Torture

Report slams Israeli doctors’ complicity in torture

Michael Cook | 12 November 2011

Some Israeli doctors have cooperated in the torture and mistreatment of prisoners, according to a report by two human rights organisations, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel. Their claims are based on more than 100 cases of ill treatment of Palestinian detainees since 2007.

Bringing doctors who torture to justice

Michael Cook | 05 November 2011

Doctors who participate in state-sponsored torture should be pursued with civil litigation, says an editorial in The Lancet. Although doctors have become an integral part of contemporary systems of torture, with techniques like such as cramped confinement, dietary manipulation, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding, they almost never appear in the dock. Research shows that only 56 doctors anywhere have been punished for complicity in torture or crimes against humanity between 1945 and 2009.

“Somebody’s gotta do it”

Jared Yee | 21 May 2011

Doctors who participate in torture and capital punishment are unlikely to be hailed as role models for their colleagues.

Investigate medical complicity in Gitmo torture, say doctors

Michael Cook | 07 May 2011

In the continuing debate over mistreatment and torture at Guantanamo Bay, the journal PLoS Medicine has alleged that medical doctors and mental health professionals from the US Department of Defense concealed or failed to document medical evidence of intentional harm of nine detainees.

Is it ethical to use shock treatments for disruptive individuals?

16 March 2011

Concerns raised over Boston school’s treatments for autism and behavioural problems

Texas psychologist faces licence loss for designing torture regime

Michael Cook | 21 November 2010

Techniques included sexual humiliation and waterboarding.

CIA doctors did torture research on detainees, group claims

Michael Cook | 11 June 2010

CIA doctors conducted research on detainees, group claims

What about more mundane forms of torture?

Michael Cook | 27 March 2010

What about nursing home scandals?

No more violations of human rights, say US psychologists

Michael Cook | 05 March 2010

Call for investigation of doctors and psychologists who participated in torture