Hundreds of doctors belonging to World Medical Association are demanding its Israeli president, Dr. Yoram Blachar, be dismissed as Israeli physicians 'form part of a system in which detainees are tortured'.
A petition demanding the dismissal of Dr. Yoram Blachar as head of the World Medical Association asserts that Israeli doctors turn a blind eye to the involvement of physicians in torture.
According to a report published in British newspaper The Guardian, more than 700 doctors from 43 countries have signed the letter in question, which bases the demand on an Amnesty International decision from 1996 which determined that Israeli doctors working with security forces "form part of a system in which detainees are tortured, ill-treated and humiliated in ways that place prison medical practice in conflict with medical ethics."
Read More At YNet
Monday, June 29, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
A Mother’s Nightmare: A Senegalese Woman Struggles to Save Her Daughters
Having survived female genital mutilation when she was three years old in Senegal, Fatoumata does not want her four U.S.-born daughters to face the same violence. But as an undocumented immigrant at risk of deportation, the past Fatoumata fought to leave behind might be catching up to her children.
Fatoumata, who requested that her last name be withheld, is fighting her case in U.S. immigration courts. If her application for political asylum is denied, then she faces the unenviable dilemma of either separating from her children, who have U.S. citizenship, or moving them back to Senegal where her family is demanding her daughters undergo the traditional genital cutting.
Read More At The Indypendent
Fatoumata, who requested that her last name be withheld, is fighting her case in U.S. immigration courts. If her application for political asylum is denied, then she faces the unenviable dilemma of either separating from her children, who have U.S. citizenship, or moving them back to Senegal where her family is demanding her daughters undergo the traditional genital cutting.
Read More At The Indypendent
Pakistan’s ‘Invisible Refugees’ Burden Cities
Pakistan is experiencing its worst refugee crisis since partition from India in 1947, and while the world may be familiar with the tent camps that have rolled out like carpets since its operation against the Taliban started in April, the overwhelming majority of the nearly three million people who have fled live unseen in houses and schools, according to aid agencies.
They are the invisible refugees, and their numbers have swollen the populations of towns like this one northwest of the capital, Islamabad, multiplying burdens on already sagging roads, schools, sewers and water supplies, and, not least, on their host families.
Most fled suddenly, without cash or belongings, and many have limited access to the millions of dollars in international aid that has been flowing in.
Read More At the New York Times
They are the invisible refugees, and their numbers have swollen the populations of towns like this one northwest of the capital, Islamabad, multiplying burdens on already sagging roads, schools, sewers and water supplies, and, not least, on their host families.
Most fled suddenly, without cash or belongings, and many have limited access to the millions of dollars in international aid that has been flowing in.
Read More At the New York Times
Friday, June 26, 2009
Psychologist Pushes Ban on Torture
As a psychologist, Steven Reisner believes his job is “to do good . . . to improve human welfare.”
Now, as a co-founder of the grassroots organization New York Campaign Against Torture, Reisner is pushing for the passage of legislation that would prohibit any licensed New York health professional from participating in interrogations or “improper treatment” of prisoners.
“Much of the Bush administration’s use of torture was guided and spread by psychologists,” Reisner said. “Health professionals are supposed to help people. They are not supposed to participate in undermining their physical or mental state. They are not supposed to use their specialized knowledge to cause people distress. That’s why I find this so reprehensible.”
If passed, the law — which advocates refer to as the anti-torture bill — would apply to both detainees held in connection with the war on terror and prisoners in the U.S.
Man Convicted of Terrorism Free to Sue Yoo Over Torture
A man serving a 17-year prison sentence for terrorist activities has been given the green light to sue a former US government lawyer who wrote memos that allegedly led to his torture, US media reports said Sunday.
Jose Padilla, a US citizen arrested in 2002 for an alleged "dirty bomb" plot only to have the charges dropped three years later, was jailed in January 2008 for separate charges of providing support to the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Lawyers for Padilla have filed a lawsuit against John Yoo, a former lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, arguing that he was responsible for crafting the legal memos which led to his detention and harsh interrogation.
Padilla, who was held in solitary confinement as an "enemy combatant" for more than three years at a US Navy installation in Charleston, South Carolina, alleges he was tortured.
Padilla's lawsuit, which demands Yoo be held accountable for his treatment, alleges he suffered "gross physical and psychological abuse at the hands of federal officials as part of a systematic program of abusive interrogation intended to break down Mr Padilla's humanity and his will to live."
US-AFGHANISTAN: Bagram Detainees Treated "Worse Than Animals"
An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed that former detainees at the U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs.
The BBC’s conclusions are based on interviews with 27 former detainees who were held at Bagram between 2002 and 2006. None of these men were ever charged with a crime. Hundreds of detainees are still being held in U.S. custody at the Afghan prison without charge or trial.
No prisoner in Bagram has been allowed to see a lawyer, or challenge his detention. According to the BBC, the U.S. justice department argues that because Afghanistan is an active combat zone it is not possible to conduct rigorous inquiries into individual cases and that it would divert precious military resources at a crucial time.
"These men were never in Afghanistan until the UK and the U.S. took them there," said Stafford Smith. "It is the height of hypocrisy to take someone to Bagram and then claim that it is too dangerous to let them see a lawyer. Even Guantánamo Bay is better than this."
Read More At IPS
The BBC’s conclusions are based on interviews with 27 former detainees who were held at Bagram between 2002 and 2006. None of these men were ever charged with a crime. Hundreds of detainees are still being held in U.S. custody at the Afghan prison without charge or trial.
No prisoner in Bagram has been allowed to see a lawyer, or challenge his detention. According to the BBC, the U.S. justice department argues that because Afghanistan is an active combat zone it is not possible to conduct rigorous inquiries into individual cases and that it would divert precious military resources at a crucial time.
"These men were never in Afghanistan until the UK and the U.S. took them there," said Stafford Smith. "It is the height of hypocrisy to take someone to Bagram and then claim that it is too dangerous to let them see a lawyer. Even Guantánamo Bay is better than this."
Read More At IPS
Trans Day of Action: “The Rebellion Is Not Over”
Four decades after Stonewall, where is the transgender community? Well, earlier this week, the New York Times reported the Obama administration has begun drafting guidelines that would for the first time protect transgender federal employees from workplace discrimination.
Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has also just reintroduced a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The inclusion of gender identity in this version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, is seen as an important step by transgender activists. ENDA was introduced in 1994 and first included protections for the transgender community in 2007. It did not pass then, and a subsequent version that lacked the protections based on gender identity passed the House but was not taken up by the Senate.
Well, here in New York, today is the fourth annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice. A rally at the Stonewall Inn is planned for this afternoon to, quote, “let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over.”
Read More At Democracy Now!Report Finds Israel Still Torturing Palestinians
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has accused the Israeli security forces of deliberately shackling Palestinian prisoners in a painful and dangerous manner, amounting to a form of torture.
The report, "Shackling as a Form of Torture and Abuse," based on the evidence of over 500 prisoners, was released in advance of the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims Friday, 26 June. It follows a report published in May by the UN Committee Against Torture that had criticized the continued mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israel.
The UN report also condemned Israel's refusal to allow access to a secret detention center known only as Facility 1391. The committee also criticized Israel's refusal to allow the Red Cross access to the secret Facility 1391, dubbed Israel's "secret Guantanamo Bay."
Facility 1391, a largely underground bunker reportedly some 100 km north of Jerusalem, is used to interrogate non-Palestinian Muslims and Arab prisoners from neighboring countries.
Israel has refused to identify the exact location of 1391, and denied to the UN committee that any prisoners are currently being held there.
Read More at EI
The report, "Shackling as a Form of Torture and Abuse," based on the evidence of over 500 prisoners, was released in advance of the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims Friday, 26 June. It follows a report published in May by the UN Committee Against Torture that had criticized the continued mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israel.
The UN report also condemned Israel's refusal to allow access to a secret detention center known only as Facility 1391. The committee also criticized Israel's refusal to allow the Red Cross access to the secret Facility 1391, dubbed Israel's "secret Guantanamo Bay."
Facility 1391, a largely underground bunker reportedly some 100 km north of Jerusalem, is used to interrogate non-Palestinian Muslims and Arab prisoners from neighboring countries.
Israel has refused to identify the exact location of 1391, and denied to the UN committee that any prisoners are currently being held there.
Read More at EI
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The Worst Places to Be a Refugee
Gaza, South Africa and Thailand are among the world's worst places to be a refugee, according to the latest annual World Refugee Survey released here Wednesday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).The survey, which was issued in advance of World Refugee Day Jun. 20, found that the number of refugees had dropped modestly worldwide in the past year – from 14 million to 13.6 million, according to USCRI.
Of those, well over half, or nearly 8.5 million, have been trapped in refugee camps or otherwise denied their rights under the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
Of these, Palestinians, more than 2.6 million of whom have been "warehoused" for up to 60 years throughout the Middle East, constitute the largest national group that has been displaced for the longest period of time, according to the report. It also named Gaza as one of the worst places in the world, particularly in the aftermath of the three-week Israeli military campaign that began late last December. Israeli authorities have so far permitted only humanitarian goods to be imported into Gaza since Operation Cast Lead, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
Read More At IPS
Of those, well over half, or nearly 8.5 million, have been trapped in refugee camps or otherwise denied their rights under the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
Of these, Palestinians, more than 2.6 million of whom have been "warehoused" for up to 60 years throughout the Middle East, constitute the largest national group that has been displaced for the longest period of time, according to the report. It also named Gaza as one of the worst places in the world, particularly in the aftermath of the three-week Israeli military campaign that began late last December. Israeli authorities have so far permitted only humanitarian goods to be imported into Gaza since Operation Cast Lead, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
Read More At IPS
Quarter of men in South Africa Admit Rape, Survey Finds
One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.
Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.
Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
Read More At The Guardian
Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.
Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
Read More At The Guardian
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Gay Filipino gets asylum in historic US case
A gay Filipino was granted political asylum in an historic US case.
Because Philip Belarmino, 43, was subjected to rapes and repeated sexual harassments as a boy and because Philippine police are “known to be corrupt” and the Philippine government is “unable to curtail their corruption,” a San Francisco immigration judge ruled on May 21, 2009 that Belarmino was entitled to political asylum in the US.
Read More At Global Nation
Because Philip Belarmino, 43, was subjected to rapes and repeated sexual harassments as a boy and because Philippine police are “known to be corrupt” and the Philippine government is “unable to curtail their corruption,” a San Francisco immigration judge ruled on May 21, 2009 that Belarmino was entitled to political asylum in the US.
Read More At Global Nation
LGBTs want inclusion in new curriculum, Sexual minorities call for rights
KATHMANDU, June 10 - They did no wrong. Instead, nature made them different. But society discriminates them for a different sexual orientation. Sexual minorities — lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) — face indiscriminate persecution everywhere, including schools, homes and public places. "I was expelled from school and home and forced to conceal my true feelings from others," says a lesbian, who did not want to be named.
Sexual minorities form nearly 10 per cent of the Nepali population, and their problems are many. Yet, in a seminar on Tuesday, they demanded a unique position - that the government prepares a new national curriculum which includes different sections on sexual minorities and their rights.
Read More At eKantipur.com
Sexual minorities form nearly 10 per cent of the Nepali population, and their problems are many. Yet, in a seminar on Tuesday, they demanded a unique position - that the government prepares a new national curriculum which includes different sections on sexual minorities and their rights.
Read More At eKantipur.com
The 13 people who made torture possible
The Bush administration's Torture 13. They authorized it, they decided how to implement it, and they crafted the legal fig leaf to justify it.
On April 16, the Obama administration released four memos that were used to authorize torture in interrogations during the Bush administration. When President Obama released the memos, he said, "It is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution."
Yet 13 key people in the Bush administration cannot claim they relied on the memos from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. Some of the 13 manipulated the federal bureaucracy and the legal process to "preauthorize" torture in the days after 9/11. Others helped implement torture, and still others helped write the memos that provided the Bush administration with a legal fig leaf after torture had already begun.
Read More At Salon.com
On April 16, the Obama administration released four memos that were used to authorize torture in interrogations during the Bush administration. When President Obama released the memos, he said, "It is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution."
Yet 13 key people in the Bush administration cannot claim they relied on the memos from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. Some of the 13 manipulated the federal bureaucracy and the legal process to "preauthorize" torture in the days after 9/11. Others helped implement torture, and still others helped write the memos that provided the Bush administration with a legal fig leaf after torture had already begun.
Read More At Salon.com
Sri Lankan Army recovers Prabhakaran's 'torture chamber'
Colombo (PTI): Sri Lankan security forces have found a heavily-fortified torture-chamber-cum prison complex, run by LTTE inside a three-room house in the Mullaivaikkal area near the no fire zone. The complex was found in the Vellamullavaikkal sub-post office by the troops on Saturday as they moved further in, the defence ministry said.
"The house with a wide sitting room, plus three spacious rooms was protected closely by bunkers on the orders of the LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran," the ministry said, quoting it the escapees as saying.
"All anti-LTTE men and women had been kept imprisoned and tightly tethered to heavy metal chains, generally used for elephants," it said.
Those metal prison cages of about 10-12 ft in height have been designed for padlocking, and another portion of the chamber appeared to have been used for beating and torturing, the ministry said.
"Unconfirmed reports said that Prabhakaran himself watched his enemies under punishment. Walls around that portion have been splashed with blood stains and pieces of hair of those who would have been subjected to LTTE torture," the ministry said.
Read More At the Hindu
"The house with a wide sitting room, plus three spacious rooms was protected closely by bunkers on the orders of the LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran," the ministry said, quoting it the escapees as saying.
"All anti-LTTE men and women had been kept imprisoned and tightly tethered to heavy metal chains, generally used for elephants," it said.
Those metal prison cages of about 10-12 ft in height have been designed for padlocking, and another portion of the chamber appeared to have been used for beating and torturing, the ministry said.
"Unconfirmed reports said that Prabhakaran himself watched his enemies under punishment. Walls around that portion have been splashed with blood stains and pieces of hair of those who would have been subjected to LTTE torture," the ministry said.
Read More At the Hindu
Judge: Ex-Bush lawyer can be sued over torture
A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his alleged treatment, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's decision marks the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees.
If Padilla, now serving a 17-year prison sentence on terrorism charges, can prove his allegations, he can show that Yoo "set in motion a series of events that resulted in the deprivation of Padilla's constitutional rights," White said.
Read More At SF Chronicle
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's decision marks the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees.
If Padilla, now serving a 17-year prison sentence on terrorism charges, can prove his allegations, he can show that Yoo "set in motion a series of events that resulted in the deprivation of Padilla's constitutional rights," White said.
Read More At SF Chronicle
Palestinian Child Prisoners: The systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities
This report documents the widespread ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children at the hands of the Israeli army and police force. It contains the testimonies of 33 children who bear witness to the abuse they received at the hands of soldiers from the moment of arrest through to an often violent interrogation. Children report being painfully shackled for hours on end, kicked, beaten and threatened, some with death, until they provide confessions, some written in Hebrew, a language they do not speak or understand. The report finds that these illegally obtained confessions are routinely used as evidence in the military courts to convict around 700 Palestinian children every year.
Once sentenced, the children who gave these testimonies were mostly imprisoned inside Israel in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention where they receive few family visits, and little or no education. The report concludes that this widespread and systematic abuse is occurring within a general culture of impunity where in 600 complaints made against Israeli Security Agency interrogators for alleged ill-treatment and torture, not a single criminal investigation was ever conducted.
Read More At Defence For Children International
Once sentenced, the children who gave these testimonies were mostly imprisoned inside Israel in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention where they receive few family visits, and little or no education. The report concludes that this widespread and systematic abuse is occurring within a general culture of impunity where in 600 complaints made against Israeli Security Agency interrogators for alleged ill-treatment and torture, not a single criminal investigation was ever conducted.
Read More At Defence For Children International
Guantánamo’s Hidden History: Shocking Statistics of Starvation
Today is the third anniversary of the deaths in Guantánamo of three prisoners, Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi and Yasser al-Zahrani. The anniversary comes just two weeks after the second anniversary of the death of Abdul Rahman al-Amri, the fourth prisoner to die in mysterious circumstances, and just eight days after the death of a fifth prisoner, Muhammad Salih. The authorities maintain that the men died by committing suicide, although doubts about this explanation have repeatedly been voiced by former prisoners. However, it is also significant that all five men were long-term hunger strikers.
Cageprisoners is marking this sad anniversary with a brief report about the Guantánamo hunger strikers, and the dreadful toll that prolonged starvation — and brutal force-feeding, which is the response of the US military — exacts on prisoners held, for the most part, without charge or trial in a seemingly endless legal limbo. Force-feeding involves prisoners being strapped into a restraint chair and force-fed twice daily against their will, through an agonizing process that involves having a tube inserted into the stomach through the nose.
Read More At Andy Worthington's Blog
Cageprisoners is marking this sad anniversary with a brief report about the Guantánamo hunger strikers, and the dreadful toll that prolonged starvation — and brutal force-feeding, which is the response of the US military — exacts on prisoners held, for the most part, without charge or trial in a seemingly endless legal limbo. Force-feeding involves prisoners being strapped into a restraint chair and force-fed twice daily against their will, through an agonizing process that involves having a tube inserted into the stomach through the nose.
Read More At Andy Worthington's Blog
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Pakistan Risks 'Human Catastrophe'
Thousands of civilians trapped in Pakistan's Swat valley, where the military is battling Taliban forces, face a "humanitarian catastrophe" unless help reaches them soon, a rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch says the military must lift its curfew of the area, which has been in place for a full week, and airdrop essential food, water and medicine to the 200,000 residents trapped there."The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water, and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban."
Human Rights Watch said it was getting persistent reports of civilian casualties from army shelling and aerial bombardments as well as reports that the Taliban is killing civilians. Tens of thousands of people remain in the region where the army is carrying out its campaign against the Taliban.
Read More At Al Jazeera
Human Rights Watch says the military must lift its curfew of the area, which has been in place for a full week, and airdrop essential food, water and medicine to the 200,000 residents trapped there."The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water, and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban."
Human Rights Watch said it was getting persistent reports of civilian casualties from army shelling and aerial bombardments as well as reports that the Taliban is killing civilians. Tens of thousands of people remain in the region where the army is carrying out its campaign against the Taliban.
Read More At Al Jazeera
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