Prison overcrowding and ill-treatment: sentence reduction as a reparation measure. A view from Latin America and Europe.

INTRODUCTION: In recent years mass protest movements have taken to the streets in many countries across the world. Despite strong international and domestic legal protections for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and other fundamental human rights, entire assemblies are frequently labelled violent and less lethal weapons are used to disperse them. METHODS: This article examines the weapons often used by police against public assemblies. Focusing on striking weapons (batons), chemical irri-tants, kinetic impact projectiles and stun grenades, the article uses examples from various countries to illustrate how these weapons are being used and the associated human rights and health impacts. Re-sults: Worrying trends identified include the use of dangerous or untested equipment, such as thermal foggers to deploy chemical irritants; the use of inherently abusive weapons, such as whips or sjam-boks; and the increasing use of certain types of munitions, specifically indiscriminate kinetic impact projectiles. DISCUSSION: The article seeks to support medical and legal professionals becoming more familiar with the weapons being used in the countries they practice in, the effects of those weapons, and clinical aspects in the presentation and care of those exposed.

Ill-treatment in the Chilean prison system - an analysis of reports presented by the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) and their handling by the legal actors.

INTRODUCTION: Prisons in Latin America are often described as violent and lawless places. This article analyses the Chilean case. We want to find out how complaints of ill-treatment are investigated if the victim is in prison. Our hypothesis is that the response to the phenomenon, both in the prose-cution of the perpetrators and in the protection of its victims, does not take into consideration the guidelines established in international standards, especially those contained in the Istanbul Proto-col. METHODS: We analysed a total of 124 complaints of ill-treatment filed by the Chilean National Human Rights Institute (INDH). RESULTS: An excessive amount of time elapses between the alleged ill treatment, the filing of complaints, the use of protective measures, and the termination of the cases. There are serious deficiencies in the investigations carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office, and therefore, most of the complaints are not clarified and end up being shelved. We conclude that, through both the actions of the judges and the prosecutors in the processing of the complaints, when it comes to investigating acts of ill-treatment inside Chilean prisons, the standards of the Istanbul Protocol are not met.

Presence of Inmates with Mental Health Problems in Detention and Correctional Centers in the Republic of Kosovo.

BACKGROUND: Conventions adopted by the United Nations and Council of Europe pay special importance to the treatment of prisoners with mental health problems. Their treatment is close-ly related to respect for human dignity, and the prohibition of torture, cruel and degrading treatment or punishment. The Eu-ropean Court of Human Rights, in many cases, has ruled that the detention of a mentally-ill person can raise issues under Ar-ticle 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and that the lack of adequate medical care can result in treatment in con-travention of this article. The Republic of Kosovo is not a mem-ber of the United Nations and Council of Europe. However, it has incorporated in its Constitution a number of Conven-tions adopted by the United Nations and Council of Europe. Also, Kosovo has adopted a legal framework which prohibits torture, cruel and degrading treatment or punishment in ac-cordance with the international human rights standards. The Constitution also provides that human rights and fundamen-tal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution shall be interpret-ed in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. METHODS: Review of Ombudsperson's, Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Prison Health Department of Kosovo Ministry of Health reports, as well as reports of the NGOs in Kosovo.

United States of America v. Majid Shoukat Khan: Guantánamo's first ruling to consider torture in mitigating sentencing for detainees.

In June 2020, a Guantánamo military judge ruled in United States of America v. Majid Shoukat Khan that he has the legal authority to mitigate Khan's criminal sentence as a remedy for illegal pretrial punishment if his attorneys prove that he suffered torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in government custody. This commentary analyzes the ruling and its implications for Guantánamo's legal system, detainees, and forensic medicine.

"Befogging reason, undermining will: Understanding the prohibition of sleep deprivation as torture and ill-treatment in international law.

BACKGROUND: Sleep deprivation is a prevalent method of psychological torture. However, difficulties in documentation have meant that it is not adequately appreciated by courts and other quasijudicial institutions such as UN treaty bodies. METHOD: This paper aims to review the legal literature on deprivation of sleep, the definition, and prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, and its health impacts. A number of texts were identified and analyzed based on contextual relevance: criminal justice processes as well as medical literature on health impacts. The texts were identified via a search of key legal and health databases using the search terms "sleep deprivation," "sleep adjustment," and "sleep regulation." These texts were limited to English-language journal articles, NGO reports, court-cases and UN documents since 1950. They were then analyzed for their approaches to conceptualizing sleep deprivation from the perspective of assessing "severe pain and suffering" and the "diminishment of mental capacity". RESULTS/DISCUSSION: Sleep deprivation is an ill-defined and, in turn, poorly documented method of torture, particularly when prolonged or inflicted in combination with other methods (e.g., threats) and conditions (e.g., disruptive environment or time of day). More nuanced legal principles, informed by medical evidence, are lacking. Applying these principles would sharpen its conceptualization.

How do you say Istanbul Protocol in Hebrew? The curious case of Mr Firas Tbeish.

On 26 of November 2018, Israel's High Court of Justice decided that Mr Firas Tbeish, a Palestinian from the Hebron area in the West Bank, had not been tortured. This concluded of six-year legal battle undertaken by Mr Tbeish and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. The case summary outlines the context in which the decision was given, while paying particular attention to the (mis)conception of Istanbul Protocol reports in Israel's legal system.

A problematic Israeli High Court dismissal of a torture complaint. A commentary by Hans Draminsky Petersen, MD.

It is not for the documenting medical experts (Shir, 2019), but for the court to decide whether the level of pain and suffering inflicted reaches the threshold of torture [while disregarding ill-treatment], i.e., the court upholds the prerogative to apply its own interpretation of the definition of torture, no matter existing medical evidence and disregarding the Istanbul Protocol. The criteria used to determine the level of FT's pain and suffering does not appear in the ruling. The ruling states that the burden of proof that the "means" were not reasonable [constituting torture] falls upon the petitioner (para 36). In the light of the above (1, a-h) this is in practice impossible for the petitioner to establish. This aligns with Shir's statement that no ISA interrogator has been indicted in 1200 torture complaints.

Institutionalizing torture in Israel: The Firas Tbeish decision. A commentary by John W. Schiemann, PhD.

In her discussion of the court's dismissal of the IP, she says there "is a legal system that discredits the IP's potential while digging deeper into its own conception of torture.'' Shir has helped show that this is true more broadly of torture, beyond the IP. Indeed, I suspect the court may not view the IP as a "strange creature" causing "suspicion of the unfamiliar." Instead, it may be by now a very familiar creature that threatens torture's impunity in Israel, and what Shir shows is that the court has developed a systematic strategy to counter it. Torture is possible in Israel because the government and courts are complicit in deliberately creating a legal and institutional black hole where boundaries are ill-defined and obscure, and no light can shine.

Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon, and US Government Conspired to Torture, by Mark Fallon.

Fallon documents the source of misguided interrogations and torture after 9/11.

Paul Broca's clitoridectomy as a cure for "nymphomania": A pseudo-medical mutilation.

Paul Broca (1824-1880) is considered one of the founding fathers of modern neurology, mainly because of his major contribution to the anatomo-clinical method (Figure 1) (Sagan, 1979). He has also distinguished himself by his fascination with cranial measurements at the origin of modern physical anthropology and, unfortunately, racial theories based on cranial indices (facial angle and brain volume, mainly) (Gould, 1981).But what is less known is that Broca has been illustrated by particularly archaic and mutilating therapeutic practices, such as what is now considered to be female genital mutilation.

Interpreting Evidence of Torture.

The Istanbul Protocol provides a scheme for giving evidence of signs of torture. This scheme does not conform with the principles of logical inference, revolving as it does round the concept of 'consistency'. The shortcomings of the Protocol are explained using the evidence given in the recent case of KV(Sri Lanka) and the logical approach to such evidence explained.

Torturing science Science, interrogational torture, and public policy.

Contrary to the claims of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that its torture program was scientific, the program was not based on biology or any other science. Instead, the George W. Bush administration veneered the program's justification with a patina of pseudoscience, ignoring the actual biology of torturing human brains. We reconstruct the Bush administration's decision-making process to establish that the policy decision to use torture took place in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks without any investigation into its efficacy. We then present the pseudoscientific model of torture sold to the CIA, show why this ad hoc model amounted to pseudoscience, and then catalog what the actual science of torturing human brains-available in 2001-reveals about the practice. We conclude with a discussion of how a process incorporating countervailing evidence might prevent a policy going forward that is contrary to law, ethics, and evidence.

Palliative Care and Human Rights: A Decade of Evolution in Standards.

CONTEXT: Human rights standards to address palliative care have developed over the last decade. OBJECTIVES: This article aims to examine key milestones in the evolution of human rights standards to address palliative care, relevant advocacy efforts, and areas for further growth. METHODS: The article provides an analysis of human rights standards in the context of palliative care through the lens of the right to health, freedom from torture and ill treatment, and the rights of older persons and children. RESULTS: Significant developments include the following: 1) the first human rights treaty to explicitly recognize the right to palliative care, the Inter-American Convention on the Rights of Older Persons; 2) the first World Health Assembly resolution on palliative care; 3) a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture with a focus on denial of pain treatment; 4) addressing the availability of controlled medicines at the UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem. CONCLUSION: Development of human rights standards in relation to palliative care has been most notable in the context of the right to health, freedom from torture and ill treatment, and the rights of older persons. More work is needed in the context of the rights of children, and human rights treaty bodies are still not consistently addressing state obligations with regards to palliative care.

From Nuremberg to Guantanamo Bay: Uses of Physicians in the War on Terror.

Seventy years after the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, health professionals and lawyers working together after 9/11 played a critical role in designing, justifying, and carrying out the US state-sponsored torture program in the CIA "Black Sites" and US military detention centers, including Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We analyze the similarities between the Nazi doctors and health professionals in the War on Terror and address the question of how it happened that health professionals, including doctors, psychologists, physician assistants, and nurses, acted as agents of the state to utilize their medical and healing skills to cause harm and sanitize barbarous acts, similar to (though not on the scale of) how Nazi doctors were used by the Third Reich.

Preventing torture for people deprived of freedom: The Atlantic Hope and Black Swan Prison Model.

International law and minimum standards provide certain protection for detainees and prisoners of war (POW) against torture and ill-treatment. Places of detention and parties to conflicts are often monitored to ensure that they adhere to the required standards through, for example, visits to individual detainees and the assessment of facilities. However, monitoring between the point of arrest and eventual remand in prisons is largely inadequate. This paper explains an emerging model to enhance protection of prisoners through readiness training for prospective humanitarian personnel. The Atlantic Hope simulation exercise on monitoring detainees and visits to the mock Black Swan prison represents a teaching model to enhance sustainable protection of detainees and POW during incarceration. The simulation entails comprehensive monitoring, assessment, visits and provision of services to prisoners from the point of arrest, during the transition to places of custody, and imprisonment. These enhance protection of detainees to avoid deaths in custody, disappearance and torture throughout the chain of imprisonment.

The compulsory psychiatric regime in Hong Kong: Constitutional and ethical perspectives.

This article examines the compulsory psychiatric regime in Hong Kong. Under section 36 of the Mental Health Ordinance, which authorises long-term detention of psychiatric patients, a District Judge is required to countersign the form filled out by the registered medical practitioners in order for the detention to be valid. Case law, however, has shown that the role of the District Judge is merely administrative. This article suggests that, as it currently stands, the compulsory psychiatric regime in Hong Kong is unconstitutional because it fails the proportionality test. In light of this conclusion, the author proposes two solutions to deal with the issue, by common law or by legislative reform. The former would see an exercise of discretion by the courts read into section 36, while the latter would involve piecemeal reform of the relevant provisions to give the courts an explicit discretion to consider substantive issues when reviewing compulsory detention applications. The author argues that these solutions would introduce effective judicial supervision into the compulsory psychiatric regime and safeguard against abuse of process.