Showing papers on "Torture published in 2019"

Dei Delitti e Delle Pene

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Policing Athens: Social Control in the Attic Lawsuits, 420-320 B.C.

Abstract: From household gossip to public beatings, this social history explores the many channels through which Athenians maintained public order. Virginia Hunter draws mostly on Attic court proceedings, which allowed for a wide range of evidence, including common rumors about a defendant's character and testimony, obtained under torture, of slaves against their masters. She describes Athenian "policing" as a form of social control that took place across a range of private and public levels. Not only does policing appear to have been a collective enterprise, but its methods were embedded in a variety of social institutions, resulting in the blurring of the line between state and society. Hunter's inquiry into topics such as household authority, disputes among kin, the presence of slaves in the house, gossip in the home and neighborhood, and forms of public punishment reveals a continuum extending from self-regulation among kin to punitive actions enforced by the state. Recognizing the bias of legal documents toward the wealthy, Hunter concentrates on exposing the voices of the less powerful and less privileged members of society, including women and slaves. In so doing she is among the first to address systematically such important issues as the authority of women, self-help, and corporal punishment.

Mental Health of Refugees and Torture Survivors: A Critical Review of Prevalence, Predictors, and Integrated Care.

Abstract: Civilian war trauma and torture rank among the most traumatic life experiences; exposure to such experiences is pervasive in nations experiencing both internal and external conflict. This has led to a high volume of refugees resettling throughout the world with mental health needs that primary care physicians may not be screening for and prepared to effectively address. In this article, we review the literature on demographics, predictors, mental health outcomes of torture, and integrated care for the mental health needs of refugees. We searched PubMed and PSYCINFO databases for original research articles on refugees and mental health published in the English language between 2010 and present. Nine percent of 720 adults in conflict areas in Nepal, with predominance of literate married males, met the threshold for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), 27.5% for depression, and 22.9% for anxiety. While, PTSD rate has been documented as high as 88.3% among torture survivors from Middle East (ME), Central Africa (CA), South Asia (SA), Southeast Europe (SE). Depression was recorded as high as 94.7% among 131 African torture survivors and anxiety as high as 91% among 55 South African torture survivors. Torture severity, post-migration difficulties, and wait time to receive clinical services were significantly associated with higher rate of mental health symptoms. Mental health screening is not a standard component of initial physical exams for refugees, yet these individuals have had high trauma exposure that should inform clinical care. Integrated care models are lacking but would greatly benefit this community to prevent progression to greater severity of mental health symptoms.

Torture and Its Definition in International Law—An Interdisciplinary Approach, by Metin Başoğlu

Abstract: Torture and Its Definition in International Law—An Interdisciplinary Approach was edited by Metin Basoglu, and written by him and another sixteen experts in the medicolegal aspects of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (CIDT/P). The book has 506 pages and 16 chapters, which are organised into four parts: “Behavioral Science Perspectives”; “International Law Perspectives”; “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Definitional Issues”; and “Discussion and Conclusions”. The book is for health, legal and human rights professionals, beyond just those just working with victims of torture and CIDT/P, and is of interest to those who work with victims of other violent crimes, such as child abuse, interpersonal abuse, and forced displacement. The book raises many important questions.

Group Treatment with French-Speaking African Survivors of Torture and Its Effects on Clinical Engagement: Can Hope Be Operationalized?

Abstract: This study examines the clinical engagement of French-speaking African survivors of torture by measuring how often they utilize adjunctive programmatic services (i.e., mental health, social, and le...

Skin lesions, differential diagnosis and practical approach to potential survivors of torture

Abstract: As the international refugee crisis has reached new proportions (BMJ, 355, 2016 and i5412), survivors of torture increasingly present in treating physicians with an array of acute or chronic skin lesions. Physicians should be aware of common presentations and likely differential diagnoses in order to avoid mislabelling or under-recognizing torture. Survivors of torture also frequently suffer from psychological sequelae, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and appropriate referrals are essential in order to improve recovery trajectory. Skin sequelae are the most common physical findings of torture. Not all skin lesions seen in tortured survivors are due to perpetrator inflicted injuries, and many dermatological conditions can mimic lesions typical of torture, as can scars as a result of folk remedies or cultural practices specific to geographical regions. Medical documentation of torture includes injury and lesion description. While forensic dermatology and other forensic specialties use an injury description taxonomy, and the standard dermatologic taxonomy uses an anatomic description, they are complementary sciences for lesions inflicted by torture. This results in an opportunity for learning across disciplines in order to improve evidence documentation for survivors of torture. This article describes features of common skin lesions consistent with torture, including their clinical appearances, differential diagnoses, patterns of injury and appropriate clinical descriptions.

Risky dis/entanglements: Torture and sexual violence in conflict:

Abstract: Conflict-related sexual violence has become increasingly recognized in international spaces as a serious, political form of violence. As part of this process, distinctions between the categories of...

Documentation of human rights abuses among Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

Abstract: Decades of persecution culminated in a statewide campaign of organized, systematic, and violent eviction of the Rohingya people by the Myanmar government beginning in August 2017. These attacks included the burning of homes and farms, beatings, shootings, sexual violence, summary executions, burying the dead in mass graves, and other atrocities. The Myanmar government has denied any responsibility. To document evidence of reported atrocities and identify patterns, we interviewed survivors, documented physical injuries, and assessed for consistency in their reports. We use purposive and snowball sampling to identify survivors residing in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Interviews and examinations were conducted by trained investigators with the assistance of interpreters based on the Istanbul Protocol – the international standard to investigate and document instances of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The goal was to assess whether the clinical findings corroborate survivors’ narratives and to identify emblematic patterns. During four separate field visits between December 2017 and July 2018, we interviewed and where relevant, conducted physical examinations on a total of 114 refugees. The participants came from 36 villages in Northern Rakhine state; 36 (32%) were female, 26 (23%) were children. Testimonies described several patterns in the violence prior to their flight, including the organization of the attacks, the involvement of non-Rohingya civilians, the targeted and purposeful destruction of homes and eviction of Rohingya residents, and the denial of medical care. Physical findings included injuries from gunshots, blunt trauma, penetrating trauma such as slashings and mutilations, burns, and explosives and from sexual and gender-based violence. While each survivor’s experience was unique, similarities in the types and organization of attacks support allegations of a systematic, widespread, and premeditated campaign of forced displacement and violence. Physical findings were consistent with survivors’ narratives of violence and brutality. These findings warrant accountability for the Myanmar military per the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction to try individuals for serious international crimes, including crimes against humanity and genocide. Legal accountability for these crimes should be pursued along with medical and psychological care and rehabilitation to address the ongoing effects of violence, discrimination, and displacement.

Do Self-Reporting Regimes Matter? Evidence From the Convention Against Torture

Abstract: Human rights treaty bodies have for many years now been criticized as useless and self-reporting widely viewed as a whitewash. Yet very little research explores what, if any, influence this periodic review process has on governments’ implementation of and compliance with treaty obligations. We argue oversight committees may play an important role by providing information for international and domestic audiences. This paper examines the effects of self-reporting and oversight review, using original data on the quality and responsiveness of reports submitted to the Committee Against Torture (CmAT) and a dynamic approach to strengthen causal inference about the effects of the periodic review process on rights practices. We find that the review process in fact does reduce the incidence of torture in self-reporting states. Furthermore, we find that local media attention to the process in Latin American spikes during the review process, consistent with domestic awareness and mobilization made possible by media attention to torture practices and treaty obligations. Thus, this is the first study to present positive evidence on the effects of self-reporting on torture outcomes, contrary to the many studies that assert the process is basically useless. ∗Cosette Creamer holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government, Harvard University. Beth A. Simmons is the Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government, Harvard University. All inquiries should be directed to: creamer@fas.harvard.edu. For helpful feedback, the authors would like to thank Christopher Fariss, Katerina Linos, Yonatan Lupu, Gerald Neuman, Kathryn Sikkink, Anton Strezhnev, and participants in the WCFIA-HLS International LawInternational Relations Workshop, the Conference on the Domestic Politics of International Human Rights Agreements held at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Princeton University, and the Human Rights and Constitutionalism thematic working group at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law and Norweigan Centre for Human Rights. The authors also thank Diana Li and Andrea Ortiz for providing invaluable research assistance, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs for providing generous funding to support this research.

Breaking the Ban? The Heterogeneous Impact of US Contestation of the Torture Norm

Abstract: Following the attacks of 9/11, the United States adopted a policy of torturing suspected terrorists and reinterpreted its legal obligations so that it could argue that this policy was lawful. This article investigates the impact of these actions by the United States on the global norm against torture. After conceptualizing how the United States contested the norm against torture, the article explores how US actions impacted the norm across four dimensions of robustness: concordance with the norm, third-party reactions to norm violations, compliance, and implementation. This analysis reveals a heterogeneous impact of US contestation: while US policies did not impact global human rights trends, it did shape the behavior of states that aided and abetted US torture policies, especially those lacking strong domestic legal structures. The article sheds light on the circumstances under which powerful states can shape the robustness of global norms.

The effect of the medico-legal evaluation on asylum seekers in the Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy: a pilot study.

Abstract: In the present-day situation, the clinical forensic documentation of an asylum seeker’s narrative and his or her examination, together with the physical and psychological findings, may have very important effects on the outcome of the request for political asylum. Since 2012, the Municipality of Milan, the University Institute of Legal Medicine, and other institutions have assembled a team with the task of examining vulnerable asylum seekers and preparing a medical report for the Territorial Commission for International Protection (Prefecture, Ministry of Interiors), who will assess the application. We compared medico-legal reports and outcomes of 57 cases which were evaluated by the Commission after having undergone a medico-legal evaluation through the Istanbul Protocol criteria and examined, in particular, which medico-legal variables seem associated to the outcome. The results show that forensic assessment seems to have a significant and interesting correlation with the final assessment given by the Commission. For example, the higher the level of consistency, according to the Istanbul Protocol, the more frequently protection is granted. These data show how important clinical forensic medicine can be in such scenarios and how the presence of clinical forensic experts should be encouraged in such evaluations, as has been recently enshrined in Italy in the guidelines of a Ministerial Decree of April 3rd, 2017 for the assistance and the rehabilitation as well as the treatment of psychiatric disorders in refugees and asylum seekers who have undergone torture, rape, and other severe forms of psychological, physical, or sexual violence.

Degradation by design: women and asylum in northern Europe:

Abstract: The increasingly punitive measures taken by European governments to deter people seeking asylum, including increased use of detention, internalised controls, reductions in in-country rights and pro...

Clinician wellbeing: The impact of supporting refugee and asylum seeker survivors of torture and trauma in the Australian context

Abstract: Providing therapy to refugees and asylum seekers who have experienced torture and trauma exposes clinicians to traumatic stories. Additionally, clinicians working with refugees and asylum seekers a...

Dental anxiety in relation to torture experiences and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Abstract: Torture victims often show symptoms of dental anxiety when receiving dental care, but little systematic research is available. The purpose of this study was to explore torture experiences, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and dental anxiety in refugees in Norway and to test the hypothesis that refugees with torture experiences are more prone to dental anxiety than refugees with no such experiences. A total of 173 refugees were interviewed shortly after an oral examination. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-PTSS16 were administered verbally through attending interpreters. Among torture victims (47%, n = 81), the prevalence of torture experiences involving mouth or teeth was 35% and 23%, respectively. Harvard Trauma Questionnaire mean sum scores were statistically significantly higher in torture victims (34.3 vs. 24.8). Torture survivors report a larger number of symptoms of PTSD, and dental anxiety shows a higher prevalence in refugees reporting PTSD symptoms than in refugees who do not report such symptoms. When analysed using logistic regression models, the data showed the odds of high levels of dental anxiety being 6.1 times higher in refugees with torture experiences compared with other refugees and 9.3 times higher in torture victims with PTSD symptoms. Oral health professionals should be aware of these associations when providing dental care to refugees. The hypothesis that tortured refugees are more prone to dental anxiety is supported.

Protecting the Rights of Children with Intersex Conditions from Nonconsensual Gender-Conforming Medical Interventions: The View from Europe

Abstract: Nonconsensual gender-conforming interventions on children with intersex conditions have recently come under sharp criticism from human rights authorities within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union, which have identified these interventions as violating children's rights to bodily integrity, privacy, and protection from violence, torture, and degrading treatment. Responding largely to requests for intervention from nongovernmental organizations, these authorities have called upon nations to reform their legal frameworks, both to prevent these rights violations and to redress them. To date, however, few nations have endeavored to prohibit nonconsensual gender-conforming procedures on children with intersex conditions, and none have enacted significant reforms of their frameworks to redress rights violations. This particular 'compliance gap' between human rights recommendations and law reform stems from a failure of national legal orders to formally recognize the scope of rights that are threatened by nonconsensual gender-conforming interventions-rights that are well-established as part of states' positive obligations to prevent physical and psychological harm to children. This article, therefore, analyzes the nature of the rights at stake and the importance of reporting human rights violations to generate direct calls for reform wherever violations occur. The article further analyzes how developments in Europe may have special significance for legal framework reforms-particularly if they facilitate judicial actions against national authorities through the European Convention of Human Rights, which may serve as a model for litigation elsewhere.

When the targets are members and donors: Analyzing inter-governmental organizations’ human rights shaming

Abstract: Research on the factors and considerations which drive human rights shaming focuses on non-governmental organizations (NGO). This article analyzes an intergovernmental organization’s (IGO) shaming. The article reviews the factors associated with NGO human rights shaming. The article then considers the potential association between these factors and IGO shaming, and the differences between IGOs and NGOs in this context. The potential associations are tested empirically using newly compiled data on the UN’s convention against torture (CAT) committee’s concluding observations country reports, and various specifications and regression methods. The results indicate that voting with the U.S. in the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) is significantly associated with getting a more positive review from the CAT committee and this result is robust in various specifications. Results also indicate that the UN CAT committee’s shaming is associated with media coverage of human rights issues in the reviewed country and with trade and FDI volumes. The article draws conclusions regarding the linkages between funding, information sources and membership structures on the one hand and shaming approaches on the other.

What Remains? Human Rights After Death

Abstract: This chapter is concerned with the human rights of the deceased victims of mass atrocity. It addresses these rights in the context of forensic anthropological work to establish the individual and collective identities of the victims. This work became historically and politically significant in the later decades of the 20th century in the context of attempts to determine the numbers, identities, and cause of death of victims of state crimes and violent conflict, return their bodies to family members, and contribute evidence to legal trials for crimes such as crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, and enforced disappearance. Key amongst these efforts were attempts to recover and establish the identities of the dead who were subjected to torture and enforced disappearance in Argentina in the mid-1980s, and ongoing efforts to return human remains to families of the dead in the former-Yugoslavia following the wars of the 1990s. Our moral obligations to the dead in these contexts beg a profound and comprehensive ethical approach. With this in mind, this chapter addresses two key questions: do these dead have human rights? And if so, which specific rights do they have? This chapter puts forward some provisional lines of enquiry and argumentation for consideration. It provides resources and evidence—historical, legal, and forensic—in support of such rights, and makes several suggestions regarding which rights might be developed with respect to the dead.

Regularity of OPCAT visits by NPMs in Europe

Abstract: The Optional Protocol to the United Nations (UN) Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) is premised on the concept of prevention: that regu...

Implementing the Element of Islamic Perspective View in Mental Health Problems

Abstract: Scholars emphasized that the practice of the riya’will be punished and even the nature riya’itself will bring the anger and torment of Allah S.W.T. The nature of riya depends on the quality, purity, and sincerity of the intentions. It compromised of three categories. If the driver of the practice coincides with his motivator, so both become equally strong, then both should be dropped and the practice is considered to be neither sympathy nor innocent. If the impetus of riya 'is stronger and prevents others, the practice will not benefit, but will give harm and torture. Torture in such a state is lighter than the practice of torture simply because of riya '. If the intent to draw closer to Allah is heavier or more likely to be compared to other impulses, then one will be rewarded just as the excess of the strength of his sincerity, as the word of Allah s.w.t: So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. (Al-Zalzalah 99: 7-8).

The tick-tick-ticking time bomb and erosion of human rights institutions

Abstract: Despite intensive work by human rights organizations to garner global condemnation of torture, in the years since the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were exposed, support in the United

Predatory war, drones and torture: remapping the body in pain

Abstract: Elaine Scarry argues in The Body in Pain that war is a vast and reciprocal swearing on the body, with corporeality key not only to its brutal prosecution but also to the eventual ending of the political ‘crisis of substantiation’ that war entails. However, her work has not been extensively explored with reference to significant transformations in the embodied experiences of contemporary warfare. This article thus analyses a particular articulation of late modern warfare that I term predatory war, whose current signature motif is the drone strike, through the lens of Scarry’s work. Here, the associated modes of embodiment are radically non-reciprocal, the woundscapes of conflict are profoundly asymmetric, and the affective mediation of bodily injury does not substantiate any ending to the conflict. As such, I argue that the ontology and phenomenology of predatory war increasingly resembles what Scarry identifies as the underlying structure of torture.

Operation Condor on Trial: Justice for Transnational Human Rights Crimes in South America

Abstract: In May 2016, an Argentine federal court concluded a momentous trial, convicting 15 defendants of illegal kidnappings and torture committed against over 100 victims of Operation Condor, and of asociacion ilicita (‘illicit association’: conspiracy to commit a criminal offence) to perpetrate these violations. Operation Condor was the codename given to a continent-wide covert operation devised in the 1970s by South American regimes to eliminate hundreds of left-wing activists across the region. The Operation Condor verdict of 2016 broke new ground in human rights and transitional justice, for its innovative focus on transnational crimes and for holding state agents accountable for extraterritorial human rights violations. By analysing this pioneering case, the article brings the question of cross-border crimes into academic debate. As borders become more porous, scholars and practitioners can no longer afford to side-line the topic of accountability for transnational crimes.

Enhanced Interrogation, Consequential Evaluation, and Human Rights to Health.

Abstract: Balfe argues against enhanced interrogation. He particularly focuses on the involvement of U.S. healthcare professionals in enhanced interrogation. He identifies several empirical and normative factors and argues that they are not good reasons to morally justify enhanced interrogation. I argue that his argument can be improved by making two points. First, Balfe considers the reasoning of those healthcare professionals as utilitarian. However, careful consideration of their ideas reveals that their reasoning is consequential rather than utilitarian evaluation. Second, torture is a serious human rights abuse. When healthcare professionals become involved in enhanced interrogation, they violate not only human rights against torture but also human rights to health. Considering the consequential reasoning against human rights abuses, healthcare professionals' involvement in enhanced interrogation is not morally justified. Supplementing Balfe's position with these two points makes his argument more complete and convincing, and hence it can contribute to the way which shows that enhanced interrogation is not justified by consequential evaluation.

The Medical Manipulation of Reproduction to Implement the Nazi Genocide of Jews

Abstract: Holocaust literature gives exhaustive attention to direct means of exterminating Jews, by using gas chambers, torture, starvation, disease, and intolerable conditions in ghettos and camps, and by the Einsatzgruppen. In some circles, the term “Holocaust” has become the ultimate description of horror or horrific events. The Nazi medical experiments and practices are an example of these. Nazi medical science played a central and crucial role in creating and implementing practices designed to achieve a “Master Race.” Doctors interfered with the most intimate and previously sacrosanct aspects of life in these medical experiments – reproductive function and behavior – in addition to implementing eugenic sterilizations, euthanasia, and extermination programs. Manipulating reproductive life – as a less direct method of achieving the genocide of Jews – has been less acknowledged. The Nazis prevented those regarded as not meeting idealized Nazi racial standards – and particularly Jewish women – from having sex or bearing children through legal, social, psychological and biological means, as well as by murder. In contrast, they promoted reproductive life to achieve the antithesis of genocide – the mass promotion of life – among those deemed sufficiently “Aryan.” Implementing measures to prevent birth is a core feature of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. As with many other aspects of the Holocaust, science and scientists were inveigled into providing legitimacy for Nazi actions. The medical profession was no exception and was integrally involved in the manipulation of birth to implement the Holocaust.

Forced Migration among Latinx Children and their Families: Introducing Trilateral Migration Trauma as a Concept to Reflect a Forced Migratory Experience

Abstract: Forced migration is a process where people must leave their countries of origin due to situations of war, human rights violations, torture, and political reasons, among other factors. This article ...

Prevalence of violence against indigenous women victims of human trafficking and its implications on physical injuries and disabilities in Monterrey city, Mexico.

Abstract: Human trafficking victims suffer different kinds of physical abuse and torture that cause severe physical injuries. During 2016-17 a total of 68 indigenous labor and sex-trafficking women victims were surveyed in Monterrey city, Mexico to explore the prevalence of violence against them and its implications on physical injuries and disabilities. We found that women reported different types of injuries and long term disabilities. Considering the level of violence and occupational hazards faced by victims, we suggest there is an urgent need to create instruments in the Mexican national human trafficking program to address the unmet health needs of the victims.

Australia, US torture and the power of international law

Abstract: Australia cooperated extensively with the George W. Bush administration during the ‘war on terror.’ However, in doing so, Australia failed to condemn, and in some instances, condoned US torture and...