Showing papers on "Torture published in 2022"

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract Literary analysis of texts dealing with the experiences of tortured bodies faces numerous riddles. For example, the urge to be faithful to the victims’ experience hits a wall because of language’s inadequacy to express torment. Another riddle is the urgency to represent the tortured body outside the logic of torture embodied by the torturer. By incorporating some of Elaine Scarry’s insights in The Body in Pain (1988) and paying close attention to the testimonies of those who have survived torture, this article argues that the crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15 is a case of torture that expands beyond the crucifixion itself and bleeds into other literary topics such as discipleship and the temple.

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract Now passing its tenth year of pre-trial, the 9/11 military commission involves five men on trial for war crimes and terrorism in relation to the attacks against the USA on 11 September 2001. This article examines specific issues regarding the relationship between the prohibition against torture, national security and the right to fair trial that have arisen in the pre-trial phase of the case. The most obvious connection between the prohibition against torture and the right to fair trial has traditionally played out in the context of the exclusion of evidence obtained through torture. However, the frenetic nature of engagement between the defense and the prosecution in the courtroom reinforces that the US government’s efforts to hide the torture of the defendant victims diminishes the further range of protections that make up the right to fair trial, in particular this article examines various components of the right to an effective defense. In analysing these issues, the article contributes to the legal literature and understanding about the interrelated nature of torture and fair trial in the Guantánamo military commissions by demonstrating how efforts to conceal torture using the guise of national security prevents the defendants from fully engaging their rights to a fair trial in the 9/11 military commission.

Torture, Humiliate, Kill

Abstract: Half a century after the Holocaust, on European soil, Bosnian Serbs orchestrated a system of concentration camps where they subjected their Bosniak Muslim and Bosnian Croat neighbors to torture, abuse, and killing. Foreign journalists exposed the horrors of the camps in the summer of 1992, sparking worldwide outrage. This exposure, however, did not stop the mass atrocities. Hikmet Karčić shows that the use of camps and detention facilities has been a ubiquitous practice in countless wars and genocides in order to achieve the wartime objectives of perpetrators. Although camps have been used for different strategic purposes, their essential functions are always the same: to inflict torture and lasting trauma on the victims. Torture, Humiliate, Kill develops the author’s collective traumatization theory, which contends that the concentration camps set up by the Bosnian Serb authorities had the primary purpose of inflicting collective trauma on the non-Serb population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This collective traumatization consisted of excessive use of torture, sexual abuse, humiliation, and killing. The physical and psychological suffering imposed by these methods were seen as a quick and efficient means to establish the Serb “living space.” Karčić argues that this trauma was deliberately intended to deter non-Serbs from ever returning to their pre-war homes. The book centers on multiple examples of experiences at concentration camps in four towns operated by Bosnian Serbs during the war: Prijedor, Bijeljina, Višegrad, and Bileća. Chosen according to their political and geographical position, Karčić demonstrates that these camps were used as tools for the ethno-religious genocidal campaign against non-Serbs. Torture, Humiliate, Kill is a thorough and definitive resource for understanding the function and operation of camps during the Bosnian genocide.

Confronting Evil in History

Abstract: Evil is sometimes thought to be incomprehensible and abnormal, falling outside of familiar historical and human processes. And yet the twentieth century was replete with instances of cruelty on a massive scale, including systematic torture, murder, and enslavement of ordinary, innocent human beings. These overwhelming atrocities included genocide, totalitarianism, the Holocaust, and the Holodomor. This Element underlines the importance of careful, truthful historical investigation of the complicated realities of dark periods in human history; the importance of understanding these events in terms that give attention to the human experience of the people who were subject to them and those who perpetrated them; the question of whether the idea of 'evil' helps us to confront these periods honestly; and the possibility of improving our civilization's resilience in the face of the impulses towards cruelty to other human beings that have so often emerged.

The Effects of Torture in the Context of COVID-19 and Continuous Type III Trauma’s Variants: The Peri-Post Type III Trauma Mental Health Syndrome in Syrian Torture Survivors

Abstract: Abstract The goal was to explore the applicability of the continuous traumatic stress type-III paradigm to the torture’s interface with other ongoing traumatic stressors (e.g., COVID-19 and discrimination) and other adversities' impact. On a sample of 891 Syrian internally displaced (461 torture survivors), we measured cumulative trauma, COVID-19 stressors, and the peri-post type III trauma syndrome (i.e., CPTSD, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and executive functions). We conducted t-test and structural equation modeling. Torture predicted higher COVID-19 stressors and the peri-post type III trauma syndrome. Intersected discrimination amplified the effects of torture. The conceptual and clinical implications of these findings were discussed.

Towards a systematic approach for the treatment and rehabilitation of torture and trauma survivors: The experience of STARTTS in Australia.

Abstract: This paper recovers a text written in 1994 that explored and discussed the complex interac-tion between the psychological and psychoso-cial sequelae of exposure to highly traumatic situations in the context of organized violence, and the stresses and demands of the exile and re-settlement process of refugees. The effects on the individual, the family and refugee communities were explored, and a model to address these problems from a systemic per-spective, involving action at the individual, family, refugee community, mainstream com-munity and mainstream political structures was put forward. The role of approaches such as individual counselling, group work and community development in this framework, and various issues in the practical application of this model were discussed in the context of STARTTS experience. Looking back, almost 30 years later, the paper has renewed value as it shows the founding theoretical principles and the path to what today is one of the most im-portant anti-torture organizations in the world.

Latinx trans immigrants' survival of torture in U.S. detention: A qualitative investigation of the psychological impact of abuse and mistreatment.

Abstract: A trans person is murdered every 3 days in the world, with the majority of these murders occurring in Latin America. This violence is a motivating factor for Latinx trans immigrants to immigrate to the United States. Regardless of whether individuals may be able to remain in the U.S., trans immigrants and asylum seekers are often held in detention facilities until immigration courts decide their cases. Although there are several standards of care and guidelines produced for trans and nonbinary (TNB) people who are held in detention, various reports have indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not or inappropriately implemented these guidelines, thereby incurring and increasing risk of harm upon TNB immigrants.This qualitative study used thematic analysis to provide an understanding of the psychological impact that the systemic power of US detention proceedings had on the lives of Latinx, trans immigrants.The semi-structured interview protocol and implementation of this study was developed in collaboration with two national Latinx, LGBTQ immigrant advocacy organizations. The sample included 30 trans participants, between the ages of 18 and 52 (M = 23) who immigrated from El Salvador (40%), Guatemala (23%), México (17%), Honduras (17%), and Peru (3%).Participants reported being subject to debilitating and torturous conditions in "La Hielera", torture and abusive treatment by detention authorities, being denied access to basic human needs and medical care, and held in solitary confinement as punishment. This dehumanization, abuse, and transphobia in detention incurred psychological sequelae on participants including trauma, anxiety and depression, suicidal ideation, and a preference to self-deport.Implications include calls to abolish immigration detention, recommendations for mental health providers, and an overall restructuring of policies and services for humane asylum seeking processes for trans, Latinx immigrants.

Assessing signs of torture: A review of clinical forensic dermatology

Abstract: It is important for dermatologists and other physicians in refugee-receiving countries to acquire knowledge of forensic dermatology to identify lesions from torture.Review forensic dermatology in cases of torture.In provision of medical assessment and care to refugees and migrants, chronic skin lesions will be the most readily identifiable signs of torture. Beatings are common, with blunt force trauma resulting in postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. Torture burns can be thermal, chemical, or electrothermal, causing distinct lesions determined by the method, duration, and intensity of exposure, and area of skin affected. Sharp instruments inflict a wide range of lesions arising from stabbing/perforation or cuts from knives. Wound healing without medical attention and in unsanitary conditions will affect the scarring process. Lesions from suspension and ligatures may occur alongside scars from other forms of torture. Differential diagnoses include self-inflicted wounds, ethnic scarification, and scars from traditional healing practices.Physicians who may encounter survivors of torture in community or specialist practice would benefit from basic training in forensic dermatology, whereas knowledge of common forms of torture and cultural practices in refugees' countries of origin is important when considering differential diagnoses of skin lesions.

Torturous journeys: Cruelty, international law, and pushbacks and pullbacks over the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract: Abstract Boat pushbacks and pullbacks by Italy and the European Union (EU) have returned migrants and refugees to Libya where they have been subjected to brutal human rights violations, such as torture and ill-treatment. This article argues that these pushbacks and pullbacks not only undermine key human rights principles, but they are also an act of cruelty. As Italy and the EU have used the law to evade their international human rights and refugee obligations, the law has had distributive effects that have shaped migration pathways and exacerbated the vulnerability of migrants and refugees to torture. Not only have legal manoeuvres stripped migrants and refugees of their rights, enabling Italy and the EU to return people to inhumane detention centres in Libya, but they have also had the sinister side effect of excluding migrants and refugees from moral concern. As Italy and the EU have sought to evade legal responsibility, it has created indifference to the suffering of people on the move in Libya. This article sheds important light on the factors that lead to the torture of migrants and refugees on their migration journeys and offers new insights into the relationship between cruelty, migration policies, and indifference to human suffering.

Demographic characteristics, torture experiences, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among asylum seekers and refugees persecuted for same-sex behaviors.

Abstract: Increasingly, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are fleeing the 67 countries that criminalize consensual same-sex intimate relationships, seeking asylum in countries such as the United States. Minority stress theory posits that compared with non-LGB refugees and asylum seekers (RAS), LGB RAS are likely to face persecution, rejection, and discrimination and have a higher risk of experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. This study assessed differences in sociodemographic characteristics, persecution experiences, and mental health outcomes among 959 RAS persecuted for same-sex behavior (pLGB RAS) who presented for care and social services at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. Data were derived from intake interviews with RAS clients that elicited torture experiences and assessed PTSD symptoms using the Short Screening Scale for PTSD. Over 11% of the total sample were pLGB RAS. Compared with non-pLGB RAS, pLGB RAS reported higher PTSD symptom levels, β = .08, p = .031; more difficulty loving others, d = 0.13, p < .001; and feeling more isolated, d = 0.10, p = .005. pLGB RAS reported more persecution, d = 0.31, p = .002; physical assaults, d = 0.22, p = .029; and psychological assaults, d = 0.20, p = .047; and were more likely to be asylum seekers, d = 0.11, p = .001, and have experienced persecution in Uganda, d = 0.39, p < .001, and other countries that criminalize same-sex acts, d = 0.26, p < .001. More research is needed to understand clinical outcomes and implications of treatment for this population.

Chicago's Reckoning

Abstract: Chicago is confronting a racial reckoning that we explain with an exclusion-containment theory of legal cynicism. Mayors RJ and RM Daley used public and private funds to exclude and contain South and West Side predominantly Black neighborhoods where Police Detective Jon Burge supervised torture of over 100 Black men. A 1982 case involved Andrew Wilson’s tortured confession to two police killings. This case coincided with RM Daley’s pursuit of White votes in an early and unsuccessful primary campaign for mayor. Suspicions about Daley’s connection to Wilson’s confession lasted throughout his career. As state’s attorney, Daley mobilized a massive assault on “gangs, guns, and drugs” by tightening law enforcement methods. An example involved the Automatic Transfer Act used to prosecute 15-year-old Joseph White in adult court for shooting a fellow student. The judge thought White should have sought help from police, but White and his family knew the police as brutal occupiers of local neighborhoods. Joseph White was sentenced to 45 years in a maximum-security prison. Jon Burge was finally convicted in 2010—of perjury—but he served only three years, while many of his victims remained on death row. In a sidebar in the Burge trial—unheard by jurors—the judge refused to allow evidence about a racialized code of silence that concealed Burge’s torture. Our book ends by explaining how Daley and Burge escaped meaningful punishment through the code of silence and out-of-court settlements. These remain unrelenting sources of the racial reckoning confronting this quintessential American city.

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract This article examines, within the frame of international criminal law, Iran’s arbitrary detention of foreign and dual nationals for leverage over the detainee’s (other) country of nationality. It provides an overview of Iran’s pattern of conduct since 2010, involving at least 66 victims, and analyses this in terms of hostage-taking and crimes against humanity. First, we argue that Iran’s pattern of conduct constitutes hostage-taking within the meaning of the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages. This gives rise to Iran’s international responsibility for the breaches concerned and has important implications for victims’ and their loved ones’ perceptions of their experiences. Second, we assess the context elements of the definition of crimes against humanity as well as the gravity threshold and the compatibility of the pattern of conduct with the requisite elements of the relevant underlying offences: imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, and persecution. We conclude that the actions of certain Iranian officials reasonably satisfy the requirements for crimes against humanity. This is legally important for the application of crimes against humanity jurisprudence to this new context. It also opens avenues of accountability, given the aut dedere aut judicare provisions for crimes against humanity enacted by many states and the growth of sanctions legislation in several states. It should be difficult for responsible officials to travel outside Iran for fear of arrest and sanction.

Predictors of the 10 year course of mental health and quality of life for trauma-affected refugees after psychological treatment

Abstract: ABSTRACT Background: Trauma-affected refugee patients benefit from psychological treatment to different degrees. Only a handful of studies has investigated potential predictors of treatment outcome that could throw light on the great variability in outcomes reported for this group. Such knowledge may be vital to better tailor prevention and treatment efforts to the needs of different individuals and subgroups among these patients. Objective: In a naturalistic and longitudinal study, the aim was to analyse demographics and traumatic exposure as potential predictors of the participants’ long-term trajectories of mental health symptoms and quality of life. Method: A group of 54 multi-origin adult refugee patients with complex traumatic exposure, such as armed conflicts, persecution, torture, and childhood adversities, were interviewed face to face over up to 10 years; at therapy admittance, and at varying points in time during and after psychotherapy. Checklists of war-related and childhood trauma, mental health symptoms, and quality of life were included in the interviews. In linear mixed effects analyses, interaction was analysed with potential predictors included separately because of the sample size. Time was modelled as continuous from inclusion into the study. Results: Gender predicted the course of symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression, and of quality of life in physical health and social relationships. Childhood family violence and experiences of torture predicted the course of depression, whereas the extent of exposure to war-related trauma events and having experienced torture predicted the course of anxiety. Conclusions: The results indicated greater chronicity in male refugees, in refugees who had experienced domestic violence during childhood, in refugees who had experienced torture, and in refugees with more numerous types of potentially traumatic war-related experiences. The findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive research, rehabilitative efforts, and treatment. HIGHLIGHTS In a 10 year longitudinal and naturalistic therapy follow-up study of traumatized refugees, female gender, childhood trauma, war trauma, and torture predicted mental health and quality of life outcomes. Male participants responded less than females to therapy.

Torture Survivors And Asylum: Legal, Medical, and Psychological Perspectives.

Abstract: Torture occurs worldwide. Survivors seeking asylum are detained and must complete a complicated legal process to prove a "well-founded fear of persecution" if returned to their home countries. Forensic evaluations guided by the United Nations Istanbul Protocol increase asylum grant rates. Medical evaluation emphasizes skin examination, which can provide strong evidence of torture. Female genital mutilation and cutting, a basis for asylum, is classified according to the World Health Organization. Many resettled refugees and foreign-born immigrants at urban health care facilities have been tortured, but few report it to physicians due to factors affecting both survivors and physicians. Specific torture methods can cause characteristic long-term sequelae. Painful somatic disorders of mind-body interaction and psychological disorders are common. Practices derived from cultural factors and traumatized individuals' feedback enhance management of survivors. Individual and group psychotherapy provide modest proven benefit, but assessment is limited. Physicians and psychotherapists should coordinate care.

Monitoring Prisons in Europe: Understanding Perspectives of People in Prison and Prison Staff

Abstract: Prison monitoring has been promoted by international human rights bodies as a way to support the prevention of torture and ill-treatment in prison. However, there has been very limited examination of the operation of prison-monitoring bodies, especially from the perspective of those most affected by their recommendations: those who live and work in prisons. This article draws on interviews conducted with people living and working in a Scottish and a Norwegian prison to explore how they perceive a long-standing prison-monitoring body, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). The article provides an examination of the benefit and utility of CPT recommendations from the point of view of people in prison and prison staff. The study further reveals that the effectiveness of CPT monitoring in prisons may be considered in terms aside from state implementation of recommendations and should include how people in prison see its work, its impact, its power to persuade, and its connection to the outside world. Through taking a prison-centered approach, the article contributes to wider discussions on whether and how human rights frameworks can alter experiences of punishment.

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract After the adoption of the Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in 2002, prevention became one central part of the fight against torture. This article looks at the preventive impact of OPCAT’s tripartite system consisting of States Parties, the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) and National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs). It presents the States Parties’ obligations regarding the prohibition of torture as well as the SPT’s and the NPMs’ mandate. It also discusses the challenges the SPT and the NPMs face and how through their work, torture can be prevented more effectively. Particular attention will be paid to the SPT’s options to assist both States Parties and the NPMs in further strengthening the prevention of torture. The article is written from the perspective of a former member and vice chair of the SPT and is mainly based on international regulations and jurisprudence of treaty bodies.

Ensuring oversight and protection of life, health and well-being of all detained by the Russian Federation and in Russian controlled territories of Ukraine.

Abstract: Military action by Russian forces against Ukraine commenced on 24 February 2022. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has observed serious human rights violations in the context of the Ukraine war. A range of people are detained, not limited to those meeting the definition of prisoners of war, or prisoners, but including Russian soldiers who refuse to fight and the enforced disappearance of Ukrainian civilians.This is a Commentary article.This Commentary concerns the detainee's right to humane conditions of detention and right to life, health and well-being (including access to medical care) when in detention in Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine and when transported into and detained in the Russian Federation itself.There is evidence of violations of the rules of war and of fundamental human rights. Prohibition of torture and other ill treatment of people deprived of their liberty is shared across international human rights and humanitarian law frameworks.Russia will leave the European Court of Human Rights on 16 September 2022. The United Nations Human Rights Council must swiftly respond and create new mechanisms to monitor Russian detention standards and uphold fundamental human rights to protect the lives, health and well-being of those detained, regardless of their status as prisoner, prisoner of war or other.

Naming and shaming, government messaging, and backlash effects: Experimental evidence from the Convention Against Torture

Abstract: Abstract Conventional thinking proposes that naming and shaming pushes publics to oppose government policies that are claimed to violate human rights. We explore the extent to which international organizations’ (IOs’) efforts to name and shame target governments can be frustrated by the target governments’ efforts to advance a counter-narrative. We test this using a survey-based experiment that focuses on the use of prolonged solitary confinement in US prisons. The results suggest that government messaging has powerful effects on public opinion. These effects are more readily discernible than the effects of IO signals. We also find some limited evidence to suggest that messages from international nongovernmental organizations can, by themselves, elicit a backlash among the respondents. Surprisingly, we found similar effects among both Democrats and Republicans. This demonstrates important limitations to IOs’ naming and shaming tactics.

Quality standards for healthcare professionals working with victims of torture in detention

Abstract: The quality standards set out how healthcare professionals should care for victims of torture in detention. The clinical consequences of torture are outlined, providing the context for why standards of care are important and setting out how they can be implemented and monitored. The 12 quality standards are identification, ethical obligations, consent and confidentiality, communication, mental capacity, access to healthcare, vicarious traumatisation, training, assessment required by detention processes, children, mental health, and sexual violence. For each standard there is a statement defining the purpose of the standard, a rationale, quality measures setting out the key elements of the standard, and quality standards setting out the ways in which the measures are assessed, followed by implications for the four main stakeholders: commissioners, service providers, healthcare professionals, and service users. The quality standards set out not only what needs to be done to care for vulnerable victims of torture in detention, but why, how, and how we can establish that it has been done.

“An Asymmetric Doubling”: A Nonstate Actor Using the Method of Doubling Sources—Hamas against Israeli Intelligence

Abstract: Abstract As part of its intelligence warfare against Israel, Hamas made the identification and targeting of collaborators with Israel a top priority. During those years, the Hamas practice was to apply different degrees of detention and torture of those suspected of collaborating. However, in some cases, Hamas chose a different tactic of exploiting collaborators to transform a threat into an opportunity. Hamas turned some collaborators into double agents, using them to advance its objectives. This article examines some of the doubling operations carried out by Hamas on Israeli collaborators over the last three decades. Examining these cases reveal how Hamas’s doubling methods developed over time, concurrently with the movement’s evolution. Thus, the doubling operations became more organized and sophisticated, being used for propaganda and deterrence purposes as well as other goals. The article explores an interesting aspect of Hamas’s counterintelligence activity in its struggle against the state of Israel. In addition, it sheds light on how a nonstate organization can use doubling of sources as part of its asymmetric war against a state.

Torture exposure and the functional brain: investigating disruptions to intrinsic network connectivity using resting state fMRI

Abstract: Torture has profound psychological and physiological consequences for survivors. While some brain structures and functions appear altered in torture survivors, it is unclear how torture exposure influences functional connectivity within and between core intrinsic brain networks. In this study, 37 torture survivors (TS) and 62 non-torture survivors (NTS) participated in a resting-state fMRI scan. Data-driven independent components analysis identified active intrinsic networks. Group differences in functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN) and central executive network (CEN) of the triple network model, as well any prefrontal network, were examined while controlling for PTSD symptoms and exposure to other potentially traumatic events. The analysis identified 25 networks; eight comprised our networks of interest. Within-network group differences were observed in the left CEN (lCEN), where the TS group showed less spectral power in the low-frequency band. Differential internetwork dynamic connectivity patterns were observed, where the TS group showed stronger positive coupling between the lCEN and anterior dorsomedial and ventromedial DMN, and stronger negative coupling between a lateral frontal network and the lCEN and anterior dorsomedial DMN (when contrasted with the NTS group). Group differences were not attributed to torture severity or dissociative symptoms. Torture survivors showed disrupted dynamic functional connectivity between a laterally-aligned lCEN that serves top-down control functions over external processes and the midline DMN that underpins internal self-referential processes, which may be an adaptive response to mitigate the worst effects of the torture experience. This study provides a critical step in mapping the neural signature of torture exposure to guide treatment development and selection.

Torture Survivors in Analytic Therapy

Abstract: This important new book introduces and discusses the underpinning of psychodynamic psychotherapy for torture survivors in a clinical setting and incorporates concepts from analytical psychology and other theoretical bases in order to provide readers with a deeper understanding of this complex trauma. Using the concepts of analytical psychology, relational psychoanalysis, and neuroscience, and relying on the theoretical basis of her book Torture, Psychoanalysis and Human Rights (Routledge, 2017), Luci focuses on three key clinical cases and illustrates the therapeutic paths that the therapeutic dyad explore and experiences in order to get out of the patient’s inner prison created or aggravated by the experience of torture. The book discusses the role of the therapist when working with torture survivors, the requirement of a slow and cautious approach when dealing with such trauma, and the importance of a careful and respectful consideration of issues of identity, politics, and culture. Featuring a useful guide, this book will be of great interest to mental health professionals, psychotherapists and students practicing in services that provide assistance to torture and war trauma survivors.

The Truth Machines: Policing, Violence, and Scientific Interrogations in India

Abstract: How do police get witnesses and criminal defendants to tell the truth? And in what ways do the truth-seeking activities of law enforcement create and remake the identity of the state? These questions lie at the heart of Jinee Lokaneeta's fine book, The Truth Machines. For anthropologists of law and politics, the book offers a lens into the ways that nations try to prevent the torture of citizens, paradoxically by promoting a different kind of torture. It is a story of how state officials move torture from dusty police interrogation rooms into futuristic forensic laboratories and hospitals.

The Hoffman Report in historical context: A study in denial

Abstract: Using the concept of social denial, this article puts the American Psychological Association's (APA’s) pattern of willful blindness, identified by independent reviewer David Hoffman, in historical context by examining the contributions of Cold War social scientists to the CIA's KUBARK torture manual, and discusses the implications of this history for the reform of the APA's ethics policies. David Hoffman found that the leadership of the APA colluded with Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure that the APA's ethical policies were no stronger than those issued by the DoD. While the independent reviewer did not find evidence of collaboration between the CIA and the APA, this was not due to a lack of effort on the part of the APA, which was anxious to establish good relations and so promote the use of psychology in the national security arena. While Hoffman did not find that the APA knew that its collaborations would facilitate the development of abusive interrogation techniques, it showed a marked, motivated lack of interest in whether or not the DoD or CIA was abusing prisoners. The APA maintained its strategic ignorance even while engaging in a public relations campaign designed to give the impression that it was deeply concerned about multiple reports of psychologist involvement in a system of torture. This willful ignorance was not unprecedented and follows a predictable pattern of knowing and not-knowing to which all psychologists should attend.

Suffering to Save Lives: Torture, Cruelty, and Moral Disengagement in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres

Abstract: Since Australia re-established offshore processing on Manus Island and Nauru in 2012, there have been ongoing reports that asylum seekers and refugees are being subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CIDT). People in detention have endured indefinite detention, inadequate provision of health care, and sexual, physical, and mental harm as the government attempts to ‘stop the boats’ and prevent deaths at sea. How can Australia continue to violate the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, while at the same time, promote its offshore detention policies worldwide? This article explores how Australia has engaged in moral disengagement from the pain and suffering of people in detention. Examining self-deception strategies such as denial of torture, denial of responsibility, and denial of wrongdoing, it shows not only how Australia privileged migration deterrence goals over human rights considerations, but utilized legal and humanitarian arguments to evade accountability and deny the existence of, and responsibility and wrongdoing for, torture and CIDT. This article explores the under-examined issue of moral disengagement to show how it is exacerbating the vulnerability of asylum seekers and refugees to torture and CIDT along their migration journeys.

Forced Migration of Rohingya Refugees from Myanmar to Neighboring Countries

Abstract: In this current world, the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are deemed to be one of the most inhumanly tortured minorities. The culture of racial persecution is indulged by the decades of a clash between the Myanmar Government and the Rohingyas regarding religious and ethnic variance. However, it is also argued that the Rohingya crisis is not confined to religion but comprises economic and political issues equally. Rohingyas have been deprived of their basic human rights and faced a security crisis. Mass killing, rape, and inhuman torture are notable in this regard. Methodical abuse of human rights of the Rohingya by the military junta of Myanmar has forced thousands of Rohingya to flee the country. Consequently, thousands of Rohingyas now reside as refugees, mostly in Bangladesh, while others escaped to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Middle East. The Government of Myanmar has denied the citizenship of Rohingyas and labeled them as foreigners. This paper highlights the measures adopted by the global community for preventing the mass killing of Rohingyas. This research also portrays the means and methods of the Myanmar Government to suppress the Rohingyas. Furthermore, this paper looks into all sorts of violations of human rights and humanitarian disasters suffered by the Rohingyas and the subsequent humanitarian aid received from the regional and international community.

QAnon, Women, and the American Culture Wars

Abstract: QAnon, Women, and the American Culture Wars Mia Bloom (bio) and Sophia Moskalenko (bio) qanon, a baseless conspiracy theory, originated in the darkest recesses of the internet, including online message boards such as 4chan and 8chan. The QAnon conspiracy theory posits that former president Donald Trump is fighting a battle against a cabal of "deep state" Democratic saboteurs (that includes Hollywood elites) who worship Satan and traffic children for pedophilic torture with the goal of harvesting their blood, allegedly rich in adrenochrome, a substance with magical properties. QAnon's ideas are, on their face, absurd. It is easy for a reasonable person to dismiss those who believe in lizard people and a cabal of pedophiles that feed on children's blood, or that Joe Biden will be executed at Guantanamo Bay. However, these conspiracy theories tap into people's psychological need to be part of an in-group. QAnon allows people, particularly women (the self-identified "Pastel QAnon"), to feel they are saving children from powerful abusers, giving themselves a sense of empowerment. QAnon creates a shadowy, nefarious other from which "traditional Americans" need to be protected, and a rallying cry for women who subscribe to the QAnon conspiracy. Our ongoing research on conspiracy theories examines the narratives and images used by groups like QAnon and assesses the psychology of believers. As a social psychologist and a scholar of international relations who have spent decades studying radical political movements, we have used open-source data, representative national polls, peer-reviewed academic publications, and journalistic accounts [End Page 525] related to the QAnon phenomenon. We have approached the subject from a variety of angles and spent over two and a half years on semi-encrypted platforms, like Telegram, following dozens of QAnon influencers to understand the myths and motivations undergirding the conspiracy. In this essay we present some of our findings: first, that women played a significant role in amplifying, disseminating, and funding QAnon as a mass movement; and second, that the mass psychology that made QAnon popular among many Americans comprised a process of mass "unfreezing"—shattering of normative ideas about legal and moral authorities of government and religion, loss of trust in science, and rapidly shifting gender roles. In addition to collecting a treasure trove of data and other published materials, we surveyed the family members of QAnon believers, sometimes called QAnon casualties, as well as various populations in which there are differing degrees of conspiratorial belief. In this article we present the significance of the QAnon and its causes and correlates in the context of cultural values and democratic governance. While there were no messages left on the 8chan/8kun for almost two years, suddenly in the summer of 2022 QAnon made a brief return to comment on Cassidy Hutchison's testimony before the January 6 committee. Someone with access to Q's login credentials appeared to have posted on 8kun, the anarchic internet message board where Q had not posted since December 2020. The post asked: "Shall we play a game once more?" It was signed "Q." The [June 2022] message was written in the same clue-like format as thousands of earlier Q posts, dubbed "Q Drops" by their fans, that led to the creation of QAnon in late 2017. Q's followers believe the cryptic messages explain the world at it really is, controlled by Satan-worshipping, child-eating pedophiles in the Democratic Party, finance, and other institutions. (Sommer 2022) [End Page 526] Supporters of the conspiracy theory helped promote, fund, and organize the planning of the events of January 6, 2021. Since then, it has become clear that social media facilitated the failed attempt to overthrow the US government (Frenkel 2021). As it played out on live TV, we witnessed a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol Hill overwhelming Capitol police officers, injuring dozens. Brian Sicknick, a Washington, DC, police officer who bravely defended the Capitol, died of his wounds. In the storming crowd, a woman, Ashli Babbitt, "was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol, and three other people died of medical emergencies" (Harwell et al. 2021). The conspiracy theory has metastasized, evolving at lightning speed as it moved through social media platforms...

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) differs from other human rights treaties, especially because it follows a new approach by establishing a system of on-site visits as well as a dual supervisory mechanism, which consists of an international committee—the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture—and the National Prevention Mechanisms. The aim of this comment is to analyse these particularities in the light of the broader academic discussion on norm compliance. Furthermore, the effect of OPCAT’s characteristics on the normativity of the prohibition of torture will be examined. The comment shows that the need for institutions and a dialogue between them is acknowledged by compliance theory and OPCAT’s design and practice alike. OPCAT is one of the prime examples of how a dialogue can function between different actors, be they international, national, governmental, or non-governmental. Moreover, it is shown that OPCAT fosters the normativity of the prohibition of torture by institutionalizing dialogue and cooperation. OPCAT is an example of how compliance—as well as normativity—can be strengthened through smart legal design. Thus, OPCAT complements the retrospective and international approach of the United Nations Convention against Torture.

An Anatomy of the Blood Eagle: The Practicalities of Viking Torture

Abstract: The infamous blood eagle ritual has long been controversial: did Viking Age Nordic people really torture one another to death by severing their ribs from their spine and removing their lungs, or is it all a misunderstanding of some complicated poetry? Previous scholarship on the topic has tended to focus on the details and reliability of extant medieval descriptions of the blood eagle, arguing for or against the ritual’s historicity. What has not yet been considered are the anatomical and sociocultural limitations within which any Viking Age blood eagle would have had to have been performed. In this article, we analyze medieval descriptions of the ritual with modern anatomical knowledge, and contextualize these accounts with up-to-date archaeological and historical scholarship concerning elite culture and the ritualized peri- and post-mortem mutilation of the human body in the Viking Age. We argue that even the fullest form of the blood eagle outlined in our textual sources would have been possible, though difficult, to perform, but would have resulted in the victim’s death early in proceedings. Given the context of the ritual depicted in medieval discourse, we also argue that any historical blood eagle would have existed as part of a wider continuum of cultural praxis, and been employed to secure the social status of the ritual’s commissioner following the earlier “bad death” of a male relative at the hands of the ritual’s victim.