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Torture

About: Torture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8173 publications have been published within this topic receiving 109895 citations.


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01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: The Courage of Strangers as discussed by the authors is an intimate, beautifully told memoir of a woman who helped create Human Rights Watch and bring about the fall of Communism and in the process became free and independent herself after Jeri Laber earned a Master's degree in Russian studies at Columbia University.
Abstract: The intimate, beautifully told memoir of a woman who helped create Human Rights Watch and bring about the fall of Communism-and in the process became free and independent herself After Jeri Laber earned a Master's degree in Russian studies at Columbia University, she became a part-time writer and editor and a full-time wife and mother Then one day in 1973 she read an article about torture that altered her life and subsequently the lives of countless others around the worldThe Courage of Strangers tells how Laber became a founder and the executive director of Helsinki Watch, which grew to be Human Rights Watch, one of the world's most influential organizations She describes her secret trips to unwelcoming countries, where she met with some of the great political activists of the time She also recalls what it was like to come of age professionally in an era when women were supposed to follow rather than lead; how she struggled to balance work and family; and how her fight for human rights informed her own intellectual, spiritual and emotional development This story of the birth of the human rights movement is also a sweeping history of dissent and triumph in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Elegantly written, full of passion, humor and political wisdom, it is exciting history as well as a moving, entertaining, inspiring story of a woman's life

26 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Makronisos, the location of the most notorious concentration camp set up by the Greek government during the Civil War (1946-1949), was a place of brutality, torture, and death, but its distinctive feature was its role as an indoctrination center for many thousands of political dissidents.
Abstract: Makronisos, the small, uninhabited island off the Attica coast, was the location of the most notorious concentration camp set up by the Greek government during the Civil War (1946-1949). It was a place of brutality, torture, and death, but its distinctive feature was its role as an indoctrination center for many thousands of political dissidents (mostly left-wing soldiers and citizens, but also ethnic and religious minorities) who, after they were "re-educated" in the national dogmas, were sent to fight against their ex-comrades. Classical antiquity was one of the main ideological foundations of this "experiment," the audience for which was the whole of Greece and the international community. In the island, still known as "The New Parthenon," the "redeemed" inmates were encouraged to build replicas of classical monuments, and the regime's discourse emphasized the perceived incompatibility of the inmates' "destiny" (as descendants of ancient Greeks) with left-wing ideologies. Paradoxically, many of the counter-discourses of the Makronisos inmates and their supporters also subscribed to the essentialist discourse of continuity and ancestral glory. This paper situates this phenomenon within the broader context of the role of antiquity in modern Greek society; it also examines the topological construction of Makronisos as a heterotopia where the panopticism of classical antiquity (the watchful eye of History and Destiny) merged surveillance with spectacle.

26 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
24 Jun 2010-BMJ
TL;DR: Families and communities are victims, as well as individuals, of the disasters that affect them.
Abstract: Families and communities are victims, as well as individuals Rape is deployed as a weapon of war in countries throughout the world, from Bosnia to Sudan, Peru to Tibet.1 Rape includes lack of consent to sex as well as provision of sex to avoid harm and obtain basic necessities. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognises that rape and other forms of sexual violence by combatants in the conduct of armed conflict are war crimes and can constitute genocide.2 Sexual violence such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and rape as a precursor to murder constitute torture under international law and are breaches of the Geneva Convention.2 Rape, as with all terror warfare, is not exclusively an attack on the body—it is an attack on the “body politic.” Its goal is not to maim or kill one person but to control an entire sociopolitical process by crippling it. It is an attack directed equally against personal identity and cultural integrity.2 Rape has long been perpetrated during war. Since the second world war, however, rape has assumed strategic importance, and is now a deliberate military strategy.3 Women are now not only raped but physically scarred and mutilated.4 In recent conflicts, rape has been used as a reward for victory in battle, a boost to troop …

26 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The distinction between the categories of conflict-related sexual violence has become increasingly recognized in international spaces as a serious, political form of violence as mentioned in this paper, and distinctions between categories of sexual violence have been made.
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...

26 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Doctors have a special opportunity and ethical obligation to resist and oppose torture as well as to support physicians whose lives or professional careers are jeopardized by their refusal to participate in torture
Abstract: There is growing evidence of widespread use of torture among political prisoners throughout the world. Medical personnel frequently become involved, sometimes directly, sometimes peripherally as in the examination or treatment of such prisoners. Physicians themselves may become victims of torture when the state attempts to subvert the doctor-patient relation for political purposes. Furthermore, recent studies demonstrate long lasting medical and psychologic effects of torture. For these reasons, physicians have a special opportunity and ethical obligation to resist and oppose torture as well as to support physicians whose lives or professional careers are jeopardized by their refusal to participate in torture. Codes of medical ethics need strengthening to provide clear guidance for the physician who becomes aware of or actively involved in these brutal practices. Language: en

26 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023270
2022619
2021167
2020243
2019263
2018328