CIA health professionals’ role in torture worse than previously known

Physicians for Human Rights Press release
August 31, 2009

Cambridge, MA — The extent to which American physicians and psychologists violated human rights and betrayed the ethical standards of their professions by designing, implementing, and legitimizing a worldwide torture program is greater than previously known, according to a report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

A team of PHR doctors authored the new white paper, Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General's Report. The report details how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations. It also refers to aggregate collection of data on detainees' reaction to interrogation methods. PHR is concerned that this data collection and analysis may amount to human experimentation and calls for more investigation on this point. If confirmed, the development of a research protocol to assess and refine the use of the waterboard or other techniques would likely constitute a new, previously unknown category of ethical violations committed by CIA physicians and psychologists.

"Medical doctors and psychologists colluded with the CIA to keep observational records about waterboarding, which approaches unethical and unlawful human experimentation," says PHR Medical Advisor and lead report author Scott Allen, MD. For example, "Interrogators would place a cloth over a detainee's face to block breathing and induce feelings of fear, helplessness, and a loss of control. A doctor would stand by to monitor and calibrate this physically and psychologically harmful act, which amounts to torture. It is profoundly unsettling to learn of the central role of health professionals in laying a foundation for US government lawyers to rationalize the CIA's illegal torture program."

The Inspector General's report documents some practices — previously unknown or unconfirmed — that were used to bring about excruciating pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end.

These practices included:

- Mock executions;
- Brandishing guns and power drills;
- Threats to sexually assault family members and murder children;
- "Walling" — repeatedly slamming an unresponsive detainee's head against a cell wall; and
- Confinement in a box.

"These unlawful, unethical, and ineffective interrogation tactics cause significant bodily and mental harm," said co-author and PHR Senior Medical Advisor Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD. "The CIA Inspector General's report confirms that torture escalates in severity and torturers frequently go beyond approved techniques."

"The required presence of health professionals did not make interrogation methods safer, but sanitized their use, escalated abuse, and placed doctors and psychologists in the untenable position of calibrating harm rather than serving as protectors and healers. The fact that psychologists went beyond monitoring, and actually designed and implemented these abuses – while simultaneously serving as 'safety monitors' – reveals the ethical bankruptcy of the entire program," stated co-author Steven Reisner, PhD, PHR's Psychological Ethics Advisor.

"That health professionals who swear to oaths of healing so abused the sacred trust society places in us by instigating, legitimizing and participating in torture, is an abomination," states co-author Allen Keller, MD, Director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. "Health professionals who aided torture must be held accountable by professional associations, by state licensing boards, and by society. Accountability is essential to maintain trust in our professions and to end torture, which scars bodies and minds, leaving survivors to endure debilitating injuries, humiliating memories and haunting nightmares."

PHR has called for full investigation and remedies, including accountability for war crimes, and reparation, such as compensation, medical care and psycho-social services. PHR also calls for health professionals who have violated ethical standards or the law to be held accountable through criminal prosecution, loss of license and loss of professional society membership where appropriate.

Since 2005, PHR has documented the systematic use of psychological and physical torture by US personnel against detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Bagram airbase, and elsewhere in its groundbreaking reports, Break Them Down, Leave No Marks, and Broken Laws, Broken Lives.

Economic turmoil has exacerbated violence against women

9 September 2009 – The scourge of violence against women has worsened as a result of the global financial downturn over the past year, Deputy UN Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today as she urged some of the world’s richest countries to lead the way in turning the many international pledges to support women and girls into concrete results.
In a keynote address in Rome to a ministerial-level conference on violence against women, being held under the auspices of the Italian presidency of the Group of Eight (G8), Ms. Migiro said there is evidence that women and girls are exposed to a greater risk of violence during times of hardship.
“We have seen rising levels of despair and frustration in families and communities around the world, exacerbating violence against women,” she said.
“In a recent survey of more than 630 domestic violence shelters in the United States, 75 per cent reported an increase in women seeking help for abuse since September 2008, coinciding with a major downturn in the US economy. We must remain especially vigilant through these tough times.”
Ms. Migiro detailed to the conference some of the steps taken by the UN to end violence against women and girls, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s UNiTE campaign, which calls on world leaders to launch national campaigns aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls in all parts of the world.
She noted that the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, which is nearing the thirtieth anniversary of its adoption, and several landmark Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security indicated that the international community has taken “significant” steps towards protecting women from violence.
However, “we still have a long road to walk before the full meaning of these international agreements is fully transformed from words on paper to reality on the ground.”
Ms. Migiro urged participants at today’s conference to put into practice two earlier recommendations calling on G8 members to enhance the rights of women.
The first calls on G8 members to back programmes that promote women’s rights and make information about sexual and reproductive health widely accessible, while the second calls for support for peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations worldwide so as to emphasize security, the protection of civilians and action against sexual and gender-based violence.
“Ending violence against women will not be easy. It will require sustained dedication and collaboration,” she said.



UN News Centre

Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new reports on the Czech Republic, Greece and Switzerland

Strasbourg, 15.09.2009 – The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released today three new reports examining racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance in the Czech Republic, Greece and Switzerland. The Chair of ECRI, Eva Smith Asmussen, said the reports note positive developments in all three of these Council of Europe member states, but also detail continuing grounds for concern.

In the Czech Republic, a new criminal code was adopted in 2008, containing more extensive provisions against racism. In recent years the Ombudsman has carried out detailed investigations into cases of possible discrimination against the Roma. Steps have been taken to adjust the education system so as better to meet the needs of socially disadvantaged children.

At the same time, however, there has been a disturbing intensification in the activities of extreme right-wing groups. Most victims of racially motivated offences are reported to be Roma. Little progress has been made towards improving the situation of the Roma, who face segregation in schools and housing and discrimination in employment. The issue of forced sterilisations of Roma women has not been adequately addressed yet.

In Greece, the legislative framework on non-discrimination has been consolidated with the adoption of the 2005 Equal Treatment Act and the 2008 amendment of the Criminal Code making the racist motivation of an offence an aggravating circumstance. In an encouraging development, there have been successful prosecution in recent years against antisemitic and anti-Roma publications.
However, on the whole, the legislation prohibiting incitement to racial hatred is still seldom applied and so far, few racial discrimination complaints have been filed due to insufficient legal assistance and information on available remedies. Roma continue to face problems in the fields of employment, housing and justice and the existing Integrated Action Plan should be better implemented. Issues relating to the freedom of association of persons belonging to some ethnic groups have not yet been solved. Significant improvements are called for in the treatment of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants.

In Switzerland, measures have been taken to foster the integration of immigrants in areas such as employment, housing and health. The federal bodies in charge of racism and migration have continued to raise awareness on racism and racial discrimination. Steps have been taken to combat right-wing extremism.

However, there has been a dangerous growth of racist political discourse against non-citizens, Muslims, Black people and other minorities. Legislation is insufficiently developed to deal with direct racial discrimination, which targets in particular Muslims and persons from the Balkans, Turkey and Africa. Travellers and Yenish communities with an itinerant life style are still faced with a shortage of stopping sites and prejudice leading to instances of discrimination. Legislation governing asylum seekers has been tightened and hostility towards them has increased.

The reports are part of ECRI´s 4th monitoring round, which focuses on the implementation of its previous recommendations and the evaluation of policies and new developments since its last report. In two years time ECRI will carry out a follow up assesment..

The reports, including government observations, are available at: www.coe.int/ecri

ECRI is an independent human rights body of the Council of Europe which monitors problems of racism and intolerance, prepares reports and issues recommendations to member states.