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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for torture
62 results foundAuthor: Shah, Naureen Title: Broken system: dysfunction, abuse, and impunity in the Indian Police. Summary: This report documents a range of human rights violations committed by police, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. The report is based on interviews with more than 80 police officers of varying ranks, 60 victims of police abuses, and numerous discussions with experts and civil society activists. It documents the failings of state police forces that operate outside the law, lack sufficient ethical and professional standards, are overstretched and outmatched by criminal elements, and unable to cope with increasing demands and public expectations. Field research was conducted in 19 police stations in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal, Pradesh, and the capital, Delhi. Details: New York, NY: Human Rights Watch, 2009 Source: Internet Source Year: 2009 Country: India URL: Shelf Number: 116186 Keywords: AsiaPolice BehaviorPolice EthicsPolice MisconductPolice OfficersTorture |
Author: International Federation for Human rights Title: Burma/Myanmar: International crimes Committed in Burma: The Urgent Need for a Commission of Inquiry Summary: This briefing note presents an overview of existing documentation on serious human rights violations perpetrated by Burma's military regime, and demonstrates that international crimes are still being perpetrated in Burma. Details: Paris: Federation for Human Rights; Bangkok, Thailand: ALTSEAN Burma, 2009. 46p. Source: Year: 2009 Country: Burma URL: Shelf Number: 117342 Keywords: Human RightsImprisonmentRapeTorture |
Author: Raymond, Nathaniel Title: Experiments in Torture: Evidence of Human Subject Research and Experimentation in the "Enhanced" Interrogation Program Summary: In the most comprehensive investigation to date of health professionals' involvement in the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation program (EIP), Physicians For Human Rights has uncovered evidence that indicates the Bush administration apparently conducted illegal and unethical human experimentation and research on detainees in CIA custody. The apparent experimentation and research appear to have been performed to provide legal cover for torture, as well as to help justify and shape future procedures and policies governing the use of the "enhanced" interrogation techniques. Details: Cambridge, MA: Physicians for Human Rights, 2010. 25p. Source: Internet Resource; White Paper Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 119361 Keywords: Human RightsTorture |
Author: Andersen, Morten Koch Title: Failing Judicial Systems, Torture and Human Rights Work in Sri Lanka: A Study of Police Torture in Sri Lanka Summary: The study seeks to explore the routine use of torture by the police and illuminate the widespread violence and human rights violations that are part of everyday life in Sri Lanka. It seeks to show the apparent neglect of the Sri Lankan state to stop these atrocities and provide adequate protection and remedies for the victims by ignoring publicly available information provided by state commissioned investigations and reports on the continuously declining state of affairs in the police force and the general deteriorating of human rights in the country. Details: Copenhagen, Denmark: Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims; Hong Kong: Asian Human Rights Commission, 2009. 80p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: Sri Lanka URL: Shelf Number: 119532 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesPolice Misconduct (Sri Lanka)Police Use of ForceTorture |
Author: Taraciuk, Tamara Title: Uniform Impunity: Mexico's Misuse of Military Justice to Prosecute Abuses in Counternarcotics and Public Security Operations Summary: "This report details 17 cases involving military abuses against more than 70 victims, including several cases from 2007 and 2008. The abuses include killings, torture, rapes, and arbitrary detentions. Not one of the military investigations into these crimes has led to a conviction for even a single soldier on human rights violations. The only civilian investigation into any of these cases led to the conviction of four soldiers." Details: Internet Resource; Accessed August 14, 2010 at: Source: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2009. 76p. Year: 2010 Country: Mexico URL: Shelf Number: 114623 Keywords: Human Rights (Mexico)Military Justice (Mexico)NarcoticsProsecutionRapeTorture |
Author: Cheesman, Nick Title: The Criminal Justice System of the Philippines is Rotten Summary: This report examines the situation of criminal justice and wanton killings, disappearances, assault, arbitrary detention and torture by state officers or their agents in the Philippines. The report contains details of 110 specific cases, involving 227 victims, including 81 incidents of killing or attempted killing documented by the sister organisation of the ALRC, the Asian Human Rights Commission since 2004, 62 of them since the start of 2006 alone. The remaining 39 cases relate to incidents of torture, disappearance, abduction, illegal arrest and intimidation. The report discusses these individual cases with reference in particular to the country¡¦s defective policing, and inept prosecution and witness protection programme, handled by the Department of Justice. It also discusses them with reference to the role of the military, and in particular, the labelling of persons extrajudicially killed as ¡§enemies¡¨ or equivalent, in order to create a category of citizens for whom the ordinary laws no longer need apply and who may be killed without fear of consequences or the prospect of effective investigation. The manner in which this is now being done threatens the entire criminal justice system, and more broadly, the very fabric of government and democracy of the country. Six suggestions are given for ways to stop the rot, including with reference to the need for an urgent comprehensive review of the Philippines criminal justice system; the rationalising of its deficient witness protection programme and law; the strengthening of agencies for the receipt, investigation and prosecution of complaints against police and military officials; the use of labelling; action on findings into extrajudicial killings; and the enactment of domestic laws on torture, enforced disappearance and other fundamental rights in accordance with binding agreements under international treaties and the recommendations of treaty bodies. (Excerpts from document) Details: Hong Kong: Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), 2007. 192p. Source: Internet Resource; Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Vol. 6, no. 1; Accessed August 17, 2010 at: http://www.article2.org/pdf/v06n01.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Philippines URL: http://www.article2.org/pdf/v06n01.pdf Shelf Number: 113032 Keywords: Criminal Justice Systems (Philippines)Human RightsPolicing (Philippines)ProsecutionTortureViolence (Philippines) |
Author: Meyer, Maureen Title: Abused and Afraid in Ciudad Juarez: An Analysis of Human Rights Violations by the Military in Mexico Summary: Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America: Mexico: Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh), 2010. 15p. Details: This report focuses on human rights violations that occurred in Ciudad Juarez in the context of Joint Operation Chihuahua, which began in March 2008, and reviews the drug policies adopted by the Mexican government, with support from the U.S. government, to address the security crisis in Mexico. The report aims to give voice to some of the victims of the war against organized crime in Mexico: in particular, individuals who have been abused by the very security forces who are supposed to protect them. It does not seek to minimize the countless atrocities committed by drug trafficking organizations and other criminal groups in Mexico, which have been widely reported in the press. Rather, the report focuses on human rights violations — including forced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detentions — that have been committed by the Mexican government’s security forces, mainly the Mexican military, in the context of the counter-drug efforts in the country. The failure to hold soldiers responsible for the violations they commit leads to more abuses, weakens citizen trust, and undermines the population’s willingness to collaborate in the struggle against any type of crime. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2010 at: http://www.wola.org/images/stories/Mexico/wola%20prodh%20juarez%20report%20color.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.wola.org/images/stories/Mexico/wola%20prodh%20juarez%20report%20color.pdf Shelf Number: 119981 Keywords: Criminal ViolenceDrug TraffickingForced DisappearancesHuman RightsMilitary PersonnelOrganized CrimeTorture |
Author: United Nations. General Assembly. Human Rights Council Title: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Manfred Nowak, on his Mission to Uruguay (21-27 March 2009) Summary: This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on his mission to Uruguay, which took place from 21 to 27 March 2009. The Special Rapporteur expresses deep appreciation to the Government for the excellent cooperation extended by the authorities during the course of the visit. He notes the Government’s commitment to uphold and promote human rights and the progress made since the end of the dictatorship in 1985. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned that children are at great risk of ill-treatment in police stations and detention facilities. He also found consistent allegations of beatings after arrest, as well as excessive use of force and collective punishments after riots and rebellions in detention facilities. The punitive approach applied in the penitentiary system and the lack of activities do not allow for rehabilitation. The use of imprisonment as the first rather than a last resort has failed to reduce the rates of criminality or prevent recidivism. On the contrary, most of the prisons in Uruguay are severely overcrowded and there exists a serious risk of a total collapse of the penitentiary system. Although some efforts have been made to improve overall conditions in prisons and prevent overcrowding, the conditions in some detention facilities, particularly Libertad Penitentiary and the Santiago Vázquez Prison Complex (Complejo Carcelario Santiago Vázquez, known as COMCAR), amount to inhuman and degrading treatment. The overcrowding, the non-separation of pretrial and convicted detainees as well as the limited access to medical services is of concern in practically all of the places visited. A comprehensive reform of the whole administration of justice system, aimed at the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, should be a high priority. Although the Government has recently introduced the crime of torture in the Law on Cooperation with the International Criminal Court, the provision is unlikely to be applied to perpetrators of individual crimes, as reflected since its entry into force in 2006. Nevertheless, the provision should serve as an inspiration for the reform of the criminal code. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the creation of a National Action Plan on Fighting Domestic Violence and acknowledges that some first steps were taken in this regard. However, its full implementation has been delayed, leading to a situation of inadequate preventive and protective measures afforded by the State. In light of the above, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the Government of Uruguay fully implement its obligations under international human rights law. In particular, he urges the Government to criminalize torture in line with the Convention against Torture, to prevent the use of excessive use of force by the police, to expedite judicial proceedings, to ensure that the perpetrators of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship are brought to justice without further delay and to fully implement the National Action Plan on Fighting Domestic Violence. Moreover, the Government should undertake, without delay, a fundamental reform of the criminal justice and penitentiary systems aimed at the rehabilitation and a better reintegration of offenders into society, introducing and strengthening, inter alia, non-custodial measures of punishment, and continue its efforts to improve the conditions of detention. The Special Rapporteur also urges the closure of prisons with inhuman conditions of detention; particularly “Las Latas” of Libertad Penitentiary and Modules 2–4 of COMCAR. The Special Rapporteur calls upon the international community to assist the Government of Uruguay in its fight against torture and ill-treatment by providing financial and technical support. The Special Rapporteur welcomes Uruguay’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the recent adoption of a law establishing a National Human Rights Commission, including a national mechanism for the prevention of torture. On the basis of discussions with public officials, judges, lawyers and representatives of civil society, interviews with victims of violence and with persons deprived of their liberty, often supported by forensic medical evidence, the Special Rapporteur found few reports of torture. However, he received frequent allegations of ill-treatment in several detention facilities. Details: Geneva: United Nations General Assembly, 2009. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 1, 2010 at: http://www.crin.org/docs/Nowak_Uruguay_en.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Uruguay URL: http://www.crin.org/docs/Nowak_Uruguay_en.pdf Shelf Number: 117591 Keywords: DetentionPrisons (Uruguay)PunishmentTorture |
Author: O'Donnell, Dan Title: Child Victims of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment Summary: This paper addresses the legal framework and medical and psychological impacts of torture on children. Part One, Legal Framework, begins by showing the three characteristics that legally distinguish torture from child abuse, by definition: Torture is committed by an agent of the state or someone acting with the encouragement or acquiescence of the state. Torture is committed for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession; to intimidate, coerce or punish the immediate victim or a third person; or as part of discrimination. Torture must cause severe pain or suffering. Because of these differences, torture should be treated differently to child abuse, in particular with regard to law enforcement. The fact that torture is committed by a representative of the state justifies a stronger response. That it involves severe pain or suffering is another reason that the response must be proportionate. International law prohibits both torture and „cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment‟, although the distinction between them is not clearly defined. When the victim is a child, his or her greater vulnerability must be taken into account in determining whether the acts inflicted constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, according to jurisprudence of international courts and other bodies. The obligations of states regarding torture are different from those regarding child abuse. Under international law suspected torturers must be prosecuted, and if they are convicted, the sentence must reflect the gravity of the crime. In contrast, prosecution is not always the most appropriate response to child abuse, especially when it takes place in the home. Most states have accepted an obligation to cooperate with one another in investigating and prosecuting torture, and to prosecute any torturer found in their territory, regardless of where the crime took place. No similar obligation exists with regard to child abuse. The torture of children occurs in different contexts, including police operations against children seen as a threat to public order or safety; children confined in prisons or detention facilities; and children seen as linked to subversive groups, including the children of militants States have special obligations under international humanitarian law when torture or inhuman treatment are committed during armed conflict or foreign occupation. They must search for and extradite or prosecute persons alleged to have committed such “grave breaches” of humanitarian law. Individuals also may be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court for torture or cruel or degrading treatment committed during armed conflict. The obligation to bring torturers to justice in order to prevent impunity must be reconciled with the right of child victims to psychological recovery and the principle that the best interests of the child must be a primary concern in all decisions and proceedings that affect children. The United Nations Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crimes can help reconcile these concerns. They provide that victims should be treated in a caring and sensitive manner that takes into account their personal situation and needs, and respects their physical, mental and moral integrity; that interviews and examinations should be conducted by trained professionals; and that all interactions should be conducted in a child-sensitive manner in a suitable environment. Part Two of the working paper addresses the medical and psychological impacts. States have an inescapable responsibility not only to prevent torture and punish torturers but also to assist the victims. These duties have special implications for health professionals. Yet the torture of children has low visibility and recognition among health workers. Details: Florence, Italy: United Nation's Children Fund Innocenti Research Center, 2010. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Innocenti Working Paper No. 2010-11: Accessed December 9, 2010 at: http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2010_11.pdf Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2010_11.pdf Shelf Number: 120433 Keywords: Child MaltreatmentChildren, Crimes AgainstTorture |
Author: Kasambala, Tiseke Title: Perpetual Fear: Impunity and Cycles of Violence in Zimbabwe Summary: Two years since the formation of a power-sharing government that was expected to end human rights violations and restore the rule of law, politically motivated violence and the lack of accountability for abuses remains a serious problem in Zimbabwe. Perpetual Fear: Impunity and Cycles of Violence in Zimbabwe, examines the impunity that prevails in Zimbabwe by updating illustrative cases of political killings, torture, and abductions by alleged government security forces and their allies that took place during and after the presidential election run-off in 2008. There has been little or no accountability for these crimes. Cases of political violence that have been filed by victims or their relatives have largely been ignored by the police or have stalled in the courts. And the government has failed to respond to calls by local nongovernmental organizations for investigations into abuses. With a referendum and elections planned for 2011, the lack of accountability and justice for past abuses raises the specter of further violence, and poses a significant obstacle to the holding of free, fair, and credible elections. Human Rights Watch calls on the power-sharing government to immediately embark on credible, impartial and transparent investigations into serious human rights abuses and discipline or prosecute those responsible, regardless of their position or rank. The government should put transitional justice mechanisms in place while reforming the criminal justice system to ensure that it meets international legal standards. Ending impunity for past and ongoing abuses is essential if Zimbabwe is to end violence and firmly establish the rule of law. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2011 at: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/03/08/perpetual-fear Year: 2011 Country: Zimbabwe URL: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/03/08/perpetual-fear Shelf Number: 120960 Keywords: Criminal Justice SystemsHuman RightsTortureViolence (Zimbabwe) |
Author: Alffram, Henrik Title: “Crossfire”: Continued Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion Summary: Set up as an elite crime fighting force drawn from the military and police, Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has routinely engaged in extrajudicial killings and torture of people in custody and claiming falsely that they died during an exchange of fire. According to RAB’s own figures, the force has gunned down well over 600 alleged criminals since 2004. “Crossfire:” Continued Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion documents the ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by RAB officers in and around Dhaka after the current Awami League-led government came to power. It builds on the 2006 Human Rights Watch report, Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh’s Elite Security Force. Created by the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), RAB was heavily criticized by the Awami League while in opposition. However, after the Awami League took office in January 2009 the killings have continued and no RAB officer has been prosecuted. Government officials have even justified or denied RAB’s abuses. Though there may be some within the system urging reform and accountability, RAB continues to operate with impunity. The Bangladesh government should follow through on its commitments and ensure that there are prompt, impartial, and independent investigations into torture and deaths in the custody of RAB. The government should prosecute all former and current members of RAB, of whatever rank, who are found to be responsible for human rights violations. Human Rights Watch calls upon foreign governments and international organizations to refuse to work with RAB in law enforcement or counter-terror operations until the force ceases its use of torture and extrajudicial executions, promotes transparency, and pursues accountability for violations of human rights. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2011 at: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/05/10/crossfire-0 Year: 2011 Country: Bangladesh URL: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/05/10/crossfire-0 Shelf Number: 121726 Keywords: Deaths in CustodyExtrajudicial ExecutionsHuman Rights (Bangladesh)Torture |
Author: Birk, Moritz Title: Pretrial Detention and Torture: Why Pretrial Detainees Face the Greatest Risk Summary: Torture and other ill-treatment are not aberrations; they are common — even routine in many detention facilities around the world. And while it is often assumed that torture victims are likely to be political prisoners or suspected terrorists, most victims are ordinary people accused of ordinary crimes. In fact, it is pretrial detainees — people who have not been tried or found guilty — who are most at risk of torture. Pretrial Detention and Torture: Why Pretrial Detainees Are Most at Risk looks at the practice of torture in pretrial detention, the systemic factors that leave pretrial detainees so vulnerable, and the safeguards that are needed to prevent this abhorrent practice. By combining policy analysis, first-hand accounts, and recommendations for reform, the report shows why pretrial detainees are so at risk of torture and what can be done to stop it. It argues that torture can be deterred by steps including: holding perpetrators accountable; by refusing to admit evidence gained through torture; by allowing prisoners early access to legal counsel; and providing for independent oversight of detention facilities. Details: New York: Open Society Foundations, 2011. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 30, 2011 at: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/focus/criminal_justice/articles_publications/publications/pretrial-detention-and-torture-20110624/pretrial-detention-and-torture-06222011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/focus/criminal_justice/articles_publications/publications/pretrial-detention-and-torture-20110624/pretrial-detention-and-torture-06222011.pdf Shelf Number: 121927 Keywords: Pretrial DetentionTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Deadly Detention: Deaths in Custody Amid Popular Protest in Syria Summary: Relentless repression has marked Syria since March 2011, as the government continues its efforts to stifle increasing numbers of pro-reform protests. Scores of people – believed to have been detained for their actual or suspected involvement in the protests – are reported to have died in custody. some were children. however, the Syrian authorities have failed to carry out credible investigations into any of the cases or ensure accountability for the perpetrators. In more than half of the cases, people filmed the bodies to record and show the world their injuries. many of them appear to have been tortured. Forensic experts contacted by amnesty international analyzed the footage to help determine possible causes of death. Amnesty International concludes that the torture reported here has been committed as part of a widespread, as well as systematic, attack on the civilian population – crimes against humanity. it is calling on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria immediately to the prosecutor of the international criminal court. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2011. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 2, 2011 at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE24/035/2011/en/e4ed18bf-25c6-4eba-af40-2995299c4eb1/mde240352011en.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Syria URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE24/035/2011/en/e4ed18bf-25c6-4eba-af40-2995299c4eb1/mde240352011en.pdf Shelf Number: 122616 Keywords: Deaths in Custody (Syria)Human RightsPrisonersProtestorsTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: No Evidence of a Crime: Paying the Price for Police Impunity in Ukraine Summary: Human rights abuses are practised systematically by the police in Ukraine, despite increasing efforts to combat the problem and growing public outrage. institutional failings and high levels of corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs mean that people who come into contact with the police are at risk of a wide range of abuses, from verbal attacks to torture and other ill-treatment, including fatal injuries. investigations into these events are often delayed, ineffective and biased, which only encourages the police in a culture of impunity. This report is a result of interviews carried out by Amnesty International in March and April 2011 with victims, lawyers and human rights defenders. It includes case histories, analyses the problem of torture and ill-treatment in Ukraine and makes recommendations to the government. Amnesty International makes a variety of recommendations which will help the government fulfil its international obligation to combat torture and other ill-treatment. These include: the establishment of a fully resourced, independent agency to investigate all allegations of human rights violations by law enforcement officers, including the police; better safeguards for detainees in police custody; and the establishment of an independent organization with powers to monitor places of detention. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2011. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 18, 2011 at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR50/009/2011/en/8b104ee8-689f-4bc3-9fb2-2c68916be33b/eur500092011en.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Ukraine URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR50/009/2011/en/8b104ee8-689f-4bc3-9fb2-2c68916be33b/eur500092011en.pdf Shelf Number: 123043 Keywords: Human Rights (Ukraine)Police CorruptionPolice MisconductPolice Use of ForceTorture |
Author: Steinberg, Nik Title: Neither Rights Nor Security: Killings, Torture, and Disappearances in Mexico’s “War on Drugs” Summary: Five years since President Felipe Calderón declared “war” on organized crime in Mexico and dispatched the military to confront the country’s drug cartels, the government’s policy is failing on two fronts. It has not succeeded in reducing violence, and has resulted in a dramatic increase in grave human rights violations, which have only exacerbated the climate of violence, lawlessness, and fear that exists in many parts of the country. Based on extensive research in five states — Baja California, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Nuevo León, and Tabasco — Neither Rights Nor Security presents compelling evidence of the systematic use of torture by Mexican security forces, as well as the involvement of police and soldiers in scores of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. These are not isolated acts. Rather as the testimonies of victims, eyewitnesses, and evidence from public information requests and official government statistics show, these abusive tactics are endemic to Mexico’s counternarcotics efforts. The violations persist in large part because the members of security forces who commit them are virtually never held accountable. Many cases languish in the military justice system. And even when investigations are opened in the civilian justice system, prosecutors repeatedly fail to take basic steps such as identifying and interviewing witnesses. Nevertheless, government officials are often quick to dismiss victims’ allegations as false and to cast victims as criminals. Such accusations compound the suffering already inflicted by these serious violations and place the burden on victims and their families to conduct investigations themselves. Neither Rights Nor Security demonstrates how this pattern of abuse and impunity is undercutting Mexico’s efforts to reduce violence, dismantle criminal networks, and restore the rule of law in parts of the country where it has been badly damaged. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011. 218p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 10, 2011 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico1111webwcover_0.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico1111webwcover_0.pdf Shelf Number: 123278 Keywords: DisappearancesDrug CartelsDrug TraffickingHomicidesHuman Rights (Mexico)Organized CrimePolice Use of ForceTortureViolence |
Author: Erikson, Bryan Title: Crimes in Northern Burma: Results from a Fact-Finding Mission to Kachin State Summary: On 9 June 2011, civil war broke out in northern Burma between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), ending a 17-year long ceasefire agreement. This report presents data collected from a Partners investigation in southern Kachin State, Burma in October 2011. The testimony of witnesses and on-site photographs reveal multiple acts perpetrated by Burma Army battalions 74 and 276 against ethnic Kachin civilians that potentially amount to war crimes and other extreme crimes. These acts include torture, extrajudicial killing, the specific targeting of civilians, human shielding, unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, forced labor, forced relocation, displacement, property theft and property destruction. Witnesses reported that Burma Army soldiers entered Nam Lim Pa village on 8 October 2011. Men were arrested and detained for forced labor. Women and children were detained in the Roman Catholic church compound against their will and without provocation or expressed reason. Violent injuries demonstrate signs of extreme physical abuse and strongly suggest the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering while in custody. Civilian casualties included torture and execution. Eyewitness reports indicate no Kachin Independence Army presence during the time of the attacks. Villagers were forcibly relocated and displaced by armed soldiers. Houses, offices and churches were robbed and vandalized, all without justification. At least one home was robbed and burned to the ground while its owner was arrested and detained. The results from this fact-finding mission to Kachin State reveal evidence of crimes that potentially amount to war crimes, perpetrated by the Burma Army against ethnic Kachin civilians and their properties in October 2011. Based on the incidents documented in this report, the Burma Army is in contravention of its legal obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. Considering the nature and scale of these acts in combination with documented abuses in the broader civil war in Kachin State, the actions of the Burma government and the Burma Army may also amount to other serious violations, including crimes against humanity. Those responsible must be brought to justice and held accountable for their actions. Partners makes the following key recommendations: To the Burma government and the Burma Army — Cease targeting civilians in the civil war in northern Burma and other ethnic areas, and respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law. — Permit independent, impartial, and credible investigations of human rights violations. — Develop a legal framework to investigate, prosecute and address allegations of abuse. — Allow United Nations and humanitarian agencies unfettered access to conflict-affected communities. To the International Community — Support a UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry into international crimes in Burma, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, as recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana. — Engage the Burmese authorities on serious human rights violations occurring in the country with an emphasis on accountability. To UN agencies and the Donor Community — Support and coordinate activities with Burma-based and border-based humanitarian agencies working with conflict-affected communities. — Urge the Burma government to increase access to at-risk civilian populations and all populations of internally displaced persons. Details: Partner's Relief & Development, 2011. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 13, 2012 at: http://partnersworld.org/usa/images/stories/crimes_in_northern_burma/crimes_in_northern_burma.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Burma URL: http://partnersworld.org/usa/images/stories/crimes_in_northern_burma/crimes_in_northern_burma.pdf Shelf Number: 123596 Keywords: Extrajudicial KillingsHuman Rights (Burma)TortureViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Doctors Without Borders - Medecins Sans Frontieres Title: Syria: Medicine as a Weapon of Persecution Summary: These 15 testimonies from injured people and doctors from across Syria were collected by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff between January 30 and February 6, 2012. MSF is not authorized to operate inside Syria at present and thus is unable to fully verify the information collected here. However, given the recurring nature, the consistency, and the severity of the acts described in the testimonies, MSF has decided to make them public. For security reasons, names and locations have been withheld. The testimonies reveal the following: Casualties such as multiple fractures, gunshot wounds, and electric shocks that strongly suggest a concerted program of violence and torture; The merciless persecution and repression of the injured and their caregivers; The pursuit of doctors at risk of arrest and torture for treating wounded civilians; The monitoring of hospitals by security forces, in order to arrest and torture the wounded; The resulting need for many to seek medical care provided illegally in makeshift facilities, including private homes; The lack of even basic medical supplies, including drugs, anesthetics, blood bags, and sutures in places where patients do receive care. Details: New York: Doctors Without Borders (MSF), 2012. 18p. Source: Press Dossier: Internet Resource: Accessed March 4, 2012 at http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2012/In-Syria-Medicine-as-a-Weapon-of-Persecution.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Syria URL: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2012/In-Syria-Medicine-as-a-Weapon-of-Persecution.pdf Shelf Number: 124378 Keywords: CorruptionMedical Care (Syria)TortureVictimization |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Gender and Torture: Conference Report Summary: Torture has been widely viewed in the past in terms of pain and suffering inflicted on a person – usually assumed to be male – in the custody of the state. However, this narrow understanding excludes many forms of severe pain and suffering deliberately inflicted on women and girls. It fails to recognize as torture crimes such as rape, domestic violence, targeted rape of lesbians, violence committed in the name of “honour” and also the infliction of severe pain and suffering through denial of reproductive rights. Such crimes are committed not only by agents of the state, but also by non-state actors with the acquiescence of the state. This report summarizes a two-day conference on the gender dimensions of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Held in London in May 2011, the conference brought together representatives of NGOs and academics from around the world. They reflected on the role of the legal framework on torture in achieving justice and in holding states to account. Their findings are of interest to everyone concerned to clarify the law on torture and to ensure that as the law evolves, victims and survivors benefit and are able to seek an effective remedy. Details: London: Amnesty International and REDRESS, 2011. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 10, 2012 at http://www.redress.org/downloads/publications/GenderandTortureConferenceReport-191011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://www.redress.org/downloads/publications/GenderandTortureConferenceReport-191011.pdf Shelf Number: 124425 Keywords: Female VictimsGender ViolenceTortureVictims of Crime |
Author: Allen, Scott Title: Leave No Marks: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and the Risk of Criminality Summary: Following the enactment of the 2006 Military Commissions Act, PHR united the legal expertise of Human Rights First with PHR’s medical expertise to issue the report Leave No Marks in August 2007, demonstrating that ten "enhanced" interrogation methods purportedly used by the CIA amounted to war crimes. The report demonstrated that interrogation techniques are likely to cause severe or serious physical and mental harm to detainees, and that the authorization of these techniques, whether practiced alone or in combination, may constitute torture and/or cruel and inhuman treatment, and may place interrogators at serious legal risk of prosecution for war crimes and other violations. Details: Physicians for Human Rights, 2007. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 15, 2012 at https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_Reports/leave-no-marks.pdf Year: 2007 Country: International URL: https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_Reports/leave-no-marks.pdf Shelf Number: 124971 Keywords: CriminalityHuman RightsInterrogationTorture |
Author: Reisen, Mirjam van Title: Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees between Life and Death Summary: This report describes the horrific situation of trafficking of refugees in the Sinai desert, a crisis that started in 2009. The refugees include men, women, children and accompanying infants fleeing from already desperate circumstances in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. An estimated 95% of the refugees held hostage in the Sinai (also referred to as hostages) are Eritreans. Smuggled across borders by middlemen, or kidnapped from refugee camps in Ethiopia and the Sudan as well as their surrounding areas, and then captured or sold, the refugees are held hostage close to the Israeli border in inhumane conditions and tortured for ransoms up to USD 50,000. A large number of the refugees have died, either while being held hostage or after their release – often even after their ransom has been paid. A large number of refugees simply ‘disappear’, killed while being held or shot by the Egyptian military guarding the border with Israel after release. The aim of this report is to give the Sinai refugees a voice. Through the interviews we can hear their stories, and connect with them. It is hoped that this document will raise awareness among the broader public of the desperate plight of these people as a step towards stopping this crime. A second aim of the report is to contextualise these practices within the international legal framework, and, in this way, highlight the obligations of states and international organisations, including the EU, to take action against these practices. This report examines the processes involved in the trafficking of the refugees (i.e., how the refugees are recruited, how they are transported to the Sinai including their routes, and the conditions under which they are being held) and the international legal framework applicable to these practices (i.e., whether or not these practices can be considered ‘trafficking in persons’, ‘torture’ or other). Details: Tilburg, Brussels: Tilburg University/EEPA, 2012. 87p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 19, 2012 at: http://www.eepa.be/wcm/dmdocuments/publications/report_Human_Trafficking_in_the_Sinai_20120928.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Egypt URL: http://www.eepa.be/wcm/dmdocuments/publications/report_Human_Trafficking_in_the_Sinai_20120928.pdf Shelf Number: 126756 Keywords: Debt BondageForced BeggingHuman SmugglingHuman TraffickingRefugees (Egypt)TortureTrafficking in Human Organs |
Author: Mendez, Juan E. Title: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Summary: The present report focuses on certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It identifies the policies that promote these practices and existing protection gaps. By illustrating some of these abusive practices in health-care settings, the report sheds light on often undetected forms of abusive practices that occur under the auspices of health-care policies, and emphasizes how certain treatments run afoul of the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment. It identifies the scope of State‟s obligations to regulate, control and supervise health-care practices with a view to preventing mistreatment under any pretext. The Special Rapporteur examines a number of the abusive practices commonly reported in health-care settings and describes how the torture and ill-treatment framework applies in this context. The examples of torture and ill-treatment in health settings discussed likely represent a small fraction of this global problem. Details: Vienna: United Nations Human Rights Council, 2013. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: A/HRC/22/53: Accessed March 18, 2013 at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.53_English.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.53_English.pdf Shelf Number: 128000 Keywords: Cruel and Unusual PunishmentHealth-Care SettingsPunishmentTorture |
Author: Kerness, Bonnie, ed. Title: Torture in United States Prisons: Evidence of Human Rights Violations. 2nd Edition Summary: When prison doors close behind men and women they become our prisoners. If we are their family and friends, we may visit, write, call, and advocate on their behalf. If they are anonymous, we will likely dismiss them with the thought, “they broke the law—that was their choice— and now they must pay the penalty.” And we proceed about our daily lives without looking over the prison wall. It is time we did just that; prisons reflect the societies that create them. International treaties, conventions, and declarations provide basic guidelines for the treatment of prisoners. These guidelines are often ignored by the U.S. criminal justice system. Meanwhile, the United States continues to criticize other countries for violations of prisoners’ human rights. “Torture in United States Prisons” (Second Edition) provides primary evidence of such human rights violations. Its goal is to cast light on the torture and abuse of prisoners. For over three decades, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has spoken out on behalf of prisoners. Since 1975 AFSC has operated a Criminal Justice Program in Newark, New Jersey. During that time AFSC has received thousands of calls and letters of testimony of an increasingly disturbing nature from prisoners and their families about conditions in prison. The list of abuses is long and horrifying: use of stun guns and restraint devices, rape, prison chain gangs, inadequate medical care, isolation, “no touch torture” (lights on 24/7, deliberately startling sounds, menacing dogs), use of force, and other egregious violations of international human rights standards, including the Convention Against Torture, ratified by the United States in 1994. The concepts of human rights law must be upheld by the United States police, court, and prison justice systems. One way to foster this change is for prisoners, their families and loved ones, and prisoner rights advocates to weave the language of international standards and treaties into their arguments for humane prison conditions and treatment of prisoners. To that end, this document presents prisoners’ testimonies in five sections—Isolation, Health and Medical Services and Conditions, Use of Force and Devices of Torture, Racism, and Women in Prison—and introduces each section with a relevant international standard as stipulated in international human rights agreements. For example, Article 1 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture prohibits “physical or mental pain and suffering, inflicted to punish, coerce or discriminate for any reason.” Yet practices such as the indefinite use of shackles and other mechanical restraints, the administration of dangerous chemical treatments, and the practice of extended isolation continue in the United States. The practice of extended isolation in particular is of growing concern to many prison activists, both inside and outside the walls. The reports that come to AFSC about prisoners subjected to devices of torture have largely been from isolation cells—often called management control units or special management units—in which there are few witnesses. Ojore Lutalo is one such prisoner, and you can find his full story in the Appendix. There are thousands of similar stories as well, some of which are included here. Details: Newark, NJ: American Friends Service Committee, Northeast Region, Healing Justice Program, 2011. 100p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 22, 2013 at: http://afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/torture_in_us_prisons.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/torture_in_us_prisons.pdf Shelf Number: 128082 Keywords: Human Rights ViolationsIsolationPrison ConditionsPrisonersPrisoners' Rights (U.S.)Solitary ConfinementTorture |
Author: Defence for Children International - Palestine Section Title: Bound, Blindfolded and Convicted: Children held in military detention Summary: The report is the culmination of four year's work by DCI, with the support of the European Union, focusing on verifying reports of ill-treatment and torture of children in the Israeli military detention system. The findings of the report are based on 311 sworn affidavits taken from children between January 2008 and January 2012. The report also includes: - An interview with a lawyer who represents children in the military courts; - An interview with the director of the YMCA rehabilitation programme; - An interview with an Israeli soldier, courtesy of Breaking the Silence; - A Psychological opinion into the effects of military detention on children; and - 25 case studies taken from child-detainees. The report found that there is a systematic pattern of ill-treatment, and in some cases torture, of children held in the military detention system, with the majority of the abuse occurring during the first 48 hours Details: Jerusalem: Defence for Children International Palestine, 2012. 144p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 28, 2013 at: http://www.dci-palestine.org/sites/default/files/report_0.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Palestine URL: http://www.dci-palestine.org/sites/default/files/report_0.pdf Shelf Number: 131493 Keywords: Juvenile Detention (Palestine)Military DetentionTorture |
Author: Center for Victims of Torture Title: Tortured and Detained: Survivor Stories of U.S. Immigration Detention Summary: This report focuses on the personal and psychological aspects of the detention experience, from apprehension to release, and seeks to offer insights - through first-hand accounts to the extent possible - into what asylum seekers and survivors of torture are seeing, thinking, and feeling as they arrive in the United States, a perceived destination of "safety," and subsequently endure shock and confusion at being arrested and detained. This report does not attempt to provide a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the U.S. immigration detention system. The recommendations contained at the end focus on meeting the unique needs of survivors of torture but most would benefit the U.S. immigration detention system more broadly. The profiles in this report are comprised of selfreported information from the 22 individuals we interviewed in June and July of 2013, though the accounts described here are all consistent with secondary research into U.S. immigration laws, procedures, and practices. The challenges interviewees reported are, likewise, consistent with other in-depth reports of the U.S. immigration detention system. Secondary research into trauma and its effects as well as interviews with clinicians from CVT provided additional perspectives into the particular impact detention has on survivors of torture. All participants consented to having their stories included in this report and used for public purposes. However, to protect individual identities we have changed all names and chose not to include any information that would make the individual easily identifiable. Details: St. Paul, MN: Center for Victims of Torture, 2013. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2013 at: http://www.cvt.org/sites/cvt.org/files/Report_TorturedAndDetained_Nov2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.cvt.org/sites/cvt.org/files/Report_TorturedAndDetained_Nov2013.pdf Shelf Number: 131653 Keywords: Illegal Aliens Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrant Detention (U.S.)Torture |
Author: American University. Washington College of Law. Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Title: Torture in Healthcare Settings: Reflections on the Special Rapporteur on Torture's 2013 Thematic Report Summary: xiii Foreword As part of its mission to create new tools and strategies for the creative advancement of international human rights norms, in 2012, the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law and WCL Visiting Professor Juan E. Mendez, created The Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI). The ATI supports the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (SRT), a position which Professor Mendez holds. The ATI monitors and assesses the implementation of the SRT's country-specific and thematic recommendations, develops effective follow-up models for expanded implementation for SRT recommendations, and supports the creative advancement of the SRT mandate to end torture worldwide. The publication of this volume, Torture in Healthcare Settings: Reflections on the Special Rapporteur on Torture's 2013 Thematic Report, is one such creative model. It is a first-of-its-kind compilation, which seeks to follow-up and expand upon a thematic report by the SRT. The volume asks a wide variety of stakeholders and thought-leaders to reflect on the SRT's 2013 report on Torture and Ill-Treatment in Health Care Settings (A/HRC/22/53), and to provide a critique and analysis to help promote discussion of the myriad of important issues raised in the report. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law, 2014. 346p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2014 at: http://antitorture.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PDF_Torture_in_Healthcare_Publication.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://antitorture.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PDF_Torture_in_Healthcare_Publication.pdf Shelf Number: 132286 Keywords: Health CareMental HealthMentally IllTorture |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Yemen's Torture Camps: Abuse of Migrants by Human Traffickers in a Climate of Impunity Summary: Tens of thousands of African migrants pass through Yemen each year to seek work in Saudi Arabia. A multi-million-dollar human trafficking industry has developed in Yemen based on their passage. Its locus is the hot and dry northern border town of Haradh. Here Yemeni traffickers have found a particularly horrific way to make money: by taking migrants captive and transporting them to isolated camps, where they inflict severe pain and suffering and extort ransom from the migrants' relatives and friends. Yemen's Torture Camps describes how Yemeni officials have conducted only sporadic raids on the camps, and have frequently warned traffickers of raids, and freed them from jail when they are arrested. In some cases, officials actively helped the traffickers capture and detain migrants. It also documents abuses of migrants by Saudi border officials, who apprehend border crossers and turn them over to Haradh-based traffickers. The report is based on interviews with 67 people, including 18 Ethiopian migrants who survived torture in the camps, and 10 traffickers and smugglers, as well as health professionals, government officials, activists, diplomats, and journalists. Human Rights Watch calls on the Yemeni government to launch a concerted effort to investigate and prosecute traffickers, as well as members of the security forces, regardless of rank, suspected of collusion with traffickers. It also calls on police, military, and intelligence agencies to assist in the investigations and take appropriate disciplinary action against personnel implicated in trafficking. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2014. 81p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 14, 2014 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/yemen0514_ForUpload.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Yemen URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/yemen0514_ForUpload.pdf Shelf Number: 132454 Keywords: Human Rights Abuses (Yemen)Human SmugglingHuman TraffickingImmigrantsMigrantsRansomTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises Summary: Torture. The word evokes a world of suffering and fear. It is the object of near-universal condemnation. Yet, today, 30 years after the ground-breaking un Convention against torture was adopted, torture is flourishing in at least three quarters of the world's countries, despite some significant steps forward. a global survey commissioned by Amnesty International has revealed that almost half of the world's population do not feel safe from torture. Over the past five years, Amnesty International has reported on torture and other ill-treatment in 141 countries and from every world region. While in some of these countries Amnesty International has documented only isolated and exceptional cases, in others torture is systemic. This is a human rights violation that is shrouded in secrecy, inflicted on people when they are at their most isolated and vulnerable. Absolute figures of the number of torture victims are impossible to calculate. However, as this document shows, there is irrefutable evidence that torture is a truly global crisis. This briefing provides an overview of the use of torture in the world today. it looks at when and why torture is inflicted and at the most common methods used. it shows why government denials that torture occurs ring hollow and why Amnesty International's global campaign to Stop torture is still so urgently needed in 2014. Details: New York: Amnesty International, 2014. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 19, 2014 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/act400042014en.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/act400042014en.pdf Shelf Number: 132517 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesTorture |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Locked Up in Karaj: Spotlight on Political Prisoners in One Iranian City Summary: Locked Up in Karaj documents the cases of 62 prisoners held in two separate prisons in Karaj, north-west of Tehran. In all cases, Iranian revolutionary courts appear to have convicted and sentenced them to prison terms on charges arising solely from their involvement in peaceful political activities or their exercise of their rights to free speech or freedom of assembly, association, religion, or opinion, or other rights protected by international human rights law. The report is based on a review of all the cases, including the charges against the prisoners, and on information obtained from family members, lawyers, and other informed sources. Revolutionary courts tried and convicted the prisoner on vague charges, such as "acting against the national security," and "propaganda against the state." The report indicates that none of the 62, who include members of the political opposition, bloggers and journalists, a lawyer, and labor, and minority rights activists, had any involvement in violence. The report also documents cases of prisoners in Karaj prisons who were convicted of committing violent or other serious national security but whom the government may have targeted because of their peaceful activities. These cases were marked by serious due process violations, such as secret hearings, lack of access to a lawyer, prolonged pre-trial incommunicado detention and solitary confinement, and allegations of torture and coerced confessions. Human Rights Watch calls on Iranian authorities to release the 62 political prisoners held in Karaj prisons and all other prisoners and detainees in Iran who are imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights, and to order the fair retrial or release of all prisoners sentenced after trials in which they were denied due process. Details: New York: HRW, 2014. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2014 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iran0814_ForUpload_1.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Iran URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iran0814_ForUpload_1.pdf Shelf Number: 134019 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesPolitical Prisoners (Iran)PrisonsTorture |
Author: Bowers, Mark Title: Solitary Confinement as Torture Summary: The Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic (I/HRP)(now the Human Rights Policy Seminar) at the University of North Carolina School of Law is committed to exposing violations of the basic human rights of both citizens and visitors of this state and nation. This policy report seeks to contribute to a growing national advocacy movement that has identified solitary confinement as cruel, inhuman, and degrading form of punishment that is - or at the very least approximates - torture and a severe form of human rights violation and seeks to bring about the end of its use. Torture is one of the basest violations of human rights and shared democratic ideals. Under North Carolina's state constitution, the federal constitution, as well as international law, the nation and the state of North Carolina must not be complicit in any act that falls within this category of atrocity. The duty to take responsibility for human rights violations encompasses the obligation to enlarge an understanding of that which constitutes torture and how it is manifested in various institutions and implemented by various actors. In this interest, as citizens, as concerned human beings, and as advocates, students, faculty, and collaborating advocacy partners endeavored to investigate and shine a light on the realities of the use of solitary confinement within the prison system with a focus on the state of North Carolina. To this end, the authors have relied on a wide range of sources to parse out not only the practice and the outcomes of isolation, but also the evolution of the substantive response to this condition of confinement. This report examines the U.S. Constitution and its protections, the international standards that the United States as a nation has endorsed, as well as North Carolina state legal protections. The conclusion reached is stark and straightforward: solitary confinement is ineffective at decreasing violence within prisons; it is ineffective at preserving public safety; it is ineffective at managing scarce monetary resources; and it violates the boundaries of human dignity and justice. Present efforts to redress this injustice have been, thus far, largely ineffective. Laws and the courts that interpret them must evolve according to the growing body of research that demonstrates that solitary confinement violates basic constitutional and human rights. This report is presented in three parts. SECTION ONE gathers data on the issue of solitary confinement and seeks to define, expose, and delegitimize the practice as inhumane and ineffective. It commences with the narratives of prisoners who have suffered or are suffering long term isolation. These in-depth stories are complemented by the results of a survey that was sent to North Carolina prisoners as a means to get a broader view of conditions of confinement from those on the inside. Added to this evidence are statistics derived from the Department of Public Safety's own database. SECTION ONE also recounts narratives from prisoners in other states who tell similar stories of deprivation and the struggle to maintain their sanity while confined to conditions of isolation. It then reviews the findings of research and studies by mental health professionals, penologists, and criminologists and summarizes the effects of solitary confinement from the perspectives of these experts. SECTION ONE concludes with an overview of the findings from other national advocacy and reform efforts. SECTION TWO explores the substantive legal policy issues related to solitary confinement. It begins with an overview of constitutional jurisprudence, with a focus on Eighth Amendment concerns and the applicability of due process protections. It demonstrates how the current state of the law fails prisoners who would try to challenge their conditions of solitary confinement as a matter of conceptual legal norms and application. It reveals the obstacles prisoners face even when they can show objectively that solitary confinement puts them at extreme risk of irreparable mental or other harm, and the difficulties they face in overcoming the burden of showing deliberate indifference by the officers who sent them to solitary because those officers can point to forty years of jurisprudence holding otherwise. It reveals the need for a different and evolved Eight Amendment interpretation - one that is based on the reality of the practices of prolonged isolation, the research that demonstrates its wrongfulness and ineffectiveness, and basic principles of human dignity. SECTION TWO then turn to the standards of international human rights that have been established by various treaties to which this nation is a signatory. The Convention Against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as other firmly established international and regional human rights norms prohibit the use of torture under any circumstances, and these prohibitions are fully applicable to solitary confinement. Lastly SECTION TWO considers national standards promulgated by the American Bar Association and the American Correctional Association, possible approaches and remedies based on the laws of state of North Carolina and then compares North Carolina to such national standards. Finally, SECTION THREE offers recommendations for reform. It begins from the premise that solitary confinement is both immoral and ineffective. It considers, as preliminary steps toward the abandonment of the use of isolation as a form of punishment, "technical" reforms that would strictly limit and regulate the practice. More to the point, it then suggests systemic reforms including reducing prison populations, emphasizing rehabilitation, changing institutional prison culture, and ultimately advocates for a complete ban on solitary confinement. SECTION THREE identifies advocacy strategies for reaching reform goals, including litigation, legislative initiatives, and community outreach and organizing. As stated at the outset of this Executive Summary, the conclusion reached is stark and straightforward: solitary confinement is ineffective at decreasing violence within prisons; it is ineffective at preserving public safety; it is ineffective at managing scarce monetary resources; and it violates the boundaries of human dignity and justice. Details: Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina School of Law Immigration/Human Rights Clinic; North Carolina Prisoners Legal Services; In Cooperation With American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, 2014. 225p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 12, 2014 at: http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/academics/humanrights/solitaryconfinement/fullreport.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/academics/humanrights/solitaryconfinement/fullreport.pdf Shelf Number: 134023 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesIsolationPrisonersPunishmentSolitary Confinement (U.S.; North Carolina)Torture |
Author: Redress Title: Redress for Rape. Using international jurisprudence on rape as a form of torture or other ill-treatment Summary: Rape is an egregious crime with devastating consequences for victims. However, until relatively recently it has not been the subject of serious attention within the international human rights law framework. Rape - at both the domestic and international level - was traditionally largely invisible, or trivialised as a "private matter", an unfortunate incident, the result of a woman's careless conduct, or the inevitable result of war. As such, it was not cast as the responsibility of states, was rarely addressed in international human rights discourse, and was not to be found explicitly within the human rights violations prohibited by the core international conventions adopted during the course of the twentieth century. The past two decades have seen a significant normative change in this area. It is now clearly established at the international level that rape is a crime of the highest order, that states do have the responsibility to prevent and respond to it, whoever commits it, and that survivors of rape are entitled to the same level of protection and response as any other victim of violence. This normative change has started to have an impact in achieving accountability in some high profile individual cases, has increased scrutiny by international human rights bodies on the practices of states, and may have helped to improve responses of authorities in some jurisdictions. However the reality is that rape continues on a massive scale, and the majority of victims of rape around the world - both women and men - face almost insurmountable barriers to justice. This report hopes to provide a useful resource for those seeking to build upon these developments, helping to translate them into change for individuals and communities. It does so by focusing on one strategy which has been fruitfully used both to bring rape within the international legal framework, and to seek justice in individual cases: making the link between rape and torture and other prohibited ill-treatment. Details: London: Redress, 2013. 124p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 23, 2015 at: http://www.redress.org/downloads/publications/FINAL%20Rape%20as%20Torture%20(1).pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.redress.org/downloads/publications/FINAL%20Rape%20as%20Torture%20(1).pdf Shelf Number: 135000 Keywords: RapeRape and WarSexual ViolenceTortureVictims of Crime |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Tiger Chairs and Cell Bosses: Police Torture of Criminal Suspents in China Summary: After cases of police brutality against criminal suspects emerged in 2009 and 2010, China's government announced new measures to curb torture and wrongful convictions. These included restrictions on the conduct of interrogations and prohibitions on using detainee "cell bosses" to oversee other detainees. The Ministry of Public Security claims that the use of coerced confessions has dropped significantly as a result of the reforms. Tiger Chairs and Cell Bosses- based primarily on an analysis of hundreds of newly published court decisions and interviews with recent detainees, family members, lawyers, and former officials-finds that the measures adopted between 2009 and 2013 have not gone nearly far enough to fully address abusive interrogations. Some police officers deliberately thwart the new protections by taking detainees from official detention facilities or by using torture methods that leave no visible injuries. Procurators and judges may ignore clear evidence of mistreatment, rendering China's new "exclusionary rule" - which prohibits the use of evidence directly obtained through torture - of little benefit. Police torture of suspects in pre-trial detention remains a serious concern. Former detainees described physical and psychological torture, including being forced to spend days shackled to a "tiger chair," hung by the wrists, and deprived of sleep for prolonged periods. While measures adopted since 2009 appear to have reduced certain abuses, they are being grafted onto a criminal justice system that still offers police numerous opportunities to abuse suspects and affords the police enormous power to resist any judicial supervision. Absent more fundamental reforms in the Chinese criminal justice system that empower defense lawyers, the judiciary, and independent monitors, the elimination of routine torture and ill-treatment is unlikely. Details: New York: HRW, 2015. 143p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/china0515_ForUpload.pdf Year: 2015 Country: China URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/china0515_ForUpload.pdf Shelf Number: 135632 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesPolice BrutalityPolice MisconductPolice Use of ForcePrisoner AbusePrisonersTorture |
Author: Soldz, Stephen Title: All the President's Psychologists: The American Psychological Association's Secret Complicity with the White House and US Intelligence Community in Support of the CIA's Summary: When considering the analysis presented here, it is important to be mindful of the fundamental principles that define and inform the behavior of all health professionals and professional associations. A profession is characterized by a specialized body of knowledge applied in the service of the individual patient and society. It is incumbent upon a profession to disseminate and expand such knowledge, to abide by codes of ethics worthy of the designation of "profession," including the responsibility to self regulate. The APA is the largest association of professional psychologists in the United States, and, indeed, the world. As such it plays a major role in setting standards for psychological research, practice, and education. Those standards are a primary mechanism that international standards for health professionals, including such international instruments as the Convention against Torture, become integrated into the practice and standards of US psychologists. Further, APA's standards and positions exert influence on psychological professionals and associations around the world. The APA lobbies on behalf of funding for psychological research and practice, credentials graduate training programs and internships, and is responsible to protect the interests of psychology as a profession. The APA created and periodically revises a code of ethics that governs the ethical behavior of members and is integrated into or forms the basis of most state licensing requirements for psychologists. That code, like that of other health professions, is based on principles of avoiding harm and improving people's lives. These principles undergird the basis of trust in the profession necessary for psychologists being able to help people with some of the most difficult and intimate of life's problems. Federal regulations require that professional psychologists in the employ of the US government, including those in the military, be licensed by a state and follow the state's ethics code. The APA's complicity in the CIA torture program, by allowing psychologists to administer and calibrate permitted harm, undermines the fundamental ethical standards of the profession. If not carefully understood and rejected by the profession, this may portend a fundamental shift in the profession's relationship with the people it serves. Details: s.l., 2015. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 30, 2015 at: https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/All-The-Presidents-Psychologists-Report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/All-The-Presidents-Psychologists-Report.pdf Shelf Number: 135812 Keywords: Counter-TerrorismPrisoner InterrogationTerrorismTerroristsTorture |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: State of Fear: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Killings Summary: Gambia's human rights record is among the worst in African. Since taking power over two decades ago, President Yaya Jammeh has ruthlessly suppressed dissent, shutdown virtually all independent media, and has routinely cracked down on journalists, opposition members, rights activists, student leaders, religious leaders, relatives of alleged coup plotters, and civil servants. Since 2014 when the Jammeh administration introduced anti-gay legislation which imposes a life sentence for a series of new "aggravated homosexuality" offenses, state security forces have targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with a wave of arrests and detentions. State of Fear, based on two research trips to Senegal and Gambia and more than 60 interviews, including with victims, witnesses and perpetrators of abuses, documents numerous violations allegedly perpetrated by Gambia's security forces, intelligence agents and a paramilitary group. These include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Many of these violations appear to be used by the authorities to instill fear in the population, which, together with a judicial system lacking independence, prevents victims and family members from seeking justice. The government has systematically failed to protect its own citizens and neglected to hold accountable those responsible for serious abuses. Human Rights Watch calls on the government of Gambia to urgently investigate and prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses, disarm and disband paramilitary groups, and ensure security forces respect the due process rights of all individuals. The government should also implement key recommendations from both the United Nations Human Rights Council's 20th Universal Periodic Review of Gambia and the 2015 reports of the UN Special Rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial executions. Details: New York: HRW, 2015. 89p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 17, 2015 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/gambia0915_4up.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Africa URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/gambia0915_4up.pdf Shelf Number: 136806 Keywords: Arbitrary ArrestsExtrajudicial ExecutionsHuman Rights AbusesParamilitary GroupsTorture |
Author: Council of Europe Title: Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 14 to 23 April 2015 Summary: The purpose of the April 2015 ad hoc visit to Greece was to assess the implementation of the CPT's previous recommendations, notably those contained in the reports on the 2011 and 2013 visits. To this end, its delegation examined the treatment of persons in police custody and the practical application of safeguards surrounding their detention. A specific focus of the visit was to look into the effectiveness of investigations of police ill-treatment allegations. It also reviewed the treatment and detention conditions of inmates in several prison establishments, including Korydallos Prison Hospital, and examined the situation of juveniles and foreign nationals deprived of their liberty. The delegation received, with a few exceptions, very good cooperation from both the Greek authorities and staff at the establishments visited. However, cooperation also entails that decisive action be taken to improve the situation in the light of the CPT's recommendations. This has still not happened. The findings of the 2015 visit demonstrate clearly that the situation in prisons has become critical and that urgent action is required for their recovery starting with tackling the excessive overcrowding and chronic understaffing in most establishments. Further, the serious problem of police ill-treatment needs to be fully recognised and a mechanism put in place to effectively investigate ill-treatment allegations. Details: Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2016. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2016 at: http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/grc/2016-04-inf-eng.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Greece URL: http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/grc/2016-04-inf-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 138691 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesPunishmentTorture |
Author: Witte, Eric A. Title: Undeniable Atrocities: Confronting Crimes Against Humanity in Mexico Summary: This report focuses on the nine-year period of December 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015. This covers the entirety of Felipe Calderon's presidency (December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2012), and just over half of the six-year term of current President Enrique Pema Nieto. To put statistics and institutional developments in context, however, the report includes some information from previous years, and especially the final years of the Vicente Fox presidency (December 1, 2000-November 30, 2006). The current crisis is the most intense period of violence in Mexico's modern history, but not its first. Accordingly, the report includes a brief overview of prior periods in which the government was also implicated in atrocity crimes for which there has been no accountability - including the period of the so-called "Dirty War," waged by the government against left-wing students and dissidents from the late 1960s to 1980s - in order to situate the recent surge in violence within a broader historical and political context. WHAT ARE "ATROCITY CRIMES"? The United Nations defines the term as encompassing the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. This report uses the term to refer to particular forms of violent crime that have affected many tens of thousands of civilians and may amount to crimes against humanity. Those affected include not only Mexicans but migrants from Central America, who travel a perilous path through the country and are increasingly the victims of vicious cartel violence. Specifically, the report examines three types of atrocity crimes: killings, disappearances, and torture and other ill-treatment. The report attempts to paint a composite picture based on a good-faith effort to synthesize all available statistics on and documentation of atrocity crimes in Mexico from December 2006. But that picture is only partial. Only accurate and complete data can reveal the full nature and scale of these crimes. The bulk of the data on which the analysis rests necessarily comes from government sources. This creates a considerable methodological challenge because government data on atrocity and other crime in Mexico is notoriously incomplete, skewed towards minimization, and therefore often unreliable. Collection of crime data is decentralized; states vary in their capacity and will to collect and share data with the federal government and public; some states keep data electronically and online, while others still keep records on paper, which are difficult to access. Particularly for atrocity crimes, data suffers from inaccurate and inconsistent categorization, itself a symptom of enduring denial about the scope and gravity of the situation. For instance, if charged at all, torture is often categorized as a lesser crime, such as "abuse of authority," and enforced disappearances may instead be classified as "kidnappings." Decades of impunity have engendered popular distrust in the justice sector, culminating in one of the greatest barriers to collecting accurate crime statistics: the fact that over 90 percent of crimes in Mexico are never reported to authorities in the first place. All of this has contributed to widely varying assessments of the scale and nature of atrocity crime, and confusion over the adequacy of the justice system's response. Some government data used here comes from public reports and statements from agencies including the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR), the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Security (SNSP), the autonomous government statistics office (INEGI), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), and the Defense Ministry (SEDENA). Reports and publications of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) provide another important, if flawed, source of data. BEYOND PUBLIC REPORTS FROM GOVERNMENT ENTITIES, this report relies on information obtained through extensive use of Mexico's progressive legal regime on the right to information. Although critical public information is still too often withheld, the Open Society Justice Initiative, its partners, and others have been able to gain new insight into atrocity crime data, specific cases, and the functioning of justice institutions through information requests submitted to the federal and state governments. This report also relies on an extensive review of United Nations and Inter-American treaty body jurisprudence and reports; federal and state human rights commissions; national, regional, and international civil society reports; legal scholarship by Mexican and non-Mexican academics and political analysts; as well as investigative reports from Mexican and international media. These resources were augmented by over 100 first-hand interviews conducted by Mexico-based and international Justice Initiative staff and consultants, in person and by email and telephone, over the course of 2013-2015. Most in-person interviews were conducted in Mexico City, Coahuila, Guerrero, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, and Queretaro, although a small number were conducted in Morelos and Geneva. Almost all interviews were conducted in Spanish; for some, there was simultaneous interpretation into English, with the Spanish version considered definitive. All interviews were conducted with the verbal consent of the interviewee. Some sourcing has been anonymized at the request of the interlocutor. Those interviewed included government officials at the federal and state levels, including prosecutors, police, judges, members of congress and congressional staff, and officials at human rights and truth commissions. Research also included numerous interviews with Mexican and international experts and civil society representatives, as well as diplomats and academics. Details: New York: Open Society Foundations, 2016. 220p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 7, 2016 at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/undeniable-atrocities-en-20160602.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Mexico URL: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/undeniable-atrocities-en-20160602.pdf Shelf Number: 139298 Keywords: Crime Against HumanityDisappearancesHomicidesHuman RightsKidnappingsOrganized CrimeTortureViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Jensen, Steffen Title: Violence and community activism in Vrygrond, South Africa Summary: This study project is a partnership between the Community Healing Network (CHN) in Vrygrond, Cape Town and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims in Copenhagen (RCT). The project has two basic objectives: 1) To conduct a study exploring 1) levels of crime and violence in Vrygrond, Cape Town; 2) the period of xenophobic violence in Vrygrond in May 2008, and 3) what community action was taken to prevent the violence. 2) To understand how the events around May 2008 could be prevented using a community activist model like the one employed by the Community Healing Network, which is one of the authoring organizations of this report. In meeting the first objective, we employed a host of qualitative and quantitative methods, including a violence survey with 517 randomly selected households/- respondents and a study population of 2363 in Vrygrond, interviews with victims of the xenophobic violence and focus group discussions with community activists and community members participating in the data collection. Although it is difficult to collect data in Vrygrond because of security concerns and lack of trust, credible and interesting data was collected by members of the community and analyzed by CHN and RCT. This is s a testimony to the value of actively integrating community members in research projects as partners rather than as research subjects. The quantitative analysis shows an image of a deeply divided, poor and violent community with few state resources, minimal trust in the state or one's neighbours, and endemic intergroup conflicts which are fed by highly derogatory stereotypes on all sides. In many ways, Vrygrond should have experienced xenophobic violence in May 2008. However, the report shows that the direct victimization of violence in Vrygrond during May 2008 was insignificant. Among 517 household respondents, no one had been direct victims of violence during that time. To explore the very real suffering that could not be captured statistically, the report developed a distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary victimization. In the survey, primary victims of the violence provide a measure of the quantitative levels of violence in the general population. Secondary victimization includes those who directly knew people that were affected. Finally, tertiary victimization included all those that felt endangered by the violence because of who they were. The report concludes that the risks of violence are associated with local dynamics around leadership, perceptions of violence as legitimate and gender dimensions. This goes against many other explanations that focus on general structures of poverty, border control and other factors. However, only local dynamics explain why the violence in Vrygrond was relatively low. Finally, the report explores how local dynamics and local activism played itself out in the context of the xenophobic violence. We identified a number of community structures, practices and activities that seemed to have insulated Vrygrond against the worst excesses of the violence: no community authority that legitimised violence, a multiplicity of institutional and individual actors, early warning, interventions of important female community members, activities like feeding programmes and prayer meetings that broke the isolation of non-South Africans, and a constructive relationship to the police who acted according to their prerogative to protect. Perhaps the most important conclusion from the analysis is that individuals demonstrated enormous courage when they risked standing against the xenophobic violence that had enveloped the country. Despite the fact that Vrygrond is a highly divided community, many people acted according to a basic humanity that would dispel the notion that "all South Africans are evil" (as one respondent reflected after the violence). To address the second objective of the study project, the report compares the lessons that could be made regarding preventive community activism with the model and history of the Community Healing Network. The report finds that in many ways CHN is an appropriate model of community healing and prevention of violence. It creates a democratic opportunity for engagement across intrinsic affiliations; because it includes both specialists from NGO's and universities and community members, it serves as the "honest broker" between the state and the community in other contexts. However, CHN is faced with a number of challenges: lack of institutional permanence, lop-sided representation, constant demands for survival needs among the community members, and a historically based antagonistic relationship to the state apparatus. If the challenges are faced, there are clear advantages in developing the model and putting it into practice in Vrygrond and elsewhere. Details: Copenhagen: Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, 2011. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: RCT International Publication Series No. 1: Accessed June 10, 2016 at: Accessed June 10, 2016 at: http://doc.rct.dk/doc/mon2011.160.pdf Year: 2011 Country: South Africa URL: http://doc.rct.dk/doc/mon2011.160.pdf Shelf Number: 139361 Keywords: Communities and crimeHate CrimesTortureUrban CrimeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Bantjes, Megan Title: Finding our way: Developing a community work model for addressing torture Summary: Why do community interventions? And why do community interventions in relation to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (CIDT) in South Africa ? The literature points to a number of gains as regards community interventions: they are likely to be more efficient in reaching the large numbers of beneficiaries; they are arguably more effective than one - on - one interventions for addressing large - scale psychosocial suffering; they potentially impact on a systemic level rather than on an individual level, and thereby have further reach; and they can mobilise people to engage in challenging and changing policies and institutions so that the realities of th eir daily lives improve (see, e.g., Bracken et al. 1997; Naidoo 2000; Veary 2011). All of these potential gains are relevant in relation to torture and CIDT in South Africa. Individual and specialised services are hard to access for people in poor neighbo urhoods, and there are few specialised service providers for large numbers of victims. As torture and CIDT in South Africa are caused by structural inequalities between rich and poor, we argue that prevention efforts should address these inequalities. Fina lly, torture and CIDT are, for the general public and in policy circles, often associated with the apartheid regime's policing practices or viewed as something that occurs outside South Africa's borders (Dissel et al. 2009). This means that today's victims are often unaware that their rights have been violated, or unlikely to name the violation "torture" and are therefore unlikely to seek help. Only by assisting these victims and empowering them to demand their rights can torture and CIDT be prevented. Whil e these potential gains are all worth pursuing, community interventions in general have suffered from theoretical and methodological shortcomings. As noted by Jessen et al. (2010) in their analysis of psychosocial community interventions in Latin America, community interventions are seldom evaluated or assessed in systematic ways; they are grounded in normative assumptions about what ought to happen rather than tested, theoretically informed causal relations; and they often lack clearly defined target group s. Shortcomings like these prompted CSVR - Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa and DIGNITY - Danish Institute Against Torture (formerly RCT - Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims) to engage in systematic and critical reflections on how to produce a theoretically informed model of community work with clear and relevant target groups that can also be systematically evaluated and assessed. The aim of this report is to document and reflect on the process of producing such a theoretically informed approach to community intervention in ways that might prove 7 useful to other organisations working with human rights and psychosocial interventions. It is in this sense that we talk about finding our way. In "Finding Our Way," we have tapped a number of sources. First, we discuss different theoretical perspectives on community work that we have identified in the academic literature (Chapter 2). Second, we explore different practical examples of community interventions that we have identified in organisations in SVR's and DIGNITY's broader network (Chapter 3). Third, we discuss some of CSVR's own experiences with community work in relation to a refugee women's empowerment project and home visits aimed at support and referrals (Chapter 4). On the basis of these practical and theoretical inputs, we outline the parameters for a CSVR approach to community intervention for torture and CIDT as it emerged towards the end of 2011. This model is now being implemented and tried out in three places around the Gauteng area in South Africa. We will report on the progress of the work at a later stage. In this report, we present how we arrived at the model through systematically combining practical experiences and theoretical inputs. The hope is that these inputs - and the process of putting them into concrete use in the model - might be of use and inspiration to other organisations within the broader DIGNITY and CSVR networks and beyond. Details: Johannesburg, South Africa: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation; and Copenhagen:Dignity: Danish Institute Against Torture, 2012. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: DIGNITY Publication Series on Torture and Organised Violence, no. 1: Accessed July 18, 2016 at: https://www.dignityinstitute.org/media/2065754/pubseries_no1.pdf Year: 2012 Country: South Africa URL: https://www.dignityinstitute.org/media/2065754/pubseries_no1.pdf Shelf Number: 139656 Keywords: Community InterventionsPunishmentTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: "It Breaks the Human":Torture, Disease and Death in Syria's Prisons Summary: The experiences faced by detainees in Syria's detention system are often lethal. An estimated 17,723 people were killed in custody across Syria between 2011 and 2015, with the real number likely to be even higher. Of the 65 former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International for this report, most had witnessed at least one death in custody. All had been tortured and/or otherwise ill-treated. This report charts the journey of detainees through what the UN Commission of Inquiry, among others, considers to be Syria's most lethal detention facilities, including Saydnaya Military Prison and the detention centres operated by Syria's four intelligence services - Air Force Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Political Security and General Intelligence. Based on the evidence presented in this report, as well as prior research by Amnesty International and the documentation of credible national and international monitoring groups, Amnesty International considers that the torture and other ill-treatment of detainees carried out by the Syrian government since 2011 has been perpetrated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, pursuant to a state policy, and therefore amounts to a crime against humanity. This report calls on the international community to pressure the Syrian authorities to abide by their international obligations and end the use of torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and prevent further deaths in custody. Details: London: AI, 2016. 73p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 2, 2016 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/4508/2016/en/ Year: 2016 Country: Syria URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/4508/2016/en/ Shelf Number: 140117 Keywords: Detention FacilitiesPrison ConditionsPrisonersPrisonsTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Summary: Silencing human rights activists who highlight human rights violations will not solve the problem of torture and other ill-treatment in Thailand, Amnesty International said today. In Bangkok, Thailand's authorities prevented Amnesty International from proceeding with the launch of "Make Him Speak by Tomorrow: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Thailand." This report details torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of soldiers and the police against suspected insurgents, government opponents, and a range of individuals from vulnerable backgrounds, including alleged drug users and minorities. "The Thai authorities should be addressing torture, not human rights activists doing their legitimate work. Instead of threatening us with arrest and prosecution, they should be holding the perpetrators of torture accountable. It is an appalling state of affairs when speaking up for human rights can be criminalised but torture continues with impunity," said Minar Pimple, Amnesty International's Senior Director, Global Operations. Details: London: AI, 2016. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 13, 2016 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/makehimspeakthailandreportfinal.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Thailand URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/makehimspeakthailandreportfinal.pdf Shelf Number: 145443 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: 'Punished for Daesh's Crime': Displaced Iraqis Abused by Militias and Government Forces Summary: Paramilitary militias and government forces in Iraq have committed serious human rights violations, including war crimes, by torturing, arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing and extrajudicially executing thousands of civilians who have escaped areas controlled by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), said Amnesty International in a new report published today. The report 'Punished for Daesh's crimes': Displaced Iraqis abused by militias and government forces exposes the terrifying backlash against civilians fleeing IS-held territory, raising alarm about the risk of mass violations as the military operation to recapture the IS-held city of Mosul gets underway. The report is based on interviews with more than 470 former detainees, witnesses and relatives of those killed, disappeared or detained, as well as officials, activists, humanitarian workers and others. After escaping the horrors of war and tyranny of IS, Sunni Arabs in Iraq are facing brutal revenge attacks at the hands of militias and government forces, and are being punished for crimes committed by the group," said Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. "Iraq is currently facing very real and deadly security threats from IS, but there can be no justification for extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture or arbitrary detention. "As the battle to retake Mosul begins, it is crucial that the Iraqi authorities take steps to ensure these appalling abuses do not happen again. States supporting military efforts to combat IS in Iraq must demonstrate they will not continue to turn a blind eye to violations." The report highlights widespread revenge attacks and discrimination faced by Sunni Arabs suspected of being complicit in IS crimes or supporting the group. Many were displaced during major military operations in 2016 across the country, including in Falluja and surrounding areas (in the governorate of Anbar), al-Sharqat (Salah al-Din governorate), Hawija (Kirkuk governorate) and around Mosul (Ninewa governorate). The predominantly Shi’a militias involved in abuses, known as the Popular Mobilization Units, have long been backed by the Iraqi authorities, which have provided them with financial support and weapons. They were officially designated part of the Iraqi forces in February 2016. The government's responsibility for these violations cannot be ignored and states supporting or participating in the ongoing military effort to combat IS in Iraq should have rigorous checks in place to ensure that any support or equipment they provide does not contribute to abuses. Mass abductions, killings and torture Amnesty International's research reveals that war crimes and other gross human rights violations were committed by predominantly Sh'ia militias, and possibly government forces, during operations to retake Falluja and surrounding areas from IS in May and June 2016. In one shocking incident at least 12 men and four boys from the Jumaila tribe who fled al-Sijir, north of Falluja, were extrajudicially executed after they handed themselves in to men wearing military and federal police uniforms on 30 May. Men and older boys were separated from the women and younger children before being lined up and shot dead. At least 73 other men and older boys from the same tribe were seized a few days earlier and are still missing. Details: London: AI, 2016. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 1, 2016 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/punished_for_daeshs_crimes.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Iraq URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/punished_for_daeshs_crimes.pdf Shelf Number: 145773 Keywords: Extrajudicial ExecutionsHuman Rights AbusesISISIslamic StateMilitiasTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Nigeria: 'You Have Signed Your Death Warrant': Torture and other ill treatment in the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) Summary: A Nigerian police unit set up to combat violent crime has instead been systematically torturing detainees in its custody as a means of extracting confessions and lucrative bribes, Amnesty International said in a report published today. In Nigeria: You have signed your death warrant, former detainees told Amnesty International they had been subjected to horrific torture methods, including hanging, starvation, beatings, shootings and mock executions, at the hands of corrupt officers from the feared Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). "A police unit created to protect the people has instead become a danger to society, torturing its victims with complete impunity while fomenting a toxic climate of fear and corruption," said Damian Ugwu, Amnesty International's Nigeria researcher. "Our research has uncovered a pattern of ruthless human rights violations where victims are arrested and tortured until they either make a 'confession' or pay officers a bribe to be released." Amnesty International has received reports from lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists and collected testimonies stating that some police officers in SARS regularly demand bribes, steal and extort money from criminal suspects and their families. "SARS officers are getting rich through their brutality. In Nigeria, it seems that torture is a lucrative business," said Ugwu. SARS detainees are held in a variety of locations, including a grim detention center in Abuja known as the 'Abattoir,' where Amnesty International found 130 detainees living in overcrowded cells. Amnesty International’s research shows that, in addition to its stated remit of tackling violent crime, SARS investigates civil matters and in some cases tortures detainees involved in contractual, business and even non-criminal disputes. Details: London: AI, 2016. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 10, 2016 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/nigeria_sars_report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Nigeria URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/nigeria_sars_report.pdf Shelf Number: 146295 Keywords: Police CorruptionPolice MisconductPolice Use of ForceTortureViolent Crime |
Author: Shadung, Mothepa Title: Tools of torture? Use of electric shock equipment among African Police Summary: orture is not an act that happens in isolation. It occurs in many contexts, and there are several techniques and means by which pain and suffering are inflicted on suspects, convicted inmates and others deprived of their liberty. This policy brief highlights how African law-enforcement agencies or government security forces potentially misuse electric shock equipment in a way that contravenes international and continental anti-torture frameworks. It then discusses reported cases of such misuse in South Africa. Finally, recommendations are made on how the use of electric shock equipment on the continent could be curbed, along with ways to build on efforts to prohibit and prevent torture. Recommendations 1 All policies and training with respect to the treatment of persons in custody should be compatible with national, regional and international human-rights standards. 2 African states should ratify the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 3 All incidents of torture, assault and death in police custody should be reported and carefully monitored as a matter of public accountability and transparency, and perpetrators prosecuted. 4 Handheld direct contact electric shock devices and body-worn electric shock devices designed for law enforcement are prone to abuse and should be prohibited. Details: Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2016. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Brief 85: Accessed December 19, 2016 at: https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PolicyBrief85.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Africa URL: https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PolicyBrief85.pdf Shelf Number: 140526 Keywords: Electric ShocksPolice Use of ForceStun GunsTasersTorture |
Author: Omega Research Foundation Title: Grasping the Nettle: Ending Europe's Trade in Execution and Torture Technology Summary: In 2006 the European Union (EU) introduced the world's first multilateral trade controls to prohibit the international trade in equipment which has no practical use other than for the purposes of executions, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and to control the trade in a range of policing and security equipment misused for such violations of human rights, 'Council Regulation (EC) No 1236/2005 of 27 June 2005 concerning trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment' (the Regulation). In January 2014 the Commission presented proposals to the Council of Member States and the European Parliament for strengthening the Regulation. Whilst the Commission proposals focused on certain long-standing limitations, they failed to effectively address a number of crucial weaknesses and loopholes in the Regulation and its attendant control regime. If these issues are not tackled directly now by EU Member States and the European Parliament, this rare opportunity to comprehensively strengthen the control regime and close loopholes exploited by unscrupulous traders will be missed. It is now time for the European Union to "grasp the nettle" and end Europe's trade in execution and torture technology for good. This report, co-authored by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation, is intended to inform this process by highlighting existing failings of the control regime through contemporary case studies and by providing realistic and workable policy solutions to these often complex technical issues. Details: London: AI, 2015. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 20, 2016 at: https://omegaresearchfoundation.org/sites/default/files/uploads/Publications/Grasping%20the%20Nettle%20Ending%20Europes%20Trade%20in%20Execution%20and%20Torture%20Technology.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: https://omegaresearchfoundation.org/sites/default/files/uploads/Publications/Grasping%20the%20Nettle%20Ending%20Europes%20Trade%20in%20Execution%20and%20Torture%20Technology.pdf Shelf Number: 147784 Keywords: ExecutionsHuman Rights AbusesTorture |
Author: Grimshaw, Roger Title: Preventing Torture in the UK: A report on the National Preventive Mechanism Summary: This report was originally completed in 2014, as part of the Centre’s work as the UK representative of the European Prison Observatory (EPO). The EPO is a pan-European body composed of civil society organisations championing the adherence to international protocols against torture and mistreatment in detention. We are publishing the report now as a contribution to the current debate over how to address deteriorating conditions and escalating violence in the UK prison systems. The report concerns the activities of the UK National Preventive Mechanism (NPM). Little known of outside specialist circles, the NPM works across the four UK nations and regions to strengthen the protection of people in detention, identify practices that could amount to ill-treatment, and ensure a consistent approach to inspection, in line with international standards. The UK NPM is one of over 50 NPMs that have been established in various United Nations member countries. The UK NPM, the report points out, has made a positive contribution in some areas. These included recommendations in relation to immigration removal and to the detention of young people in police custody, as well as work highlighting the lessons of deaths in custody. As is plain from the recent rise in prison suicide, important gains can quickly be undone. The report also documents a number of areas of ongoing concern. These include the use of restraint on children in custody that is intended to inflict deliberate pain, and the use of TASERs in prisons. The indefinite detention of asylum-seekers and the lack of mental health services for people in detention are areas of concern. The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT), which oversees the work of NPMs across the world, has called on the UK government to ‘set concrete targets to reduce the high level of imprisonment and overcrowding’. Since the CAT made this call in 2013, the situation has deteriorated markedly. People in custody are particularly vulnerable to mistreatment. While the work of inspection coordinated by the UK NPM cannot, of itself, prevent mistreatment, an independent inspection system can shine a light in the dark corners of places of detention and challenge governments and state institutions to hold to important international norms and standards. Details: London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 2016. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Briefing 17: Accessed December 23, 2016 at: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/FINAL%20CCJS_Briefing17_Dec15.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/FINAL%20CCJS_Briefing17_Dec15.pdf Shelf Number: 147813 Keywords: Human Rights AbusesPrisoner AbusesTorture |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: "Bound by Brotherhood": India's Failure to End Killings in Police Custody Summary: Indian police often torture criminal suspects to punish them, to gather information, or to coerce confessions. Despite changes in laws and guidelines and the promise of police reforms since 1997, official data shows at least 591 people died in police custody between 2010 and 2015. While police blame most of the deaths on suicide, illness, or natural causes, in many such cases family members allege that the deaths were the result of torture; allegations sometimes supported by independent investigations. Bound by Brotherhood examines the reasons for the continuing impunity for custodial deaths in India, and recommends steps that authorities should take to end it. It details the scope of the problem drawing on in-depth Human Rights Watch investigations into 17 custodial deaths that occurred between 2009 and 2015. In most of these cases, family members, with the assistance of lawyers and activists, were able to seek new inquiries, thus providing access to witness testimonies, autopsy reports, or police statements. In each of the 17 cases, the police did not follow proper arrest procedures—including documenting the arrest, notifying family members, or producing the suspect before a magistrate within 24 hours—which made the suspect more vulnerable to abuse and may have contributed to a belief by police that any mistreatment could be covered up. In most of the cases, investigating authorities, mainly the police, failed to take steps that could have helped ensure accountability for the deaths. Human Rights Watch calls on the Indian government to strictly enforce existing law and guidelines on arrest and detention and ensure that police officers implicated in torture and other ill-treatment, regardless of rank, are disciplined or prosecuted as appropriate. Details: New York: HRW, 2016. 128p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 27, 2017 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/india1216_web_0.pdf Year: 2016 Country: India URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/india1216_web_0.pdf Shelf Number: 144918 Keywords: Deadly ForceDeaths in CustodyHomicidesPolice BrutalityPolice CustodyPolice Use of ForceTorture |
Author: Omega Research Foundation Title: Compliance through pain: Electric shock equipment in South African prisons Summary: The authorization of various kinds of electric shock devices for use in South African prisons, are designed to enforce compliance through pain, incapacitation or fear of activation. However, their use has been associated with acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This policy brief produces an overview of electric shock equipment and describes known harmful medical effects associated with its use. It highlights the use and misuse of these types of equipment in correctional institutions in South Africa, and outlines how and why this equipment is in breach of local, regional and international standards. This brief is designed to raise awareness of these concerns and to provide recommendations for change in how electric shock equipment is used in South Africa. Details: Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2016. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Brief 86: Accessed February 13, 2017 at: http://dspace.africaportal.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/35856/1/PolicyBrief86.pdf?1 Year: 2016 Country: South Africa URL: http://dspace.africaportal.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/35856/1/PolicyBrief86.pdf?1 Shelf Number: 147293 Keywords: Electric ShockPunishmentStun GunsTasersTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison, Syria Summary: At Saydnaya Military Prison, the Syrian authorities have quietly and methodically organized the killing of thousands of people in their custody. Amnesty International's research shows that the murder, torture, enforced disappearance and extermination carried out at Saydnaya since 2011 have been perpetrated as part of an attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and carried out in furtherance of state policy. We therefore conclude that the Syrian authorities' violations at Saydnaya amount to crimes against humanity. Amnesty International urgently calls for an independent and impartial investigation into crimes committed at Saydnaya. Details: London: AI, 2017. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 15, 2017 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/5415/2017/en/ Year: 2017 Country: Syria URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/5415/2017/en/ Shelf Number: 145306 Keywords: DisappearancesMurderPrisonersPrisonsTorture |
Author: American University. Washington College of Law. Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Title: Protecting Children against Torture in Detention: Global Solutions for a Global Problem Summary: It is my pleasure to introduce the publication "Protecting Children Deprived of Liberty From Torture: Reflections on the Special Rapporteur on Torture's 2015 Thematic Report," which expands upon a key thematic priority explored by the Special Rapporteurship on Torture in 2015. This volume asks a wide variety of stakeholders and thought-leaders to reflect on the report on children deprived of liberty (A/HRC/28/68, available in Annex I) issued by Professor Juan Mendez during his Rapporteurship on Torture at the United Nations (UN). This publication provides additional data and analyses on the myriad of critical issues raised in the report. The publication is an effort of the Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI), a project of the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law (the Center) at American University Washington College of Law to support the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (SRT), a position that Professor Juan Mendez held from November 2010 to October 2016. The Center created the ATI in 2012 as part of its mission to develop new tools and strategies for the creative advancement of international human rights norms. During the time of Professor Mendez's mandate, the ATI expanded the strategies used by the SRT in furtherance of its mandate by supporting, monitoring, and assessing implementation of his recommendations, and providing a multi-dynamic model for effective and comprehensive country-specific and thematic follow-up, in areas such as the torture and ill-treatment of children deprived of liberty. In the aftermath of Professor Mendez's mandate, the ATI has continued its role as a foremost player in the global movement against torture, by continuing to work closely with partners from international agencies, regional organizations, governments and policy-makers, and actors from civil society and academia, in an effort to have a positive impact on the landscape of efforts to fight and prevent torture worldwide, in particular when it affects the most vulnerable and marginalized persons worldwide, such as children deprived of liberty. The 2015 report that serves as the basis for this publication came at a timely moment of growing attention to the plight of the more than one million children who are estimated to be deprived of liberty around the world. The report makes a critical contribution by framing abuses and violence commonly perpetrated against children in various guises of deprivation of liberty as torture and other ill-treatment under international law, and by analyzing the unique vulnerability of children to, and concomitant heighted obligation of States to protect children from, such acts. The report analyzes practices within juvenile, criminal justice systems, and administrative, notably immigration, detention, as well as practices in health- and social-care institutions, and the situation of children in armed conflict. It addresses existing gaps in law and policy that facilitate torture and ill-treatment against children deprived of their liberty worldwide. Constrained as it is by an UN-imposed word limit, the report is meant to be a starting-point for discussion, which the articles in this volume pick up. Following its presentation to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015, the report generated a considerable amount of interest and discussion on a range of issues explored therein. This volume seeks to contribute to and continue this discussion by creating space to elaborate on the report and the essential legal, policy, and advocacy issues raised in a variety of contexts of deprivation of liberty of children around the world. The publication chronicles part of the robust response by practitioners, advocates, and policy-makers to the cross-cutting issues explored by the report. Section I of this volume provides a broad overview of the problem of children deprived of liberty worldwide, and delves into several key questions of law and policy at the intersection of the torture and other ill-treatment and children's rights frameworks, including the potential of the report as a tool for advocacy to promote the recognition and protection of the rights of children in the context of deprivation of liberty; the unique vulnerability of children to torture and other ill-treatment; the challenge of translating standards into practice; the question of access to justice for children deprived of liberty; the role of the Council of Europe in addressing the deprivation of liberty of children; and avenues for meaningful participation of children and adolescents in the recommendations of United Nations human rights bodies in the context of deprivation of liberty. Section II addresses the unique challenges posed by the deprivation of liberty of children in conflict with the law in juvenile and criminal justice systems, featuring a call for the end of child detention as a form of punishment. It also includes a commentary on the UN Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice systems. It also analyzes the placement of children in solitary confinement, early diversion, monitoring mechanisms, and models of psychosocial intervention for children deprived of liberty. Section III delves into the situation of migrant, asylum-seeking, and refugee children, and their deprivation of liberty in these contexts. It further refers to the situation of children, including children with disabilities, in institutions and orphanages, as well as the situation of children in armed conflict, child soldiers, and the detention of children on grounds of "national security." Details: Washington, DC: Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law, American University, Washington College of Law, 2017. 442p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2017 at: http://antitorture.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Protecting_Children_From_Torture_in_Detention.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: http://antitorture.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Protecting_Children_From_Torture_in_Detention.pdf Shelf Number: 145060 Keywords: Child ProtectionHuman RightsJuvenile CorrectionsJuvenile DetentionJuvenile OffendersTortureViolence against Children |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza Summary: Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza highlights serious human rights violations by Hamas security services in the Gaza Strip and the failure of the criminal justice system to protect detainees from arbitrary arrest and torture or to punish those responsible for severe abuses. The report is based on interviews with victims and relatives of victims of abuses as well as lawyers and judges, and reviews of case files and court verdicts that included evidence of rights violations. The report documents that Hamas's Internal Security service and civil police have frequently subjected Palestinians to arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, and torture. Prosecutors and judges have ignored detainees' due process rights in such cases. With few exceptions, security services have enjoyed impunity from Hamas authorities and the courts for such abuses. The report's case studies show that victims of serious abuses include not only members of Hamas's political rival, Fatah, but also persons suspected of common crimes and detained by civil police. In the light of evidence that the Hamas authorities have executed men whom courts had convicted in part on the basis of confessions secured through torture, Abusive System calls on Hamas to immediately impose a moratorium on the death penalty. Hamas should urgently reform the criminal justice system to end warrantless arrests, ensure that detainees have prompt access to lawyers, end prosecutions of civilians in military courts, and hold accountable security officials who commit violations. Details: New York: HRW, 2012. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 8, 2017 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt1012ForUpload_0.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Palestine URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt1012ForUpload_0.pdf Shelf Number: 129669 Keywords: Death PenaltyHuman Rights AbusesTorture |
Author: Almohammad, Asaad Title: The ISIS Prison System: Its Structure, Departmental Affiliations, Processes, Conditions, and Practices of Psychological and Physical Torture Summary: This paper endeavors to explore the ISIS prison system, the arrest or abduction, interrogation and confession and total detention processes; as well as the condition of detention facilities, and the physical and psychological torture taking place within the terrorist organization's jails. Fifty-five ISIS cadres (defectors, returnees or prisoners) and 17 Syrian civilian interviewees who had been detained by ISIS were interviewed regarding their knowledge of and first experiences of incarceration in ISIS prison facilities. Their reports are compiled and dissected into three phases: 1) abduction/arrest, 2) initial processing including interrogation and confession phases, and 3) post interrogation processing. The accounts obtained from ISIS cadres, detainees and sources on the ground provided a chilling portrayal of ISIS' prison system. The detention facilities are run by different entities. These entities are namely: the Islamic police, military police, hisbah (morality police), raid squads, and Emni (security forces). Methods of detention, conditions, and torture and punishment varied across the aforementioned entities. Throughout their abduction/arrest and interrogation, detainees are subjected to a number of psychological methods of torture. These include the threat of execution, promises to receive similar fates as other tortured fellow detainees, solitary confinement, and the placement of severed heads in cages in which detainees are being held. Elaborate physical torture includes seven methods named as follows: Lashing, the Fuel, Bisat al-Rih (Flying Carpet), Shabeh (Ghost), German Chair, the Biter, and the Tire. It is hard to assess whether ISIS operatives gained actionable information or confessions as result. For many of the tortured interviewed detainees as well as the defectors, confessions meant that they would be executed by the terrorist organization. Though, detainees appear to collectively develop coping mechanisms and strategies including sharing information to avoid coerced confessions to inhibit the effectiveness of ISIS' interrogations. The use of torture serves as a reinforcement of ISIS' brand of terror. In that sense, torture is a violent method that scares civilians into submitting to ISIS' theological codes and socio-political aims. Throughout detainees' time in shared cells, they were expected to participate in sharia courses. The first course was called Redemption. The sharia lectures were often delivered by highly ranked sharia figures. The courses are carried out to indoctrinate detainees in ISIS ideology prior to their release. The last phase of the incarceration starts when the interrogation is concluded. Former detainees reported that they were not made aware beforehand of meeting sharia judges. Detainees who have been cleared of their purported offences and those who have survived ISIS' punishment are subjected to conditional release. ISIS is reported to offer former detainees to either make a ransom-like payment, or for those with skills needed by the terrorist organization to work for ISIS directorates. ISIS operatives try to coerce former detainees who can neither make the payment nor possess the skills deemed valuable by the terrorist organization to commit suicide operations. The presented findings illustrate that ISIS jailors cooperate with media operatives to use, most probably coerced, pre-execution testimony for its propaganda. The current paper also puts forth a number of names and details on ISIS operatives engaged in detaining, torturing, and extorting civilians to supply the terrorist organization with material support. Evidence of the terrorist organization's handling of hostages suggests that they were subjected to various methods of psychological and elaborate physical torture. The category of detainees that ISIS uses as sabaya or sex slaves include the Yazidis captured in Iraq, wives and daughters of captured Free Syrian Army and Jabhat al Nusrah cadres. These women are either sold or given to foreign fighters, ISIS cadres or outsiders or held in detention facilities in both Syria and Iraq. Those held in detention centers are subjected to repeated rapes by ISIS cadres who are given access to them as a reward for service. The report also demonstrates a level of sophistication in the organizational structure and governance of ISIS' prison system and interrogation processes. Based on evidence provided throughout the paper, ISIS has been observed to move its detention facilities when fearing territorial loss. This trend may be informative in reading future movements of the terrorist organization. Alongside ISIS cash reserves and ISIS leadership, the cities of Mayadin and al-Bukamal, Deir ez-Zor received a significant number of detainees and hostages. The aforementioned indicators suggest the operational significance of the two cities in taking the fight to ISIS. Details: International Center for the Study of Violent Extremists, 2017. 91p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 29, 2017 at: http://www.icsve.org/research-reports/the-isis-prison-system-its-structure-departmental-affiliations-processes-conditions-and-practices-of-psychological-and-physical-torture/ Year: 2017 Country: Syria URL: http://www.icsve.org/research-reports/the-isis-prison-system-its-structure-departmental-affiliations-processes-conditions-and-practices-of-psychological-and-physical-torture/ Shelf Number: 146928 Keywords: ISISPrisonersPrisonsTerroristTortureViolent Extremists |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Cameroon's Secret Torture Chambers: Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Fight Against Boko Haram Summary: Children abducted. Villages looted and razed to the ground. Boko Haram has been unleashing havoc in Cameroon's Far North region. In the face of rampant violence and atrocities, the Cameroonian government has rightfully responded, but with a ferocity that has shattered the lives of ordinary people. For those living in the Far North, fear of Boko Haram's attacks has now been coupled with the fear of the very government that is meant to protect them. The Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR)-Cameroon's army elite unit--and the General Directorate of External Research (DGRE) are part of the military operation fighting against Boko Haram. The victims of Cameroon's crackdown against alleged Boko Haram members, as documented by Amnesty International, in its report "Cameroon's Secret Torture Chambers", are mostly Cameroonian men between the ages of 18 and 45 from the Far North region, Muslim, Kanuri ethnic group. Some of the detainees include women, children as young as seven and people with mental or physical disabilities. The majority are arrested on the basis of little to no evidence, some were arrested simply for failing to show their ID. In the 101 cases documented, most were arrested in the Far North region and all without a warrant and without any clear explanation of why they were being arrested. In our report we documented the cases of over 100 people, including children, have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured and some were killed in undisclosed locations right under the noses of high-ranking Cameroonian military officials. Details: London: AI, 2017. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 9, 2017 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/07/cameroon-torture-chambers/ Year: 2017 Country: Cameroon URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/07/cameroon-torture-chambers/ Shelf Number: 147172 Keywords: Boko Haram Human Rights Abuses Terrorism Torture |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: "We Do Unreasonable Things Here": Torture and National Security in al-Sisi's Egypt Summary: Torture has long been endemic in Egypt's law enforcement system. Since 2013, when Egypt's military removed the country's former president, Mohamed Morsy, the Interior Ministry's regular police and National Security Agency have used torture on a systematic and widespread basis against perceived dissidents to force them to confess or divulge information or to punish them. "We Do Unreasonable Things Here": Torture and National Security in al-Sisi's Egypt, is based on interviews with former detainees tortured between 2014 and 2016. The report shows how police and National Security officers use nearly identical methods of torture in different parts of the country. In an environment defined by emergency rule, law enforcement officers in Egypt appear to enjoy a free hand to torture and mistreat detainees as they wish. Their actions are almost never questioned by the judges and prosecutors who should be checking such behavior. The report reiterates the conclusion reached by many previous reports by Human Rights Watch and other organizations, going back several decades, that the legal framework criminalizing torture in Egypt remains inadequate and falls far short of Egypt's basic obligations under international law, allowing abusive officers to escape justice. The report recommends that Egypt urgently establish a special prosecutor or inspector general's office to investigate and prosecute those responsible for torture. Absent credible national efforts to confront the torture epidemic, United Nations member states should investigate and, if appropriate, charge Egyptian officers and officials responsible for torture under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Details: New York: HRW, 2017. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2017 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/egypt0917_web.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Egypt URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/egypt0917_web.pdf Shelf Number: 147329 Keywords: Human Rights AbuseNational SecurityPolice BrutalityTorture |
Author: Victorian Ombudsman Title: Implementing OPCAT in Victoria: report and inspection of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre Summary: 1. This report considers the practical implications of implementing the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in Victoria. It sets out: - practical changes needed to implement the OPCAT protocol - the results of a pilot OPCAT-style inspection at Victoria's main women's prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (DPFC). 2. OPCAT is an international human rights treaty that aims to prevent abuse of people in detention by opening places where people are deprived of liberty - prisons, police cells, psychiatric hospitals and so on - to regular independent inspections by: - a United Nations (UN) committee of international experts - local inspection bodies called National Preventative Mechanisms (NPMs). 3. In February 2017, the Commonwealth Government announced that Australia will ratify OPCAT by the end of 2017. 4. In Victoria, this means the Victorian Government will need to open places of detention to the UN committee from 2018. The Victorian Government will have three years to 'designate' or appoint one or more local NPMs to conduct regular inspections. 5. Implementing OPCAT will require changes. While Victoria already has human rights laws and monitoring bodies, OPCAT will introduce more rigorous standards for inspecting places of detention. 6. On 31 March 2017, the Ombudsman notified the Attorney-General, the Minister for Corrections and the Secretary of the Department of Justice and Regulation of her intention to conduct an 'own motion' investigation into the conditions in a custodial facility, with a view to contributing to the debate about OPCAT's implementation in Victoria. 7. The investigation mapped places of detention in Victoria, how they are monitored, and what needs to change to implement OPCAT. 8. The investigation also tested how OPCAT inspections work in practice by conducting a pilot inspection at DPFC using OPCAT standards where possible. Details: Melbourne: Victorian Ombudsman, 2017. 136p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 18, 2018 at: https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/432871e4-5653-4830-99be-8bb96c09b348 Year: 2017 Country: Australia URL: https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/432871e4-5653-4830-99be-8bb96c09b348 Shelf Number: 148864 Keywords: Female InmatesPrisonsPunishmentTortureWomen Prisoners |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Crackdown on Dissent: Brutality, Torture, and Political Persecution in Venezuela Summary: In April 2017, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Venezuela in response to the government-controlled Supreme Court's attempt to usurp the powers of the country's legislative branch. The protests quickly spread throughout the country and continued for months, fueled by widespread discontent with the government's authoritarian practices and the humanitarian crisis that has devastated the country under President Nicolas Maduro's watch. The government responded with widespread and systematic violence against anti-government protesters and detainees, as well as systematic denial of detainees' due process rights. While it was not the first crackdown on dissent under Maduro, the scope and severity of the repression in 2017 reached levels unseen in Venezuela in recent memory. Crackdown on Dissent documents 88 cases of abuse involving at least 314 victims committed by different security forces in multiple locations, including in closed environments like military installations, between April and September 2017. The cases include instances of excessive force on the streets; arbitrary detention, including of individuals pulled from their homes or arrested in incidents unrelated to the demonstrations; and physical abuse of detainees ranging from severe beatings to torture involving electric shocks, asphyxiation, and other techniques. There is no indication that Venezuelan high-level officials-including those who knew or should have known about the abuses- have taken any steps to prevent and punish violations. Governments around the world have spoken out about the crackdown on peaceful expression and protest in Venezuela. It is urgent that they redouble multilateral pressure on the Venezuelan government to release people arbitrarily detained, drop politicallymotivated prosecutions, and hold accountable those responsible for abuses. Details: New York; HRW, 2017. 91p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 13, 2018 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/venezuela1117web_0.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Venezuela URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/venezuela1117web_0.pdf Shelf Number: 149117 Keywords: Arbitrary DetentionDemonstrationsHuman Rights AbusesPersecutionProtest MovementsTorture |
Author: American University. Washington College of Law. Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Title: Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice Summary: I once asked a Guatemalan public defender how she knew when a woman's murder was the result of gender-based violence and not a simple homicide. She showed me several pictures of women's half or fully naked bodies exhibiting obvious signs of torture, mutilation, and violent sexual assault prior to their deaths. She said that was how women's bodies were usually found. That was the difference between gender-based violence and simple homicide. Women's bodies are often used as instruments to send messages of terror, or as instruments of pleasure, or as instruments of experimentation. In all of these cases, gender-based violence is recognizable because of its profound denial of personhood. The common thread running through the collection of articles presented in this publication is that women's bodies are still looked at and treated as instruments, or means to achieving a goal, rather than as autonomous individuals. Killing a body to end a life is different than killing a body to send a signal. In both cases, the person is refused her or his basic right to life, but in the latter, the person is a mark, a sign for others to see and use. The first chapter of this volume elaborates on the notion of gender-based violence, the need to incorporate a gender perspective in legal systems in general, and the responsibilities of States with regard to those at the margins of legal protections. Although gender-based violence has existed since the beginning of time, it has only entered the realm of human rights as a specific issue within the last decades. International human rights law, traditionally, has not protected women from the harms they have suffered as a result of being women. As with the rest of legal and political institutions, women have had to struggle for their experiences to be recognized. The invisibility of women's harms has also included a lack of reparations with a gender perspective; if the suffering women have endured is not understood, its consequences cannot be adequately addressed. Owing to the inclusion of a gender perspective, human rights treaty bodies have started to include reparations that put women, and not only their families or communities, at the center of their analyses. The new trends in international human rights are welcome by the international community, but they have not necessarily translated into substantive protection of women's and girl's rights, and States must work to ensure that they carry through with their obligations to investigate incidents of gender-based violence and provide redress for victims. Chapter two examines specific forms of violence that women and girls experience throughout the world, including honor killings, female genital mutilation, pregnancy and virginity testing, and the use of forced contraception and addresses the need to advance the humanization of women's rights. States have been reluctant to introduce laws opposing these forms of violence on grounds that certain practices are based on culture or religion. Although international human rights law protects the right to freedom of religion, sexual-based violence cannot be excused on religious grounds, and it has taken too long for laws to begin to act against practices that constitute torture or ill-treatment. The chapter invites readers to view women as the protagonists of human rights standards rather than continually framing men as the central figures of such rights; the standard of protection cannot always be viewed through the lens of male actors. The chapter then moves beyond the gender perspective as a tool to protect women and analyzes the need for the specific recognition of harms suffered by trans and intersex individuals. Perhaps one of the most important challenges that legal systems face is the deconstruction of the male-female binary, and international human rights is not shielded from this challenge. The chapter reinforces the need for human rights to go beyond the binary with regard to the protection of individuals by analyzing how torture and ill-treatment has played an intricate role in the lives of a whole category of individuals. For many trans and intersex persons, torture and ill-treatment are a constant in their lives and this chapter invites us to better understand what torture and ill-treatment means from the perspective of these individuals. The third chapter focuses specifically on deprivation of liberty, and the torture and ill-treatment that often take place under custodial settings. Vulnerability increases in detention facilities, even when the detention is considered lawful. In the cases of LGBTI individuals, who are at greater risk of being in contact with the criminal justice system, once in custodial settings they are subject to brutality and abuse by prison authorities and fellow inmates. This violence is usually underreported and tends to be ignored by State officials because of the underlying assumption that people of diverse sexualities "deserve punishment" for not conforming to traditional gender roles. For custodial settings to cease being places of torture and ill-treatment for LGBTI individuals, violence must be understood from a gender and sexuality perspective. For prison officials, this means not placing trans individuals, whose legal names may not correspond to the gender with which they identify, in solitary confinement because they are unsure of where to house them-it simply replaces one form of violence with another form. The chapter also addresses how criminal justice systems are structured around the idea of a male detainee. Incarcerated women-and their visitors-often endure invasive and humiliating searches, where the women are forced to undress in front of unqualified male officers who may also perform unnecessary body cavity searches. These techniques are not used with the legitimate purpose of ensuring safety within the detention facility, but rather to dehumanize and assert power over the already powerless. This is even more serious when it affects young girls. Criminal justice systems are also not structured with families in mind; "ideal perpetrators" are not only male but also single and with no dependents. Women detainees tend to be mothers with children and usually in a position of vulnerability with nobody to care for their children. In these conditions, it is not uncommon to find detention facilities and jails where children live with their mothers for some time, increasing the incarcerated population to include children, who at a young age, develop their first connections with the world through the prism of a detention facility. A gender perspective requires legal frameworks that look at detained persons not as isolated beings, but as individuals with dependents and family connections. Chapter four considers torture and ill-treatment within the context of women's health care and reproductive rights. Women face mistreatment when seeking maternal health care, undergo forced sterilizations, can face criminal repercussions for self-inducing abortions, and are often denied safe and legal abortion services. It is not uncommon for women in custodial settings to deliver their babies while in shackles, and this chapter explores how the lack of adequate maternal health care can amount to ill-treatment or torture. Depriving women of their right to reproductive self-determination is an additional example of how States have long-ignored the needs of women as citizens. A traditional concept of torture does not allow for an understanding of the common experiences of women, and this chapter expands on the idea that torture and ill-treatment not only occur in situations where government actors themselves are the perpetrators of harm, but when the government allows harms to occur out of a complete disregard for women's bodies. To understand how the lack of adequate maternal care or reproductive rights can be so severe that it amounts to ill-treatment and even torture, one simply has to compare the experiences of women-be it forced sterilization, lack of access to painkillers during childbirth, or lack of abortion regulations-with international human rights standards, and it becomes clear that often ill-treatment, torture, and the experiences of women are all the same. In that sense, this volume expands on the important and influential report by the former Special Rapporteur on Torture on the issue of women and torture. Restrictions on reproduction have long been used to control women's bodies and entire populations, and legal systems, including the norms, standards, and rules of international law, have denied women from seeing their harms recognized as such. Rape was not considered torture until recently; it was not worth the time of special war crime tribunals or worth the time of international treaty bodies. But this is changing, and this publication is a testament to that change. Seeing torture as a gendered practice requires a specific gaze that for most people is a learned process. Only recently have our legal systems started viewing and treating women as individuals. Only recently have legal systems understood and given a name to women's specific harms. In the case of LGBTI persons, those strides are still in their infancy. Despite how widespread and deep-rooted violence against women has been for centuries, torture and ill-treatment were primarily viewed and analyzed through a "male as the main victim" lens. This publication takes a formidable step toward debunking the myth of heterosexual cisgender men as exclusive victims and reinforces the need to integrate women's rights and sexuality perspectives into the mainstream of international human rights. Details: Washington, DC: The Center, 2018. 344p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2018 at: https://www.wcl.american.edu/impact/initiatives-programs/center/documents/gender-perspectives-on-torture/ Year: 2018 Country: International URL: https://www.wcl.american.edu/impact/initiatives-programs/center/documents/gender-perspectives-on-torture/ Shelf Number: 149650 Keywords: Female Genital MutilationGender-Based ViolenceHonor-Based ViolenceHuman Rights AbusesTortureViolence Against Women, Girls |
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. Intelligence and Security Committee Title: Detainee Mistreatment and Rendition: 2001-2010 Summary: Immediately following 9/11, there were real concerns that Al Qaida may have been planning a terrorist attack on the UK of similar magnitude. Disrupting such an attack was the UK Security and Intelligence Agencies' absolute operational imperative, and assisting the US in interviews of US-held detainees might give the UK Agencies access to critical intelligence. Throughout 2002, 2003 and into 2004, UK personnel from SIS, MI5 and MOD - including the Armed Forces - participated in interviews of detainees held (primarily) by US detaining authorities at locations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at Guantanamo Bay. Neither the Agencies nor Defence Intelligence were the detaining authorities at any point. Sometimes the deployed personnel conducted their own interviews, sometimes they interviewed jointly with US interrogators and sometimes they simply observed interviews conducted by others (or passed questions to those interviewing). It is not possible to determine the exact number of detainee interviews in which UK personnel were involved, but we estimate it to be somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000. This Report details the findings of the Intelligence and Security Committee's Inquiry into the actions of the UK Agencies and Defence Intelligence in respect of detainees and also rendition. We have taken 50 hours of oral evidence, reviewed 30,000 original documents and a further 10,000 documents which we requested, and 30,000 staff hours have been devoted to this Inquiry. We are very grateful to some of the former detainees for talking to us, and to three former members of staff who came forward of their own volition to act as witnesses. We reached the point in our Inquiry where we had covered the breadth of the issues but needed to examine certain matters in detail, which could only be done by taking evidence from those who had been on the ground at the time. We have been denied that access. Restrictions were imposed by the Prime Minister on grounds of seniority and involvement in proceedings which reduced our list of potential witnesses to just four. Furthermore, even those individuals would not be allowed to give evidence on specific cases. The Committee was adamant that if the Inquiry was to be thorough and be in a position to reach properly considered and fair views about the facts, then we must hear from those officers who were involved at the time. The terms and conditions imposed were such that we would be unable to conduct an authoritative Inquiry and produce a credible Report. The Committee has therefore concluded - reluctantly - that it must draw a line under the Inquiry. This is regrettable. Nevertheless, we believe that the Inquiry had - up to the point we were able to take it - progressed matters significantly. Crucially, we had uncovered new material which had not been presented to any previous inquiry or review - including that begun by Sir Peter Gibson. The Committee has therefore decided that what we have found to date must be put into the public domain, as the next step towards transparency and an understanding of what took place. This Report seeks to do just that. It is not, and must not be taken to be, a definitive account. Where possible, we give a figure for the total number of cases that we are aware of for each of the areas of concern. These numbers rely on the documentary evidence we have seen, and our interpretation of that evidence. However, formal records are lacking for at least some of the period of concern; this lack of a comprehensive and reliable evidence base makes definitive figures impossible. Any conclusions drawn are necessarily provisional; had the further witness evidence we sought been made available to us, and had we therefore continued the Inquiry beyond this point, we may have differently categorised some of the cases of concern, and taken a different standpoint. This Report is therefore our account of what we have been able to find to date, and in some cases an indication of what we believe necessitates further exploration. Details: London: Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, 2018. 151p. Source: Internet Resource: HC 1113: Accessed July 25, 2018 at: https://fas.org/irp/world/uk/isc-detainee.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://fas.org/irp/world/uk/isc-detainee.pdf Shelf Number: 150914 Keywords: Cruel and Inhuman Punishment Detention of Persons Prisoner Maltreatment Terrorists Torture |
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. Intelligence and Security Committee Title: Detainee Mistreatment and Rendition: Current Issues Summary: In 2010, the Government published guidance on the interviewing of detainees overseas and the exchange of intelligence on detainees in order to ensure that our Security and Intelligence Agencies are not, and will not be, involved in torture or mistreatment in the name of the UK. That guidance has now been in operation for over seven years and the Committee therefore considered it essential to investigate how it is being used. This Report considers the adequacy of the policy, guidance and structures currently in place - and whether similar guidance is needed on rendition. In terms of current practices, we also consider whether the Agencies are now in a position where they would be able to deal with events requiring an extensive and sudden change to their focus and working practices, such as happened after 9/11. Together with this Report we are also publishing the Committee's March 2010 Report on the draft Consolidated Guidance, placing it in the public domain for the first time. While some of the recommendations have subsequently been overtaken, the report as a whole remains relevant to the continuing debate. We therefore regard it as essential that the Report is placed on the public record. Use of the Consolidated Guidance - From the evidence we have seen, the Consolidated Guidance has now been applied by the Agencies and MOD on average 576 times per year, and in a total of 2,304 cases from 2013 to 2016. - We sought to establish how many of the 2,304 cases where the Consolidated Guidance was applied were escalated to Ministers, i.e. in how many cases the Agencies and MOD considered there was a serious risk of mistreatment. It has proved difficult to establish any exact figures: this is a matter on which we would expect full information to be kept in future. - The Committee reviewed a sample of cases from SIS and MI5. We found no instances where they had deliberately acted in violation of the Consolidated Guidance. The cases we examined all illustrated the challenges of implementing the Guidance - particularly when working through partners - and the considerations undertaken by the Agencies. We saw that officers actively monitored whether assurances were being adhered to, escalating concerns and suspending co-operation when needed, and that potential breaches are raised in real time and acted upon as a matter of urgency. Details: London: Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, 2018. 185p. Source: Internet Resource: HC 1114: Accessed July 25, 2018 at: https://fas.org/irp/world/uk/isc-detainee2.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://fas.org/irp/world/uk/isc-detainee2.pdf Shelf Number: 150915 Keywords: Cruel and Inhuman Punishment Detention of Persons Prisoner Maltreatment Terrorists Torture |
Author: Bessler, John D Title: The Abolitionist Movement Comes of Age: From Capital Punishment as a Lawful Sanction to a Peremptory, International Law Norm Barring Executions Summary: The anti-death penalty movement is rooted in the Enlightenment, dating back to the publication of the Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria's treatise, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764). That book, later translated into English as An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1767), has inspired anti-death penalty advocacy for more than 250 years. This Article traces the development of the abolitionist movement since Beccaria's time. In particular, it highlights how the debate over capital punishment has shifted from one focused primarily on the severity of monarchical punishments, to deterrence, to one framed by the concept of universal human rights, including the right to life, human dignity, and the right to be free from torture and cruel and inhuman punishments. The Article describes the humble origins of the anti-death penalty movement and it discusses how that movement, which has seen many successes and setbacks, is now an international campaign led by multiple NGOs and scores of anti-death penalty activists. After looking at the history of the movement and where it has already been, the Article examines where the anti-death penalty movement is likely heading in the years to come. It concludes that, in light of the immutable characteristics of death sentences and executions, the death penalty should be classified under the rubric of torture. While capital punishment was once universally accepted as a lawful sanction, the majority of the world's nations no longer permit executions. The Article explores the cruel, inhuman, and torturous characteristics of the death penalty, and it encourages 21st-century opponents of capital punishment to continue their struggle to abolish the punishment of death. Details: University of Baltimore, 2018. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 28, 2018 at:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3159207 Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3159207 Shelf Number: 153124 Keywords: Capital Punishment Cruel and Inhuman Punishment Death Penalty Death Sentence Execution Punishment Torture |
Author: Thoms, Oskar Timo Title: Human Rights Change, Politics of Law and Order, and Targeting of Torture Summary: Human rights have improved but not everywhere and for everyone. Scholarship has focused on domestic conditions under which they improve but we know little about how they affect different groups. Whose rights are being protected? Under what conditions? I compare dissidents and criminals as targets of human rights violations specifically torture. I also examine the effectiveness of human rights protections under conditions of public insecurity due to crime as opposed to political or civil conflict or terrorism. I argue that mobilization and judicial enforcement are less effective in the face of public insecurity, and criminals benefit less than dissidents because courts provide less accountability for violations of those accused of crimes. Human rights treaties that depend on these mechanisms thus primarily benefit dissidents. My statistical analysis supports this argument and directly addresses concerns about measurement bias. The key finding is that commitment to the Convention against Torture enhances judicial protection only for dissidents. Details: Vancouver, Canada: Simon Fraser University, School for International Studies, 2018. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 28, 2019 at: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/18289 Year: 2018 Country: International URL: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/18289 Shelf Number: 156074 Keywords: Dissidents Human Rights Human Rights Abuses Human Rights Violations Judicial Protection Torture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Hunger for Justice: Crimes Against Humanity in Venezuela Summary: Venezuela has been experiencing a profound human rights crisis for several years. Massive violations of civil, political, economic and social rights have been reflected in shortages of and lack of access to food and medicines, a deterioration in health services, as well as violence and political repression by the state. As a result at least 3.4 million people have been forced to flee the country since 2015. In this context, social protest became the main and most visible way in which people could respond and channel their discontent. Since 2014, there have been several cycles of mass demonstrations, interspersed with spontaneous protests to demand a range of rights. In February 2014, the first mass protests took place both against and in support of the government of Nicolas Maduro, who had come to power a year earlier. During the first months of demonstrations, Amnesty International documented the excessive use of force, torture and politically motivated arbitrary detentions and highlighted the use of derogatory language to stigmatize anti-government protesters. By the end of these protests, 43 people had been killed, including 10 public officials. A year later, the organization expressed concern at the high level of impunity in relation to possible human rights violations committed during those months. Between April and July 2017, there was a new wave of social conflict in which more than 120 people were killed, mostly at the hands of the state and groups of armed pro-government civilians ("collectives"). At least 1,958 people were injured as a result of the systematic and widespread use of excessive, and often intentionally lethal, force against protesters. In addition, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), more than 5,000 people were reported to have been detained. One year after the protests, to Amnesty International's knowledge, in only one case had judicial proceedings in relation to these deaths been opened against a member of the Bolivarian National Guard (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana, GNB). While 2018 was not characterized by mass protests, it nevertheless saw the largest number of spontaneous protests throughout the country (more than 12,000 during the year) around demands for economic and social rights, due to the serious deterioration in living standards. It was in this context that, at the beginning of 2019, thousands of people took to the streets to demand a change of government. During January, numerous demonstrations were reported, many of them in low-income areas where the demand for political change had not been so pronounced up to that point. From 21 to 25 January 2019, in a total of 12 of the country's 23 states, at least 47 people died in the context of the protests, all of them as a result of gunshot wounds. Reports indicated that, of these 47 people, at least 39 were killed by members of state forces or of third parties acting with their acquiescence during demonstrations (33 and six respectively). Eleven were reportedly victims of targeted extrajudicial executions, 24 reportedly died in the context of demonstrations and 11 reportedly during looting. According to press reports, one member of the security forces also died during these protests. During these five days, more than 900 people were arbitrarily detained in practically every state in the country. It is estimated that 770 of these arbitrary detentions took place in just one day, 23 January, the date on which demonstrations were held throughout the country. Children and teenagers were among those detained. Amnesty International has documented the policy of politically motivated repression implemented by the government of Nicolas Maduro since 2014. As part of this, between 31 January and 17 February 2019, an Amnesty International team visited Venezuela to carry out research into crimes under international law and serious human rights violations committed in the context of the protests. During this visit, a total of six extrajudicial executions were documented, three cases of excessive use of force and six arbitrary detentions, as well as cover-ups and a failure to investigate several of these violations. The 15 cases detailed in this report are representative of a broader pattern of possible human rights violations that took place in January 2019. The extrajudicial executions documented in different parts of the country illustrate a recurring pattern. In all cases, the victims were young men who were critical of the government, or perceived as such by the authorities, from low-income areas and whose participation in the protests had been visible or whose criticisms had gone viral on social media. That is, they were targeted executions based on the profile of the victims. All died as a result of gunshot wounds to the chest and were executed while in the custody of the authorities. Some were tortured before they were killed. After executing them, the authorities publicly depicted them as criminals who had died in confrontations and initiated criminal investigations for "resisting authority" ("resistencia a la autoridad"). In all six cases, the crime scene was tampered with in order to cover up the facts, as were the bodies of the victims. The police force that carried out these executions was the Bolivarian National Police (Policia Nacional Bolivariana, PNB), mainly through its Special Actions Force (Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales, FAES). Regarding the use of force, Amnesty International's research confirmed the disproportionate and unnecessary use of lethal force against demonstrators. In the documented cases, the GNB and the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana, GNB) were identified as the bodies responsible for the deaths. For example, Alixon Pisani was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest sustained when a PNB official riding on the back of a motorcycle fired indiscriminately on a protest in Catia (Caracas). According to witnesses, the demonstrators had blocked the street with burning objects and were not armed. Only in a few cases had Molotov cocktails and stones been thrown at the security forces. The cases of detention illustrate a pattern of arbitrary mass arrests followed by ill-treatment of detainees by government forces in order to punish people for taking part in the protests. Researchers also found that judicial guarantees were flouted and that there was interference with principle of judicial independence. For example, in the cases of four teenagers (all under 18) detained in the state of Yaracuy, none was brought before a judge within the legal time limit and they were held for several days despite the absence of sufficient evidence to justify their detention. Days later, the supervising judge (juez de control) dealing with their case complained on social media that her decision regarding the minors had been the result of pressure and the death threats from the Executive branch. Finally, according to the information received from relatives and lawyers, in all the documented cases of violation of the right to life and physical integrity, the official investigations have been neither impartial or thorough and the families have received only minimal information about them. In addition, several relatives were harassed by public officials because of the victims' involvement in the protests. Analysis of these violations shows that in January 2019, multiple acts of violence were committed consistently in all states and with a high degree of coordination between the security forces at the national and state levels. The authorities right up to the highest level, including Nicolas Maduro, have at the very least tolerated such attacks. Amnesty International's research shows that these human rights violations were not random, but were part of a previously planned attack directed against a distinct part of the civilian population: government opponents, or those perceived as such by the government, who were at times specifically identified as targets by the attackers. In addition, these incidents were public and widely known; in other words, the authorities at the highest level knew what was happening. Details: London: Author, 2019. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 6, 2019 at: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR5302222019ENGLISH.PDF Year: 2019 Country: Venezuela URL: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR5302222019ENGLISH.PDF Shelf Number: 156236 Keywords: Arbitrary DetentionsExecutionsExtrajudicial ExecutionsHuman Rights AbusesProtests and DemonstrationsTortureUse of Force |
Author: Roehm, Scott Title: Deprivation and Despair: The Crisis of Medical Care at Guantanamo Summary: From the inception more than 17 years ago of the Guantanamo Bay detention center located on the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, senior detention facility personnel have consistently lauded the quality of medical care provided to detainees there. For example, in 2005, Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo's then-commander said the care was "as good as or better than anything we would offer our own soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines." In 2011, a Navy nurse and then deputy command surgeon for JTF Guantanamo made a similar claim: "The standard of care here is the best possible standard of care (the detainees) could get." In late 2017, Guantanamo's senior medical officer again echoed those sentiments: "Detainees receive timely, compassionate, quality healthcare...(which is)...comparable to that afforded our active duty service members on island." There have been many more such assertions in the intervening years and since. Following an in-depth review of publicly available information related to medical care at Guantanamo - both past and present - as well as consultations with independent civilian medical experts and detainees' lawyers, the Center for Victims of Torture and Physicians for Human Rights have determined that none of those assertions is accurate. To the contrary, notwithstanding Guantanamo's general inaccessibility to independent civilian medical professionals, over the years a handful of them have managed to access detainees, review medical records, and interface with Guantanamo's medical care system to a degree sufficient to document a host of systemic and longstanding deficiencies in care. These include: - Medical needs are subordinated to security functions. For example, prosecutors in a military commission case told the judge explicitly that the commander of Guantanamo's detention operations is free to disregard recommendations of Guantanamo's senior medical officer. - Detainees' medical records are devoid of physical and psychological trauma histories. This is largely a function of medical professionals' inability or unwillingness to ask detainees about torture or other traumatic experiences during their time in the CIA's rendition, detention, and interrogation program, or otherwise with respect to interrogations by U.S. forces - which has led to misdiagnoses and improper treatment. -In large part due to a history of medical complicity in torture, many detainees distrust military medical professionals which has led repeatedly to detainees reasonably refusing care that they need. Guantanamo officials withhold from detainees their own medical records, including through improper classification. -Both expertise and equipment are increasingly insufficient to address detainees' health needs. For example, a military cardiologist concluded that an obese detainee required testing for coronary artery disease, but that Guantanamo did not have the "means to test" him, and so the testing was not performed. With regard to mental health, effective torture rehabilitation services are not, and cannot be made, available at Guantanamo. - Detainees have been subjected to neglect. One detainee urgently required surgery for a condition he disclosed to Guantanamo medical personnel in 2007 - and they diagnosed independently in 2010 - but he did not receive surgery until 2018 and appears permanently damaged as a result. - Military medical professionals rotate rapidly in and out of Guantanamo, which has caused discontinuity of care. For example, one detainee recently had three primary care physicians in the course of three months. - Detainees' access to medical care and, in some cases, their exposure to medical harm, turn substantially on their involvement in litigation. For example, it appears extremely difficult, if not impossible, for detainees who are not in active litigation to access independent civilian medical professionals, and for those who are to address a medical need that is not related to the litigation. For detainees charged before the military commissions, prosecution interests have superseded medical interests, as with a detainee who was forced to attend court proceedings on a gurney writhing in pain while recovering from surgery. These deficiencies are exacerbated by - and in some cases a direct result of - the damage that the men have endured, and continue to endure, from torture and prolonged indefinite detention. It is long past time that the medical care deficiencies this report describes were acknowledged and addressed. Systemic change is necessary; these are not problems that well- intentioned military medical professionals - of which no doubt there are many, working now in an untenable environment - can resolve absent structural, operational, and cultural reform. Nor, in many respects, are they problems that can be fully resolved as long as the detention facility remains open. Guantanamo should be closed. Unless and until that happens, the Center for Victims of Torture and Physicians for Human Rights call upon Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary to adopt a series of recommendations aimed at meaningfully improving the status quo. These include, but are not limited to: lifting the legal ban on transferring detainees to the United States and mandating such transfers when detainees present with medical conditions that cannot be adequately evaluated and treated at Guantanamo; ensuring detainees have timely access to all of their medical records upon request while otherwise maintaining confidentiality of those records (especially with regard to access by prosecutors); and allowing meaningful and regular access to Guantanamo by civilian medical experts, including permitting such experts to evaluate detainees in an appropriate setting. If the United States declines to take the steps this report recommends, complex medical conditions that cannot be managed at Guantanamo should be expected to accelerate in frequency and escalate in severity. Details: New York: Physicians for Human Rights and The Center for Victims of Torture, 2019. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 19, 2019 at: https://phr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PHR_CVT-Guantanamo-medical-crisis-report-June-2019-1.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://phr.org/our-work/resources/deprivation-and-despair/ Shelf Number: 156815 Keywords: DetaineeDetentionGuantanamoHuman Rights AbusesMedical CarePrison ConditionPrisonersTorture |
Author: Bhui, Hindpal Singh Title: HMIP Detention Monitoring Methodology: A Briefing Paper Summary: This briefing paper is one of a series written as part of an ESRC-IAA funded project on immigration detention and human rights-based monitoring of detention in Greece and Turkey. The project initially looked at these issues in four countries - Greece, Turkey, Hungary and Italy (Bhui, Bosworth and Fili, 2018). This paper outlines the methodology used by HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), which inspects places of confinement in the UK, including prisons, police and court custody, and military detention. HMIP has been routinely monitoring immigration detention since 2004 (see Bhui 2017). As well as sites of immigration detention HMIP inspects the process of removal by accompanying flights to destination countries. HMIP, which was established in its modern form in 1982, is part of the UK National Preventive Mechanism (NPM). As such, under the terms of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), it has functional independence and a separate budget. It appoints its own staff and designs its own methodology. HMIP may request information necessary to perform its role, such as numbers of people detained and should be kept informed of locations of all sites of detention. During inspection visits, team members have unhindered, private access to detainees and to staff. Reports of the inspections are usually published within 3-4 months and an annual report is laid before Parliament. Details: Oxford: Economic and Resource Council (ESRC)-IAA, 2018. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 18, 2019 at: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/hmip_briefing_paper.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://canadaopcatproject.ca/2018/11/16/new-publication-monitoring-immigration/ Shelf Number: 157015 Keywords: Human Rights Immigration Detainees Immigration Detention Incarceration Prison Torture |