Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108371

Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD, Physicians for Human Rights, 1156 15th Street NW, Suite 1001, Washington, DC 22301, 202 728 5335, lrubenstein@phrusa.org

In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government began to adopt policies with respect of prisoners captured in Afghanistan, and later in Iraq, that departed from its obligations under the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. One of the consequences was torture and cruel treatment against detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. This session will review the new interpretations of legal obligations, including the evolution of these interpretations, and their consequences for interrogation practices and conditions of detention that led to torture and cruel treatment of detainees. The session will also address current legal interpretations of legal restrictions on interrogation methods, and what is known about current policies and practices on interrogations. It will also address steps needs regarding disclosure and transparency of policies and practices, current rules on interrogation and prospects for accountability.

In addition, the session will consider the role of medical personnel in torture and cruel treatment. It will focus particularly on the expectation that health personnel support the aims of commanders instead of devoting themselves to the needs of detainees. It will address the lack of ethical guidance to medical personnel when subjected to demands by commanders to provide information or support to interrogators and what forms of ethical and human rights guidance can address the problem.

Learning Objectives: Participants attending this session will be able to identify the origins and execution of policies that led to torture and inhuman treatment by US forces, as well as current policies, and the status of efforts to end these abusive practices. At the conclusion of the session the participant will be able to

• Articulate how torture and cruel treatment became part of US interrogation policies, how the the policies were carried out.
• Identify current position of the US government on interrogation policies.
• Identify prospects for ending abusive interrogations.
• Identify the role of medical personnel in abusive interrogations and steps that can be taken to protect them form complicity in torture and cruel treatment.

Keywords: Torture,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation