Earlier today, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) published a remarkable report that presents medical documentation of former detainees' claims that they endured torture at the hands of US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay.
The landmark report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact, is a searing indictment of the US government's role in the torture of these eleven men. PHR's work is already receiving significant media coverage, including a feature story by the Associated Press. As stated in the preface to the report by Maj. General Antonio Taguba, who led the US Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal:
[T]here is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.
Although high-ranking administration officials have previously tried to downplay the abusive conditions in US detainment facilities, and argued that cases of mistreatment were anomalies, the results of PHR's work clearly discredits such claims.
Farnoosh Hashemian, MPH, PHR Research Associate and lead author of the report said:
These poignant case studies focus on the profound and lasting consequences of cruelty inflicted by US personnel. The detainees suffer permanent hearing loss, persistent and debilitating pain in limbs and joints, major depressive disorder, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders, such as panic attacks.
PHR calls on the US government to fully investigate and hold accountable those who participated in sanctioning a policy of torture; to publicly apologize to the men abused in their custody; and to provide remedies to survivors, including medical and psychological treatment.
Thank you for your generous support, which makes PHR's critical work possible.
To download the full report and take action, please visit http://brokenlives.info.
A report by PHR and Human Rights First demonstrates that "enhanced" interrogation techniques are likely to cause "severe" or "serious" physical and mental harm to detainees. The report closely examines the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) and other US laws, informed by medical and psychological literature. It shows that the authorization of these enhanced interrogation techniques, whether practiced alone or in combination, may constitute torture and/or cruel and inhuman treatment and consequently place interrogators at serious legal risk of prosecution for war crimes and other violations.
http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/reports/leave-no-marks.pdf
OMCT Publishes First Volume of the OMCT Handbook Series
Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights:
A Practitioner’s Handbook
by Uğur Erdal & Hasan Bakırcı
with a Preface by Sir Nigel Rodley
OMCT 2006 / ISBN 2-88477-110-7 / 374 pp / paperback / 40€
with Companion CD-Rom (in English & Russian)
The Book
This Practitioner’s Handbook is a publication of OMCT’s State Compliance Programme. Its purpose is to provide practical advice to persons wishing to bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. As such, the Handbook contains an accessible but comprehensive treatment of the procedure and practice of the European Court, as well as a detailed analysis of the Court’s jurisprudence in the area of torture and ill-treatment. Because this is an article-specific book, all areas of substance and procedure are discussed in the specific context of the Court’s Article 3 jurisprudence and special emphasis has been placed on providing strategic litigation advice in relation to matters which may pose particular challenges to Article 3 litigants. The Court’s evidential rules, and in particular, the “establishment of facts” and the shifting of the burden of proof in ill-treatment cases, are given careful attention. The meaning and scope of the terms “torture” and “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” are dealt with extensively, as is the Court’s practice in the area of interim measures, friendly settlement, and just satisfaction. Reference materials such as the Court’s Practice Directions, the Rules of Court, pleadings submitted in precedent cases, a model application and introductory letter based on hypothetical ill-treatment scenarios, have been included in the appendices and Textboxes.
This book will shortly be available in French, Russian and Turkish.