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.     

Human rights abuses and the medical profession

Allegations of torture are on the increase and the medico-legal and ethical problems can no longer be ignored by the medical profession. While jurists fail to give effective legal guidelines as to what amounts to 'torture', reports indicate that doctors are often engaged in activities which are difficult to reconcile with any conception of medical ethics. There is a clear need for the medical profession to re-evaluate their involvement in circumstances that are a direct antithesis of their professional occupation. The skills of doctors with forensic expertise allow detection of human rights abuses and thereby its potential reduction. There is scope for the reduction torture or ill-treatment, if the profession maintain high standards of medical practice and ethics.     

A follow-up investigation on the quality of medical documents from examinations of Basque incommunicado detainees: the role of the medical doctors and national and international authorities in the prevention of ill-treatment and torture

According to the United Nations and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), torture and ill-treatment continues to be a problem during incommunicado detentions in Spain. CPT has visited Spain and published recommendations for improvements of preventive medical examinations. However, no scientific assessment of the impact of such recommendations exists. The objectives of this study were to assess the quality of documents from preventive medical examinations and the prevalence of alleged ill-treatment and compare findings with similar data from a previous study. Documents issued by state employed doctors describing medical examination of Basques held incommunicado during 2000-2005 were reviewed. The analysis covered allegations of ill-treatment and existence and quality of information essential for medical appraisal of allegations of ill-treatment. The material was collected by a non-governmental organisation. Of 425 documents concerning 118 persons, 85% had no formal structure and the format recommended by CPT was never used. None of 127 documents, concerning 70 persons with allegations of ill-treatment had an overall conclusion on the likelihood of ill-treatment. Twelve to 68% of necessary data were totally missing, and only 13-38% of existing information was sufficient. There was significant variation between the reporting of individual doctors, but in general the quality was unacceptable, although somewhat higher than in the previous study. The prevalence of allegations of ill-treatment was as high as previously. There were more reports of psychological ill-treatment and procedures of forced physical exhaustion, but fewer reports of beatings. In conclusion, there was no indication that the conditions of incommunicado detainees have improved substantially over the past 15 years and the standard of medical reporting was unacceptable. The Spanish authorities should give clear objectives and guidelines for medical examinations of detainees. An independent forensic specialist with the overall academic responsibility for preventive medical examinations of detainees should be employed to supervise state employed doctors. The present article shows the necessity for harmonization of medical practice in documentation of torture.     

Inhumane,cruel, and degrading treatment of criminal prisoners throughout the world

Recent international policy has focused on assuring the human rights of criminal prisoners. Because of the difficulty and cost of comparative research, little is known about the success of these efforts. In this study, by utilizing a secondary data source, we are able to examine various indicators of inhumane and cruel practices in 155 nations. Substandard conditions and violations of basic human rights are found in over one-half of the nations. The levels of economic development, religion, and political structure are found to be related to a nation's prison practices.     

The use of drugs in torture and human rights abuses

The forced administration of drugs, usually by injection, may accompany physical torture. In the extrajudicial environment in which torture occurs, documentation of the types of drugs used is difficult. In violation of all codes of professional ethics, physician participation appears to be ubiquitous. In the Soviet Union, human rights abuses have become institutionalized within the mental health care system. Therapeutic drugs are used, often at toxic levels, to punish political and/or religious dissidents.     

Hegel, Human Rights, and Particularism

Hegel's political philosophy gives prominence to the theme that human beings have a need for recognition of those qualities, characteristics, and attributes that make them distinctive. Hegel thus speaks to the question whether human rights law should recognize and accommodate the nuances of individual make-up. Likewise, he speaks to the question whether human rights law should be applied in ways that are sensitive to the cultural contexts in which it operates. But Hegel's political philosophy evaluates norms and practices within particular cultures by reference to the higher-order and universal criterion of abstract right. In light of this point and the inadequacies of political philosophy that privileges local norms and practices, a third approach to the protection of human rights is canvassed. This approach prioritizes neither universal nor local norms. Its aim is to ensure that both human rights and the cultures in which they are applied are taken seriously.     

Prisons’ condition and treatment of prisoners in Nigeria: towards genuine reformation of prisoners or a violation of prisoners’ rights?

This study examines the conditions of prisons and the treatment of prisoners in Nigeria. The purpose of this examination is to determine compliance with the benchmarks for the treatment of prisoners and ascertain if prisoners’ rights against ill-treatment are safeguarded. The study uses relevant laws, as well as published and unpublished reports, in order to paint a coherent picture of the conditions of prisons and the treatment of prisoners in Nigeria. This article comes to the conclusion that prisons in Nigeria are not operating satisfactorily according to their statutory duties, and instead of functioning as rehabilitation centres they end up contributing to human rights violation.     

Human Rights as a Security Threat: Lawfare and the Campaign against Human Rights NGOs

In this article, I show how the term lawfare is being deployed as a speech act in order to encode the field of human rights as a national security threat. The objective, I claim, is to hinder the work of human rights organizations that produce and disseminate knowledge about social wrongs perpetrated by military personnel and government officials, particularly evidence of acts emanating from the global war on terrorism—such as torture and extrajudicial executions—that constitute war crimes and can be presented in courts that exercise universal jurisdiction. Using Israel as a case study, I investigate the local and global dimensions of the securitization processes, focusing on how different securitizing actors—academics, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, policy makers, and legislators—mobilize the media, shape public opinion, lobby legislators and policy makers, introduce new laws, and pressure donors to pave the way for a form of exceptional intervention to limit the scope of human rights work.     

On rights and responsibilities

Rights are commonly linked to responsibilities. One commonly hears remarks about the rights and responsibilities of teachers, parents, students, etc. This linking together of the two is the topic of this paper. The paper is divided into four sections. In the first section I distinguish three accounts of the relation between rights and esponsibilities any of which we could have in mind when linking the two together, and I single out the third account for further study. Unlike the other two, it seems to offer fresh material for the theory of rights. In the second section I develop this material. I explicate the general relation between rights and responsibilities as this third account represents it, and I specify the grounds for attributing such a relation to them. My aim here is to elucidate a conception of rights that certain legal and political rights can be taken to exemplify and that has been ignored or obscured in recent work in the theory of rights. In the last two sections I turn my attention to human rights. I argue in Section III that Locke's theory of natural rights can be interpreted as upholding the conception of rights elucidated in the preceding section, and I consider and criticize in Section IV an account of the relation between certain human rights and responsibilities that comes from Joel Feinberg's distinction between mandatory and discretionary rights. The arguments of these two sections are meant to strengthen the case for making room in the theory of rights for the conception elucidated in Section II.     

反酷刑政策与罪犯人权保障

酷刑严重侵犯人权,是国际社会公认的严重犯罪之一.从历史的角度看,反酷刑政策产生和发展的内在动因是人权意识的觉醒和人权运动的兴起.随着人权保障的国际化,反酷刑日益成为国际社会关注的重要内容,因而联合国通过一系列的国际人权公约来禁止酷刑,并建立了反酷刑的国际监督机构.就我国来说,国内有关法律,如宪法、刑法、刑事诉讼法、监狱法和其他相关法律大都有反酷刑的内容或规定,但是,这与国际人权公约的有关规定相比仍存在着差距.本文在分析原因的基础上,提出进一步完善我国反酷刑措施的基本思路.     

Common Wealth

After reviewing developments in human rights law and international law – in particular the domestication of international human rights law and the rise of the democratic norm in international law – the importance of these developments for the Commonwealth and for its member states is highlighted and linked to many of the programmes and policies that the Commonwealth Secretariat has recently launched. This paper discusses these developments and others in order to stress the wealth of potential advantages for Commonwealth member states and their citizens that flow from a common commitment under the rule of law to human rights and democracy. The authors endeavour to show that such wealth is more than mere economic benefit – as important as that undoubtedly is – and that citizens stand to reap a moral system of government, one which expands the opportunities for popular participation in political processes and puts an end to social practices that marginalise some citizens and empower others.     

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.     

Between Human Rights and Sovereignty*—An Examination of EU–China Political Relations

This paper will study the differences between the EU and China on the understanding of human rights and national sovereignty and their impact on EU‐China political relations. The paper will be divided into the following parts. The first part will give a review of the concepts of both sovereignty and human rights and the rising concern of human rights in the contemporary world. The second part will study the EU's policy of human rights to see why the EU adheres to its values. The third part will look at China's policy on sovereignty and human rights. The fourth part will examine EU‐China political relations and analyse the difficulties in bilateral relations, due to differences in values between the EU and China. The fifth part will draw some tentative conclusion.     

Human Rights: Existential,Not Metaphysical

My paper consists of four sections. The first is concerned with the distinction and connection between fundamental and human rights. Here I shall just introduce a few conceptual notions and definitions that are more or less widely used, but that may help us to frame the issue and better focus on the most relevant question of the foundation or justification of human rights. In the second and third sections I will present what I believe to be the four fundamental normative situations that shape our understanding and use of human rights. In the second section attention will focus on what in my opinion is the most basic of these four normative situations, which I call the “existential” situation. This is intended to offer a strong foundation for human rights as “not metaphysical,” without appealing to or relying on heavy metaphysical assumptions. I will try to stick more or less to an argumentative strategy based on common sense. The third section, dealing with the three other normative situations, will to some extent be an exercise in eclecticism, trying to combine different approaches to (and schools of thought on) the question of normativity. Here eclecticism will not be trivial, or at least I hope not. In the fourth and final section I will briefly conclude with a general overview on the issue of the “existence” of normativity and human rights.     

Opening Pandora's Box: Protecting Children Against Torture or Cruel,Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment*

Children are rarely perceived as torture victims, although they may be easier targets. International inertia is compounded as not only torture, but also ‘other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ is prohibited. Some of these occur in the private sphere, which traditionalists erroneously assume outside of international human rights law. Children may also be unprotected because they suffer from trauma in different ways from adults. Jurisprudence of human rights fora based principally on adult victims, despite some dicta to the contrary, risks international standards being inappropriately applied to child victims. This promotes an analysis which fails to address the particular vulnerabilities of children and their role as social actors.     

遏制刑讯逼供的原理与机制研究

为推介中国人民大学法学院博士培养成果,搭建论文品评乃至学术评价之平台,《法学家》专辟博文精萃一栏。该栏目由两部分组成:其一是论文要旨,由博文作者对其博士论文进行全面系统而重点突出的介绍,一般宜包括如下要素:论文的体系架构;论文每章节的主要内容;论文的主要特点;论文的主要创新和不足;论文所研究领域的课题展望。其二是论文评议,可以是答辩委员会的论文审查意见,或者评审专家的点评,具体宜包括如下要素:对论文的总体评价;对论文的体系及各章节的评价;对论文创新的评价;指出论文的不足以及进一步完善的方向。敬请关注并提出宝贵建议。     

Prohibition of Torture and Other Cruel,Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Some Remarks on the Operative Solutions at the European Level and their Effects on the Member States. The Case of Italy

This paper analyzes European measures against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in order to verify their effectiveness, especially in terms of the values that are actually being protected. First, it examines the distinction between the external and internal action of the European Union, highlighting ways in which the EU appears to be more attentive to combat practices of torture in third countries than to domestic incidents and the proposals to legalize torture made at a political level in some Member States. Then, it examines the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling in the Cestaro versus Italy case, focusing specifically on the fact that Italy was in breach of its obligations under Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, because the framework does not recognize torture as a crime and does not provide instruments of deterrence to effectively prevent the execution and the recurrence of such acts. Currently, the Italian Parliament is discussing a draft amendment to the Criminal Code and aims at introducing the concept of torture as a crime; however, in light of the comments made by the European Court of Human Rights, this project questions whether the proposed solution will be able to prevent a repeat of events similar to those that occurred in 2001 after the G8 Summit in Genoa.     

Who Files Suit? Legal Mobilization and Torture Violations in Europe

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is the most active international court. After decades with few allegations of human rights abuses, the ECHR docket expanded in the 1990s. Paradoxically, long‐standing democracies can have standardized violation rates of the prohibition against torture that compare to transitional democracies that struggle to protect rights. Yet it is implausible that human rights abuses increased or that established democracies engage in more torture than new democracies. Instead variations in legal mobilization generate the surge and puzzling distribution of European judgments. I argue that discrepancies between the incidence of torture and litigation reflect variations in support structures, where declared violations can reflect the level of support that individuals receive in pursuing claims rather than the incidence of torture. This dynamic is most pronounced for foreign nationals, who typically possess fewer resources than citizens to access legal institutions and encounter popular and official hostility. As a result, much European litigation concerning torture in long‐standing democracies is transnational in character.     

Victims’ responses after mass atrocities: a note on empirical findings

Empirical research has shown that in the aftermath of mass atrocities, a large majority of the victims of gross human rights violations are much more concerned with their immediate needs than with the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of these violations. The focus must shift from the perpetrators to the victims and that, in order to bring about desirable compensating improvements in the lives of those victims who are directly affected by these gross human rights violations, greater weight must be given to the interests and concerns expressed by them about matters fundamental to their well-being. The attention of legal scholars, policy analysts, and human rights campaigners and activists of the imperativeness of material reparations to meet the crying needs of a society emerging from political violence, comparative to criminal prosecution of the perpetrators must be engaged.