As a state party to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the United States must regularly report to the Committee Against Torture regarding its adherence to the Convention. The Committee reviews the progress of each state party on a regular basis and issues observations and recommendations about the state’s practices regarding torture. The United States must submit information regarding its own CAT-related policies to theCommittee next month. To help prepare its submission, representatives from the State Department met with civil society organizations including Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

Hans Hogrefe, PHR’s Chief Policy Officer, shared detailed information about PHR’s work related to its Campaign Against Torture, including the problems facing women in immigration detention, the involvement of medical professionals in interrogations, and the importance of training medical professionals to recognize and document instances of torture and related abuse. PHR also highlighted the dilemma of “dual loyalties” which occurs when medical professionals need to negotiate competing duties to their patient and to their employer.

In our remarks to the State Department, PHR called on theObama Administration to conduct a full investigation into the involvement of medical professionals in interrogations, including their involvement in experimentation on detainees in US custody. PHR also called on the Administration to standardize health standards at detention facilities and increase accountability for the quality and sufficiency of medical care for detainees in immigration detention.

Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, was thankful for the information provided by the civil society organizations and promised to use the information to turn the page in our nation’s history of abuse.

PHR is thankful that the State Department held this important consultation and that civil society groups had the opportunity to influence the US Government’s responses to the Committee Against Torture. We remain hopeful that the US government will use recommendations from PHR and partner groups to usher in accountability for acts of torture and prevent future abuse.

Mainstream media gave Senator Rand Paul(R-KY) a very generous free pass when it declined to castigate him for publicly wondering “How do you get asylum when you come from a friendly government?” In his recent blog post, Jason Dzubow of The Asylumist adeptly addressesSenator Paul’s confusion regarding the basics of asylum law, and takes on the larger and complex issue of ensuring US security while still fulfilling our humanitarian obligations.

“As a nation, we are a world leader in many areas, including the humanitarian area. We have greatly benefited from our leadership role, and from the many refugees, asylees, and immigrants who have made our country their new home. We should not give up our leadership or the benefits that accrue to us because we fear terrorism. We should not let the terrorists win.”

As the US immigration detention web rapidly expands, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) continues to document the existence of numerous problems within the system that harm and sometimes kill detainees. Inability to meet the advanced and chronic health care needs of survivors of persecution, dangerous disregard for ethical obligations, and the overuse of solitary confinement to “treat” behavioral issues are just some of these problems. Incredibly though, despite our unwieldy and inefficient detention regime, some see a need for more. This sentiment has given rise to proposed legislation – H.R. 1932, the “Keep Our Communities Safe Act” – which would subject more people to mandatory detention while their immigration cases are pending and would allow for the indefinite detention of some people who the government is unable to deport.

A well-attended hearing was held on this bill on Tuesday, May 24^th by the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee. Witnesses offered widely divergent accounts of whom the legislation would affect, and how. Supporters of the bill described immigrants with long rap sheets from countries such as Cuba and Vietnam (with whom the US lacks the diplomatic relationships or agreements necessary to arrange for deportation). Such individuals are currently released after a short period of detention but are subject to safeguards that require them to stay in contact with immigration officials. H.R. 1932 would allow for the continued incarceration of people like this, ostensibly to keep our communities safer.

On the other hand, an ACLU attorney cited sympathetic clients who would be indefinitely detained under H.R. 1932, including an asylum seeker, a decorated Gulf War veteran, and a man who’d fled the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in Cambodia as a young child. ACLU attorney Arulanantham affirmed that, “most of the immigrants covered by the proposed legislation are anything but dangerous.” In addition, he emphasized the potentially crippling expense of expanding and lengthening detention: at an average of $122 per day, its cost dwarfs that of community supervision, at about $9 a day.

Scientific, constitutional and human rights principles speak in perfect harmony on the subject of the extended and expanded confinement envisioned by H.R. 1932’s creators. Indefinite detention is known to cause psychological trauma with physical repercussions, even in previously healthy individuals. Its effect on survivors of torture and persecution is medically devastating, and re-traumatized detainees are significantly impaired in their ability to defend against deportation. In its attempt to stop a few bad actors, H.R. 1932 broadly overreaches and would result in diminished well-being and capacity for the thousands who would become ensnared in its reach.

According to a new report released this week by the Free Burma Rangers, 900 residents of northwestern Burma have been forced into hiding due to a brutal military campaign in the area that indiscriminately targets civilians. These villagers are experiencing food and water shortages, and cannot return to their homes.

As part of a Burmese military campaign to quell pro-democracy movements in Chin and Arakon states, Burmese soldiers are forcing villagers to act as porters and engage in other brutal forms of forced labor for army troops. These forced labor demands are in direct violation of international law.

While the government of Burma would like world to think it has completed a transition to democracy, the United Nations – among other international bodies –notes that Burma has done little to improve its atrocious human rights record. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana recently outlined violations that include: land confiscation, forced labor, internal displacement, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence. As Quintana claimed on May 23, “They are widespread, they continue today, and they remain essentially unaddressed by the authorities.”

PHR documented widespread forced labor and numerous other crimes against humanity in its recent report Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State. PHR continues to monitor this situation, and calls on the Burmese government to respect the rights and livelihoods of its citizenry.

PHR welcomes the announcement of the creation of an independent body to investigate human rights violations in the Kingdom of Bahrain during February and March of this year. The establishment of this investigation commission, announced Wednesday, June 29, by Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, is a response to calls from PHR and other groups to investigate attacks on protesters and health professionals following popular protests earlier this year.

PHR called for the establishment of a truly independent investigation after conducting a fact-finding mission in Bahrain and uncovering the Government of Bahrain’s systematic attacks against health professionals and health facilities. Such an investigation into these crimes would demonstrate a willingness on the part of the Government of Bahrain to reckon with its actions and uncover the truth about what happened during the events in February and March.
 
While the proposed commission is charged with investigating violations of international human rights law including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and police brutality, missing from the commission’s mandate is the authority to investigate human rights violations connected to the ongoing trials of those arrested in the wake of the protests. Dozens of medical professionals were arrested during the weeks of unrest and 48 are currently facing trial in military courts. PHR has received calls from family members of those facing trial that indicate that some of these individuals have been tortured in detention and have been forced to sign false confessions. On June 22, the Government of Bahrain sentenced 21 pro-democracy activists to long prison terms for their advocacy for reform. Eight of these activists received life sentences.   
 
PHR welcomes this initiative by the Government of Bahrain, but urges the Government to ensure the true independence of the commission and the full and unrestricted access to all individuals and information relevant to the events of February and March of this year. Beyond this focus, the commission also needs to investigate the treatment of those in detention after these dates and to ensure that all court proceedings adhere to international legal standards.  

The majority of immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Security are not permitted to challenge the legality of their detention. Only immigrants who are detained in very particular circumstances (those who have already been ordered deported or are subject to mandatory detention during removal proceedings) have some narrow avenues of legal recourse. The power of the government to detain the balance of people in immigration detention remains largely unchecked, thanks to post-9/11 fears and lobbying of the growing privatized incarceration system.

The Supreme Court declared, "Freedom from imprisonment – from government custody, detention or other forms of physical restraint – lies at the heart of the liberty that [the Constitution] protects," and yet US immigration laws permit routine incarceration of non-citizens with no review by an independent adjudicator, no independent oversight of detention facility management, and no enforceable standards pertaining to conditions or treatment of detainees. Furthermore, some would further erode the limited protections available to non-citizens in detention. In response, immigrant rights advocates have signed a letter urging Congress not to legislate away the few judicial remedies available to those held in mandatory, prolonged, or indefinite detention.

Immigration detention systematically violates the civil and human rights of detainees, who are often subject to mistreatment by guards, grossly deficient medical care, and improper use of solitary confinement. These inhumane conditions are unacceptable for any length of time, and those who spend extended periods in detention often suffer long-term physical and psychological injuries, such as high levels of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, immigrant detainees often have very limited access to family and the outside world. The majority of them do not have lawyers. While in detention, they can lose their jobs, homes, and custody of their children. Even if they eventually win their cases and are released from detention, there may be little to celebrate in the absence of family and stability, hard-earned but lost during prolonged detention.

The Constitution demands that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or freedom without due process of law, but as long as the US continues to rely primarily on detention to enforce immigration laws, we are disregarding one of our country's most sacred constitutional safeguards. Civil rights, community, and immigrant rights organizations are fighting to keep Congress from abolishing these limited protections. PHR urges Congress to respect the minimal – but vital – restraints the Supreme Court has placed on prolonged and indefinite detention. The lives of immigrants depend on it, and the Constitution requires it.

The daughter of Pedro Tavarez, a 49-year-old immigrant detainee who died while in custody of the Suffolk County House of Correction (MA), filed a federal lawsuit against officials for their role in his death. The suit states that Tavarez "died from a heart attack caused by a massive sepsis infection that the defendants failed to properly treat." In a scenario that continues to play out across the country, the federal government will spend exponentially more money defending its failure to provide good medical care than it could have to save a person's life.

Immigration detention has been criticized as a rapidly-growing, profit-making business with little transparency and poor oversight. Jails under contract with the federal government to house immigration detainees — such as Suffolk County jail — receive $90 per detainee, per day from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While prisons rush to increase the number of beds available to hold immigration detainees, monitoring has become more difficult.

Months after Tavarez's October 2009 death, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) discovered that ICE failed to report the death of an immigrant detainee who had been held in Arizona. The ACLU's discovery, and suspicion that ICE had also failed to report other deaths, sparked a government investigation that revealed more than one in 10 deaths occurring in immigration detention from 2003-2009 had been overlooked by ICE. The details behind these unreported deaths remain unclear, but advocates wonder whether they — like many others — were caused by the failure to provide basic medical care. In 2010, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation into Tavarez's death revealed many instances in which Tavarez did not receive proper care while detained at Suffolk County.

The federal government's recent efforts to improve immigration detention conditions are encouraging but insufficient.

Although DHS has undertaken measures aimed at improving the quality of health services for immigrant detainees — including its recent overhaul of covered services — there is still much room for improvement. Language barriers, incomplete medical records, and short-staffed facilities cause unnecessary delays in treatment that sometimes result in death. These barriers to medical care are preventable, and should quickly be eliminated so that detainees receive the treatment they need, before their health deteriorates irreversibly.

Some US politicians are now calling for the White House to take action against Bahrain for its human rights violations. Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett reports from Washington D.C. PHR's Richard Sollom is interviewed.

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Source: Al Jazeera

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Please join PHR for an event, Accountability Today: Preventing Torture Tomorrow, on June 1, 2011 in recognition of Torture Awareness Month.? The event will feature Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and a torture survivor, as a keynote speaker. ?Other panelists include Amrit Singh, Senior Legal Officer for the National Security and Counterterrorism program at the Open Society Justice Initiative and Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights.RSVP at www.surveymonkey.com/s/DC-June1Co-sponsors: Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, Alliance for Justice, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights First, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Pax Christi USA, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, Physicians for Human Rights, War Criminals Watch, Witness Against Torture.