Chronic pain in torture survivors

According to Amnesty International government-sanctioned torture is verified in one third of the countries in the world. The physical and psychological sequelae are numerous. This study focuses on pain diagnosis, characterising pain types as nociceptive, visceral or neuropathic. Torture victims from the Middle East, treated at the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT) in Copenhagen, participated in the study. The patients were referred to a pain specialist for evaluation of unsolved pain problems. Eighteen male torture victims were examined. Twelve patients experienced pain at more than three locations. Nociceptive and neuropathic pain were demonstrated in all patients. Specific neuropathic pain conditions were related to the following four types of physical torture: Palestinian hanging, falanga, beating and kicking of the head, and positional torture. When treating torture victims, it is important to know about torture methods, to think differently than normal on etiological and pathogenetic factors and always consider the presence of neuropathic pain.     

论免受酷刑权的国际标准

免受酷刑权,即保持身体和精神完整性的权利。免受酷刑权国际标准的确立,是人类道德进步的一种象征。充分及真正普遍地实施国际法律文件中所阐述的标准是世界大家庭面临的艰巨任务。禁止酷刑是世界性难题。中国是《禁止酷刑公约》的缔约国,但中国免受酷刑的保障现状与国际标准相比较有很大差距,尤其是在刑事司法领域刑讯逼供现象还很普遍。这与《禁止酷刑公约》所规定的国家禁止酷刑的义务不符合,也导致了大量的司法不公的存在。随着国际社会禁止酷刑的发展,中国依照免受酷刑权的国际标准在国内积极推进禁止酷刑,在国际上全面接受国际监督就尤为迫切。     

Classifying the torture experiences of refugees living in the United States

Few research studies have systematically categorized the types of torture experienced around the world. The purpose of this study is to categorize the diverse traumatic events that are defined as torture, and determine how these torture types relate to demographics and symptom presentation. Data for 325 individuals were obtained through a retrospective review of records from the Bellevue/NYU for Survivors of Torture. A factor analysis generated a model with five factors corresponding to witnessing torture of others, torture of family members, physical beating, rape/sexual assault, and deprivation/passive torture. These factors were significantly correlated with a number of demographic variables (sex, education, and region of origin). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression symptoms were significantly correlated with the rape factor but no other factors were uniquely associated with psychological distress. The results offer insight into the nature of torture and differences in responses.     

Proscribing torture: an analysis in Indian and ethical contexts

The article seeks context for the 2010 Indian Prevention of Torture Bill, by critically examining the nature of the international law proscribing torture, then the universality of torture’s immorality. Argument covers the scholarship on torture categories and addresses the probity of evidence deriving from tortured subjects. It critically investigates the sociological literature on torture. It states a suggested policy guide, developed in a worldwide context, and therefore of use by any jurisdiction. In particular, this paper considers the underpinnings of the prohibition against torture and also will analyse the proposed Indian Bill on the delimited basis of the conflicting ideologies of the two greater jurists, Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham. This paper asks whether the new Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 (India), still not enacted, would prevent torture in India.     

论国际强行法之酷刑禁止

禁止酷刑从日内瓦公约的最初萌芽到<禁止酷刑和其他残忍、不人道或有辱人格的待遇或处罚公约>的确立,走过了一段漫长的路程.二战后,随着国际社会对人权问题的关注,国际社会整体接受并不许损抑的国际强行法出台,酷刑禁止也上升到了一个更高的层次.现今,酷刑禁止已成为国际强行法律规范,酷刑成为任何国家均有权管辖的行为,因为"尊重人的尊严的价值在重要性上要远远超出对酷刑所做的任何辩解".     

Prevalence and methods of torture claimed in the Basque Country (Spain) during 1992–1993

The use of torture against selected groups of detainees in Spain has been repeatly denounced. The testimonies of 87 citizens arrested under the ‘anti-terrorist legislation’ in the Basque Country (Spain) during 1992–1993 were collected by using the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT/IRCT) protocol. All the detainees were kept in solitary confinement with a mean period of 4 (S.D. = 1.1) days. Torture methods were usually a combination of physical, deprivation and coercion techniques with a high presence of sexual and communication techniques. The group arrested by the military corp ‘Guardia Civil’ showed a higher prevalence of different methods of physical torture, hearing torture from others and reduction of visual input as compared with those in the group arrested by the force ‘Policía Nacional’. The results show also a preference of sexual torture on women with a high prevalence of methods such as forced undressing, verbal humiliations and touching. The study could help international experts to develop a fact-finding mission on human rights in the region.     

Alleged police ill-treatment of non-political detainees in the Basque Country (Spain). Prevalence and associated factors

Epidemiological studies of ill-treatment and torture are difficult to carry out and are usually based on people arrested for political motives. The object of this prospective study was to document the prevalence of allegations of ill-treatment/torture in a sample of detainees who were arrested for non-political motives in the Basque Country (Spain). The influence of demographic and criminological variables was evaluated. A total of 837 interviews and medical-forensic examinations of 578 detainees were analyzed with a modified version of the protocol established by the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (IRCT/RCT). Alleged ill-treatment occurred with a frequency of 13.3% in 99 subjects, with few cases being considered as torture in the strict sense. The most frequent methods included: coercion (6.8%), deprivation (6.0%) and physical ill-treatment (4.3%). The variables significantly associated with ill-treatment were national/ethnic identity and the type of offence committed by the detainee. A higher frequency of ill-treatment, together with longer periods of detention were observed among foreign detainees. The results contrast with those reported in a study of political detainees in the same region, in which complex and intensive torture methods were reported to be more habitual. In conclusion, this study underlines the importance of further developing preventative methods in order to reduce the occurrence of violations of human rights during periods of detention.     

非法证据排除规则的困境及出路——以刑讯逼供为主视角

刑讯逼供是当前中国刑事侦查当中的一大顽疾,而非法证据排除规则无疑是破除这一顽疾的一把利剑。目前理论界和实务界对非法证据排除规则的运用和研究主要集中在审判阶段。由于各种客观和主观原因,其对刑讯逼供的遏制作用并没有体现出来。在中国这种特殊国情之下,只有将其运用到侦查阶段并完善相关配套制度．非法证据排除规则对刑讯逼供的遏制作用才能完全体现出来。     

我国诉讼监督的一个难点及其破解——析“严禁”语境下的刑讯逼供

我国刑事实体法与程序法均严格禁止刑讯逼供,但在刑事诉讼中刑讯逼供却禁而难止,因刑讯逼供受到查处者为数不多,以致刑法第247条几近虚置。究其原因,一是刑讯逼供合法性的顽固观念妨碍了对刑讯逼供、暴力取证行为的查处;二是对刑讯逼供、暴力取证行为发现不及时;三是对刑讯逼供、暴力取证行为的监督尚有缺位。解决这一问题,首先需要转变司法理念,改善检察监督执法环境;其次,建立顺畅、有效的检察监督机制;再次,对刑讯逼供、暴力取证罪的刑事责任进行立法重构。     

Torture: A Modicum of Recognition

Torture has reappeared in liberal democracies in the guise of anti-terrorism strategies. The acceptance of its use and the fascination with the images and documents that indicate the pain and suffering of the tortured point to more than a belief in the need for torture to counter terrorist threats. This fascination implies an enjoyment on the part of the liberal subject who is looking on while the other subject is being beaten. In this article I consider the liberal subject’s acceptance of and fascination with the scene of torture. I argue that the scene of torture, as imagined by the subject looking on, provides a formula for the relief of anxiety in the liberal subject who does not know if s/he will be subject to torture at any time. To consider this scene I analyze Donald Rumsfeld’s annotation to the ‘Action Memo’ which sanctioned torture and, through the work of Freud, Lacan and Santner, I explore the position of contemporary sovereigns in their function as providing transcendental signification for the subject seeking recognition and relief in the sovereign’s gaze.     

Professor Waldron Goes to Washington

In Torture, Terror and Trade-Offs: Philosophy for the White House Jeremy Waldron asks how moral philosophy can illuminate real life political problems. He argues that moral philosophers should remind politicians of the importance of adhering to moral principle, and he also argues that some moral principles are absolute and exceptionless. Thus, he is very critical of those philosophers who, post 9/11, were willing to condone the use of torture. In this article I discuss and criticize Waldron’s absolutism. In particular, I claim that the arguments he offers in support of it are either dependent on religious conviction or support only rule utilitarianism, not absolutism. Additionally, I argue that the character of politics is such that it is both undesirable and morally irresponsible for politicians to adopt the absolutist approach favoured by Waldron. We have reason to be glad that Professor Waldron does not go to Washington.     

Sequelae to torture. A controlled study of torture victims living in exile

Twenty-eight Turkish refugees living in Denmark were examined by the authors in the period 1984-85. Fourteen of the persons alleged having been tortured in Turkey during the period 1980-83. The remaining 14 persons reported that they had not been tortured and thus acted as controls. All the testimonies were found valid according to a method previously used by us. The most common forms of violence reported were blows and electrical torture. Blindfolding, solitary confinement and threats were also frequent. At the time of examination the main mental complaints were sleep disturbances with nightmares and impaired memory. Emotional lability and concentration disturbances were also frequent. Physically the torture victims suffered from headache, various cardio-pulmonary and muscular pains, dyspepsia and reading disturbances. All reported that they had been healthy before torture. The clinical examination revealed only a few signs related to torture, although examples of minimal scars, fractured or missing teeth, discrete neurological disorders and mental depression were found. The 14 controls had significantly fewer complaints, and almost no abnormalities were found during the clinical examination. The present study clearly demonstrates the traumatic effects of torture.     

Justice,Context, and Violence: Law Enforcement Officers on Why They Torture

How do police explain their support for torture? Findings from 12 months of fieldwork with police in India complicate previous researchers’ claims that violence workers tend to morally disengage and blame circumstances for their actions. The officers in this study engage in moral reflection on torture, drawing on their beliefs about human nature and justice to explain their support for it. They admit that they use torture more widely than their own conceptions of justice allow, but see this as an imperfect implementation of their principles rather than as a violation of them. Previous research on the spread of human rights norms has focused on how these norms can be adapted to the local beliefs that support them, rather than on understanding the beliefs that conflict with human rights. I argue that illuminating the self‐understanding of state actors who support or engage in torture is crucial to building theory on why such violence occurs, as well as to designing interventions to prevent it.     

How Law Rules: Torture,Terror, and the Normative Judgments of Iraqi Judges

We present a factorial survey experiment conducted with Iraqi judges during the early military occupation of Iraq. Because U.S. soldiers are immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts, there is no opportunity for these judges to express their views regarding highly publicized torture cases. As legally informed representatives of an occupied nation, however, Iraqi judges arguably have a strong claim to a normative voice on this sensitive subject. We are able to give voice to these judges in this study by using a quasi‐experimental method. This method diminishes social desirability bias in judges' responses and allows us to consider a broad range and combination of factors influencing their normative judgments. We examine why and how the U.S. effort to introduce democracy with an indeterminate rule of law produced unintended and inconsistent results in the normative judgments of Iraqi judges. A critical legal perspective anticipates the influences of indeterminacy, power, and fear in our research. More specifically, we anticipated lenient treatment for guards convicted of torture, especially in trouble cases of Coalition soldiers torturing al Qaeda prisoners. However, the results—which include cross‐level, judge‐case interaction effects—were more varied than theoretically expected. The Iraqi judges responded in disparate and polarized ways. Some judges imposed more severe sentences on Coalition guards convicted of torturing al Qaeda suspects, while others imposed more lenient sentences on the same combination of guards and suspects. The cross‐level interactions indicate that the judges who severely sentenced Coalition guards likely feared the contribution of torture tactics to increasing violence in Iraq. The judges who were less fearful of violence were more lenient and accommodating of torture by Coalition forces. The implication is that the less fearful judges were freed by an indeterminate law to advance Coalition goals through lenient punishment of torture. Our analysis suggests that the introduction of democracy and the rule of law in Iraq is a negative case in the international diffusion of American institutions. The results indicate the need for further development of a nuanced critical legal perspective.     

The Fate of the State Revisited

The State, which during the three and a half centuries since the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) has been the most important and the most characteristic of all modern institutions, appears to be declining or dying. In many places, existing states are either combining into larger communities or falling apart; in many places, organizations that are not states are challenging them by means fair or foul. On the international level, we seem to be moving away form a system of separate, sovereign, legally equal, states towards less distinct, more hierarchical, and in many ways more complex political structures. Inside their borders, it seems that many states will soon no longer be able to protect the political, military, economic, social and cultural life of their citizens. These developments are likely to lead to upheavals as profound as those that took humanity out of the middle ages and into the modern world. Whether the direction of change is desirable, as some hope, or undesirable, as others fear, remains to be seen.     

Misidentified political figures: an underappreciated danger

A series of twelve patients is presented in which each patient suffered from one or more misidentification syndromes and also misidentified one or more political figures. The fact that misidentification syndromes have been associated with physical violence and that the majority of the patients studied had a history of physical violence suggests that these individuals could pose a significant danger of physical harm to others, including political figures. Persons who threaten political figures should be evaluated for misidentification syndromes.     

刑讯与五听:“情实”背后的身体思维模式

五听一般倾向于通过被讯问者身体情态的自然流露获取查案的线索,刑讯则致力于将惩罚作为一种证明罪证事实之有无的直接手段,二者在追求"情实"的总体目标下获得了统一性,其背后是中国古代独特的身体思维模式运作的结果。刑讯与五听渊源于原始初民社会的神裁法机制,在将巫术的神圣仪式与法律的裁判技术巧妙融合的过程中,讯问双方的身体与神意探知的"真相"达到了一种人神互渗、主客同构的原始思维的认知模式。这种思维模式构成了古代狱讼审断中,司法官吏实施刑讯和五听手段背后的身体思维模式的历史渊源。     

Athens Revolting: Three Meditations on Sovereignty and One on Its (Possible) Dismantlement

In British and continental constitutional theory, the sovereign provides a mouthpiece for the law, helping present a unified body politic. For Hegel too the sovereign is a function for the unity of the people. But it is the subject’s desire, which brings the sovereign into existence as guarantor of the law’s coherence and closure. The spontaneous insurrection of December 2008 in Greece weakened the hold of the sovereign on the subject. The post-political condition was challenged by the unplanned actions of resistance and performance by people who have been excluded from political visibility.     

我国反酷刑问题成因分析

禁止酷刑行为是当今国际人权标准的重要要求,也是近年来国际社会持续努力的一项共同任务。我国自签订反酷刑公约以来,经过二十多年的努力,反酷刑事业取得了举世瞩目的成就与公认的进步,在国际反酷刑的人权事业中发挥着重要的作用。但由于司法环境的影响、实体法配置的欠缺等因素,致使我国反酷刑工作存在诸多问题。因此,探究我国反酷刑问题的成因对于有针对性地加强反酷刑工作将具有重要的现实意义。     

Terrorizing Criminal Law

The essays in Waldron’s Torture, Terror, and Trade-Offs have important implications for debates about the criminalization of terrorism and terrorism-related offences and its consequences for criminal law and criminal justice. His reflections on security speak directly to contemporary debates about the preventive role of the criminal law. And his analysis of inter-personal security trade-offs invites much closer attention to the costs of counter-terrorism policies, particularly those pursued outside the criminal process. But is Waldron right to speak of a ‘welcome the return to the criminal justice model’? This article considers the arguments in favour of prioritizing the prosecution of terrorist suspects and asks if their prosecution can safely proceed without undue hazard to the criminal law and criminal process.