches to the subject, it discusses: the historical evolution of international criminal law; the legal definition of the so-called core crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide) plus aggression, torture and terrorism; the forms and modes of criminal responsibility; and the main issues related to the prosecution and punishment of international crimes at the national and international level, including amnesties, statutes of limitations, and immunities.

The Informative Power of Treaty Commitment: Using the Spatial Model to Address Selection Effects

Abstract: The effects of international institutions on state behavior make up a key research agenda in international-relations scholarship. Because states self-select into treaties, we cannot infer that these commitments have causal effects unless we address this selection effect. I explain the significant limitations of the methods used thus far to overcome this problem and argue that a more effective approach must take into account states' treaty preferences. I describe a novel combination of ideal-point estimation and propensity-score matching that can estimate the probabilities of treaty commitment and use them to test hypotheses. I use this procedure to test the effects of three key international human-rights treaties. My results provide significant new findings regarding the effects of these important agreements. I show that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has significantly improved respect for women's rights, but that the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have not had significant effects on human rights.

Warped Mourning: Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied

Abstract: After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union dismantled the enormous system of terror and torture that he had created But there has never been any Russian ban on former party functionaries, nor any external authority to dispense justice Memorials to the Soviet victims are inadequate, and their families have received no significant compensation This book's premise is that late Soviet and post-Soviet culture, haunted by its past, has produced a unique set of memorial practices More than twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia remains "the land of the unburied": the events of the mid-twentieth century are still very much alive, and still contentious Alexander Etkind shows how post-Soviet Russia has turned the painful process of mastering the past into an important part of its political present

Disaggregating Torture Allegations: Introducing the Ill-Treatment and Torture (ITT) Country-Year Data†

Abstract: The Ill-Treatment and Torture (ITT) Data Collection Project uses content analysis to measure allegations of government ill-treatment and torture made by Amnesty International (AI) from 1995 to 2005. ITT's country-year (CY) data quantify AI allegations of ill-treatment and torture at the country-year unit of observation and further across different responsible government agents and across different econo-socio-political groups of alleged victims. This paper introduces the Ill-Treatment and Torture country-year data, describes quantitative patterns likely to be of interest to researchers focused on the study of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and human rights, and suggests a number of theoretically motivated questions that can be explored using the ITT country-year data.

State Violence and the Execution of Law: Biopolitcal Caesurae of Torture, Black Sites, Drones

Abstract: Introduction: Anatomies of State Violence and the (In)Execution of Law 1. Biopolitical Caesura of State Violence 2. Shadow Archives of Torture 3. Biopolitcal Hierarchies of Life 4. Epidemiologies of State Bioterror 5. Black Sites, Redacted Bodies 6. Prosthetics of Empire and the Anomic Violence of Drones

Gross human rights violations and reparation under international law: approaching rehabilitation as a form of reparation

Abstract: The strengthening of international criminal law through an increased focus on the right to reparation and rehabilitation for victims of crimes against humanity represents an important challenge to health professionals, particularly to those in the field of trauma research and treatment. A brief outline of some developments in the field of international law and justice for victims of gross human rights violations is presented, with a focus on the right to reparation including the means for rehabilitation. The fulfillment of this right is a complex endeavor which raises many questions. The road to justice and reparation for those whose rights have been brutally violated is long and burdensome. The active presence of trauma-informed health professionals in this process is a priority. Some of the issues raised within the context of states’ obligations to provide and ensure redress and rehabilitation to those subjected to torture and gross human rights violations are discussed, and in particular how rehabilitation can be understood and responded to by health professionals. Keywords: Gross human rights violations; redress; rehabilitation; torture; reparation (Published: 8 May 2013) For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files in the column to the right (under Article Tools). Citation: European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2013, 4 : 17191 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v4i0.17191

Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency

Abstract: British Army counterinsurgency campaigns were supposedly waged within the bounds of international law, overcoming insurgents with the minimum force necessary. This revealing study questions what this meant for the civilian population during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s, one of Britain's most violent decolonisation wars. For the first time Huw Bennett examines the conduct of soldiers in detail, uncovering the uneasy relationship between notions of minimum force and the colonial tradition of exemplary force where harsh repression was frequently employed as a valid means of quickly crushing rebellion. Although a range of restrained policies such as special forces methods, restrictive rules of engagement and surrender schemes prevented the campaign from degenerating into genocide, the army simultaneously coerced the population to drop their support for the rebels, imposing collective fines, mass detentions and frequent interrogations, often tolerating rape, indiscriminate killing and torture to terrorise the population into submission.

Dissent and Revolution in a Digital Age: Social Media, Blogging and Activism in Egypt

Abstract: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: A Theory of the Networked Revolt: Social Media Networks, Media Events, and Collective Action Chapter 3: Agenda-Setters: Torture, Rights and Social Media Networks in Egypt Chapter 4: New Tools, Old Rules: Social Media Networks and Collective Action in Egypt Chapter 5: (Amplified) Voices for the Voiceless: Social Media Networks, Minorities, and Virtual Counterpublics Chapter 6: We Are All Revolutionaries Now: Social Media Networks and the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 Chapter 7: Cascades, Colors, and Contingencies: Social Media Networks and Authoritarianism in Global Perspective

Circumcision of male infants as a human rights violation

Abstract: Every infant has a right to bodily integrity. Removing healthy tissue from an infant is only permissible if there is an immediate medical indication. In the case of infant male circumcision there is no evidence of an immediate need to perform the procedure. As a German court recently held, any benefit to circumcision can be obtained by delaying the procedure until the male is old enough to give his own fully informed consent. With the option of delaying circumcision providing all of the purported benefits, circumcising an infant is an unnecessary violation of his bodily integrity as well as an ethically invalid form of medical violence. Parental proxy ‘consent’ for newborn circumcision is invalid. Male circumcision also violates four core human rights documents—the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention Against Torture. Social norm theory predicts that once the circumcision rate falls below a critical value, the social norms that currently distort our perception of the practice will dissolve and rates will quickly fall.

A new international human rights court for west africa: the ecowas community court of justice

Abstract: The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court) is an increasingly active and bold adjudicator of human rights. Since acquiring jurisdiction over human rights complaints in 2005, the ECOWAS Court has issued numerous decisions condemning human rights violations by the member states of the Economic Community of West African States (Community). Among this Court’s path-breaking cases are judgments against Niger for condoning modern forms of slavery and against Nigeria for impeding the right to free basic education for all children. The ECOWAS Court also has broad access and standing rules that permit individuals and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to bypass national courts and file suits directly with the Court. Although the Court is generally careful in the proof that it requires of complainants and in the remedies that it demands of governments, it has not shied away from politically courageous decisions, such as rulings against the Gambia for the torture of journalists and against Nigeria for failing to regulate multinational companies that have degraded the environment of the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The International League for the Rights of Man, Amnesty International, and the Changing Fate of Human Rights Activism from the 1940s through the 1970s

Abstract: In the late 1940s, the International League for the Rights of Man greeted the newborn human rights system at the United Nations as a beacon of hope. Founded in the midst of the Second World War, the League had all along advocated worldwide safeguards for the protection of individuals. Confident that international relations were on the verge of a new era, its activists invested all their energies into supporting the development of international law and the establishment of supervisory mechanisms at the world organization. Roughly fifteen years later, however, the initial enthusiasm had largely dissipated. In 1966, Roger Baldwin, the League's director, reached a bleak conclusion: "If we look back on the 24 years of the League, the record shows an influential role at the United Nations, greater than that of any NGO, but even so small; [and] many interventions with governments, some successful and many not."1At around the same time, Amnesty International, founded in 1961, was struggling hard to survive. The organization's credibility was severely damaged by publicity surrounding its links to the British government and strife among the leadership.2 Several national sections were about to collapse, and the overall growth of the international movement was subsiding. After prolonged preparatory work, the U.S. section was finally established in 1967 but faced years of frustration, lacking money, members, and dynamism. The "American operation," concluded Ivan Morris, one of the section's founders, in 1970, was "an unmitigated failure."3 By the end of the following decade, Amnesty International presented a completely different picture. In 1977 the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, rising to worldwide recognition and fame. It had successfully spread knowledge about the plight of what it called "prisoners of conscience" and by means of a widely noticed campaign sparked a "rediscovery" of torture. At the same time, Amnesty's U.S. section saw a vast influx of new activists. Numbering a few thousand at the beginning of the 1970s, its membership soared to almost 100,000 by the end of the decade.These three moments in the life of two non-governmental organizations, while providing only small glimpses into the evolution of human rights activism, suggest two important observations. First, both indicate the changing fate of private initiatives in this realm, illustrating how much the outreach and potential success of civil human rights engagement varied in different periods. Second, if variance was considerable, there is no easy explanation for it. Why did the League regard its postwar activities as largely futile, operating as it did in a period that historians have depicted as the triumphal breakthrough of human rights on the international stage? Why did Amnesty International have so much difficulty getting started?4 And how could an enterprise that seemed doomed to failure in the late 1960s become a powerful international force only a decade later?Even though non-governmental organizations can arguably be considered the most important driving force behind international human rights politics after the Second World War, historians have so far devoted scarce attention to them. Accounts by two protagonists of the human rights movement provide interesting background information.5 Several groundbreaking publications have elucidated important aspects of Amnesty International's history.6 Other organizations have attracted far less interest. A well-founded political science study provides a historical overview of the International Commission of Jurists.7 No similarly careful study exists on the International League for the Rights of Man or, for that matter, on the Anti-Slavery Society, the Watch Committees, and numerous other important NGOs. Little is yet known about the motivations of activists, the historical contexts in which their engagement unfolded, and the inner workings of organizations.In providing an archive-based study of the International League and Amnesty International, both the International Secretariat and the U. …

Refugee Women and Their Mental Health: Shattered Societies, Shattered Lives

Abstract: Contents Foreword * I. Introduction * Refugee Women and Mental Health: Shattered Societies, Shattered Lives * A Personal Introduction * Roots Uprooted: The Psychological Impact of Historical/Political Dislocation * II. Understanding Refugees: From the Inside Out * Coping With Stress: A Refugee's Story * Birth, Transformation, and Death of Refugee Identity: Women and Girls of the Intifada(in ital) * Women in Exile and Their Children * Rape and Domestic Violence: The Experience of Refugee Women * Soviet Jewish Refugee Women: Searching for Security * Displaced Women in Settings of Continuing Armed Conflict * Fifty Years Later: Am I Still an Immigrant? * III. Working With Refugees: The Challenges and Rewards * The Balancing Act: Plight of Afghan Women Refugees * Traces of Khmer Women's Imaginary: Finding Our Way in the West * From Helpless Victim to Empowered Survivor: Oral History as a Treatment for Survivors of Torture * On Trial in the Promised Land: Seeking Asylum * IV. Journeys to Recovery: The Healing Process * Testimonio, A Bridge Between Psychotherapy and Sociotherapy * Healing the Wounds of the Mahantdori(in ital) * Women and Political Torture: Work With Refugee Survivors in Exile * Markers of Successful Aging Among Vietnamese Refugee Women * V. Diagnostic Studies Across Cultures * Treatment for Psychosomatic Blindness Among Cambodian Refugee Women * Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Salvadoran Women: Empirical Evidence and Description of Treatment * Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnamese Women* Healing Their Wounds: Guatemalan Refugee Women as Political Activists * Reference Notes Included

Medical aid as protest: acts of citizenship for unauthorized im/migrants and refugees

Abstract: This article examines organized efforts by citizens to provide medical aid to unauthorized migrants in Germany. A case study of an activist organization in Berlin highlights how prevailing forms of governance through citizenship are disrupted. Three major themes are explored. First, historical contingencies and policy realities explain why, given examples of grassroots protest by migrants in other settings, efforts in Germany have been driven primarily by citizens. Second, migrants' biolegitimacy shapes specific ideas of relative deservingness. As a result, advocacy for some groups, such as survivors of torture or refugees from specific geopolitical settings, is more highly valued than that which addresses needs of unauthorized labor migrants. Finally, although their sustained efforts have resulted in challenges to policy and called into question prevailing notions of citizenship, medical activist organizations have become increasingly institutionalized, which may jeopardize their goals. As this case illu...

Retributive support for international punishment and torture

Abstract: This article tests the hypothesis that ordinary people favor punishing badly behaved foreign actors to make them “pay” for their crimes rather than purely to protect national security interests. In...

Correlates of Symptom Reduction in Treatment-Seeking Survivors of Torture

Abstract: While a growing body of literature addresses the psychological consequences of torture and war trauma, there are few empirical examinations of treatment for survivors of torture. This study offers a program evaluation of a comprehensive torture treatment program in New York City. We present literature surrounding the interdisciplinary “wraparound” approach to treating survivors of torture, and examine the relationship between clinical services and symptom reduction in a multinational sample of refugees (N 172) receiving treatment over a 6-month period. Clients were administered the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) during their intake interview and six months later. We found that approximately 45% (n 77) of treated clients displayed clinically significant improvement on either the HTQ, or the BSI subscales of Depression, Anxiety, or Somatization, over the six months following their intake evaluation. Generalized linear models revealed that gaining secure immigration status was the strongest correlate of clinical improvement. However, psychotherapy and attendance at educational sessions predicted improvement in symptoms beyond adjusting to a more secure immigration status. While this study’s correlational design does not establish that treatment caused the observed improvement, results point to the pivotal role of both clinical and “nonclinical” services and provide preliminary support for the value of an interdisciplinary approach. More research is needed to understand mechanisms of change and improvement in this sensitive population.

The mental health and psychosocial problems of survivors of torture and genocide in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq: a brief qualitative study.

Abstract: Background From 1986-9, the Kurdish population of Iraqi Kurdistan was subjected to an intense campaign of military action, and genocide by the central Iraq government. This campaign, referred to as the Anfal, included systematic attacks consisting of aerial bombings, mass deportation, imprisonment, torture, and chemical warfare. It has been estimated that around 200,000 Kurdish people disappeared. Purpose To gain a better understanding of current priority mental health and psychosocial problems among Kurdish survivors of the Anfal, and to inform the subsequent design of culturally appropriate and relevant assessment instruments and services to address these problems. The study examined 1) the nature and cause of current problems of survivors of torture and/or civilian attacks and their families, 2) what survivors do to address these problems, and 3) what they felt should be done. Methods We used a grounded theory approach. Free list interviews with a convenience sample (n=42) explored the current problems of Kurdish persons affected by torture. Subsequent key informant interviews (n=21) gathered more detailed information on the priority mental health problem areas identified in the free list interviews. Results Major mental health problem areas emerging from the free list interviews (and explored in the key informant interviews) included 1) problems directly related to the torture, 2) problems related to the current situation, and 3) problems related to the perception and treatment by others in the community. Problems were similar, but not identical, to Western concepts of depression, anxiety, PTSD and related trauma, and traumatic grief. Conclusion Iraqi Kurdish torture survivors in Iraq have many mental health and psychosocial problems found among torture survivors elsewhere. The findings suggest that the problems are a result of the trauma experienced as well as current stressors. Development of mental health assessment tools and interventions should therefore address both previous trauma and current stressors.