Visiting Mechanisms to Eradicate Torture: A Foucaultian Analysis

In this Article, I examine the Visiting Mechanisms under the Convention against Torture (CAT) and the Optional Protocol thereto (OPCAT), applying an analytic approach resting on Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. I argue that international Visiting Mechanisms essentially constitute disciplinary apparatuses as depicted by Foucault. However, because they fail to recognise this functional similarity, they do not effectively apply the methods of inducing panoptic power. Most notably the concept of ‘hierarchical observation’ is hardly utilised at all. The two introduced legal entities, the Committee against Torture under CAT, and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture under OPCAT, both engage in visits to states with a view to eradicate torture and ill-treatment throughout the world. Critically examining their systemic design and practises reveals that the preventative ante hoc mandate of the Subcommittee is more effective than the post hoc inquiries of the Committee. Nevertheless, because both entities unfortunately fail to fully utilise panoptic power, the article concludes by offering a set of recommendations for both bodies that could arguably enhance their overall effectiveness.     

Objectivity versus outrage

He wrote a background paper for the Committee on Health Care for Homeless Persons, “The Dynamics of Homelessness.” He has studied both the needs of homeless persons and the development of shelters and services for the homeless; he codirected a training tape for service providers; and he is coauthoring a book for shelter staff. He is author of Organization in a Changing Environment.     

Germany and the new Europe

where he directs the Europe-America and Global Security Projects. He has been Director of Studies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and taught on the faculty of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He served the first Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and was staff member for Western Europe on the National Security Council. This article is a condensed version of his forthcoming book, America, Germany and the Future of Europe.     

Medical devices

This article is adapted from his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health and the Environment and the Committee on Energy and Commerce on November 6, 1990.     

A century of health reform

He has written numerous books on human resource policy and has served as chairman of the National Manpower Advisory Committee and the National Commission for Employment Policy. Among his books are The Eye of Illusion; A World Without Work: The Study of the Welsh Miners;and My Brother’s Keeper: Personal Memoirs of Public Life;all published by Transaction.     

Cocaine mafia

an Alexandria, Virginia-based company that consults on international development issues. He is also an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. He has testified on drug trafficking and drug abuse issues before the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs and other congressional forums.     

Congressional Testimony of General Lance W. Lord,USAF, Commander,Air Force Space Command before the Senate Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee United States Senate Washington D.C 16 March 2005

ABSTRACT

The following is the prepared testimony of General Lance W. Lord, USAF, Commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command before the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee on 16 March 2005. The prepared testimony can also be found at: http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2005/March/Lord%2003-16-05.pdf     

Statement of General James E. Cartwright,USMC Commander United States Strategic Command Before The Strategic Forces Subcommittee On Space Policy March 16, 2005

ABSTRACT

The following is the prepared testimony of General James E. Cartwright, U.S. Marine Corps, Command of United States Strategic Command, presented to the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on 16 March 2005. The prepared testimony can also be found at http://armed-services.senate.gov/statement/2005/March/Cartwright%2003-16-05.pdf     

Statement by Undersecretary of the Air Force Director,National Reconnaissance Office Department of Defense Executive Agent for Space The Honorable Peter B. Teets Before the Strategic Forces Subcommittee On Space Policy March 16, 2005

ABSTRACT

The following is the prepared testimony of the Honorable Peter B. Teets, then Undersecretary of the Air Force, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and Department of Defense Executive Agent for Space, presented to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, on 16 March 2005. Mr. Teets has subsequently retired from the Department of Defense. This prepared statement can be found at: http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2005/March/Teets%2003-16-05.pdf     

Science vs. government: A reconsideration

A content analysis is made of arms control arguments made in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and its Subcommittee on Disarmament by five groups: government scientists, academic scientists, politicians, military persons and citizens.It is found that government scientists are closer in their argumentation to other government persons than to their fellow scientists. It is argued that access rather than professionalism is the important independent variable to consider in predicting policy-related behavior.The author wishes to thank Professor Davis Bobrow for his advice throughout the course of this study.     

Compulsive gambling

He has written widely on gambling, crime, and addiction. He is author of The Chase: Career of the Compulsive Gambler,and editor of Journal of Gambling Studies.He is a member of the American Psychiatric Association work group on disorders of impulse control. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Council on Problem Gambling.     

The paradoxes of ‘rational’ death

He has written widely on issues of moral theory, medical ethics, and moral theology. He is author of Medical Ethicsand co-editor of Set No Limits.He is currently completing a book titled The Distant Edge of Lifewhich examines Roman Catholic teaching on rational suicide.     

Public pensions and demographic change

He is a former John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University. He has written several books and articles on issues of labor market theory, work time, and social policy. He is author of Motive und Interessen im Arbeitszeitkonflikt: Eine Analyse der Entwicklung von Normalarbeitszeitstandardsand Zeit und Geld in privaten Haushalten: Gelegenheitsstruktur und Bedarf für Eigenarbeit als Determinanten sozialer Ungleichheit.He is also co-editor of Working Time in Transition: The Political Economy of Working Hours in Industrial Nations.     

Rethinking human rights

He is author of The Political Economy of the International Monetary Fund (published by Transaction).He is presently a visiting lecturer on ethics and statecraft at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.     

Term-limitation express

He is co-author of The American Presidency,and editor of The Politics of Interests.He has written extensively on term limits and rotation in office and related topics and commentaries.     

The rhetoric of chosenness

He is author of The Chosen People in Americaand Galut: Modern Jewish Reflection on Homelessness and Homecoming.He is at work on a study of transformations in the ideas of ritual and commandment in the Judaism of the modern West.     

The criteria of net benefit

He is the author of Environmentalism and the Future of Progressive Politicsand co-editor of Managing Leviathan: Environmental Politics and the Administrative State(in press). He is a founding editor of Alternatives: Perspectives on Society, Technology and Environment.     

Why stalin? A national debate

He is also the codirector of the Wiener Library of Contemporary History in London. He is the author of major studies on terrorism, political movements, ideological trends, and cultural forms. His books include: Soviet Realities; Culture and Politics from Stalin to Gorbachev; America, Europe, and the Soviet Union;and The Political Psychology of Appeasement.He is also editor of European Peace Movements and the Future of the Western Alliance.     

The definitive deng: Biography,memoirs, speeches and writings

Wode fuqin Deng Xiaoping, Volume One [My Father Deng Xiaoping] by Mao Mao (Deng Rong). Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe [Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Party Literature Publishing House], Beijing, 1993. 672 pp., maps, name index. Rmb13.80.

Deng Xiaoping wenxuan Volume III [Selected Writings of Deng Xiaoping], Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian bianji weiyuanhui [Editorial Committee on Party Literature, Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party] Renmin chubanshe [People's Publishing House], Beijing, 1993. 418 pp. Rmb6.50.     

In search of a foreign policy

He is author of Red Star on the Nile; Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II;and Moscow’s Third World Strategy.He is co-editor of Anti-Americanism in the Third World.