Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) joins 8 partner organizations in a letter calling on President Obama to ensure that any shift in US policy toward Burma reflects true progress toward human rights improvements in Burma.

The letter responds to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s April 4 announcement that the US would relax an investment ban and other sanctions on Burma following that country’s by-elections that ushered Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to power.

PHR strongly urges the US to use sanctions as its leverage to press for substantive improvements in Burma, including an end to attacks on civilians, a granting of unimpeded access to humanitarian groups, and reforms that shift a military-dominated government into the hands of the people of Burma. PHR also calls on Congress to play its important role in pressing for significant improvements in Burma by reauthorizing sanctions against the country.
 
The letter urged President Obama to consider several areas on which measurable progress may lead to the gradual easing of US restrictions in Burma. Those key issued include the unconditional release of all political prisoners, the full investigation of human rights violations in Burma’s conflict areas, and judicial reform that will enable the rule of law and accountability for human rights abuses.

PHR calls on the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of the Formula One, to hold a briefing conducted by human rights defenders and those familiar with the human rights situation in Bahrain.

"Drivers and the media should know the current political situation in Bahrain, and the international media covering the event should have the ability to freely engage and cover the issues surrounding the Formula One race," said Physicians for Human Rights’ Deputy Director Richard Sollom.

"International sports fans deserve to know the proper context for the race and the current situation in Bahrain. In fact, just this week Physicians for Human Rights expressed concern about the Government of Bahrain’s tear gas attacks, which we suspect could have severe health impacts on the population,”  added Sollom.

Physiciansfor Human Rights (PHR) expressed disappointment today in Syria’s failure to withdraw troops from urban areas this morning. The country had agreed to a withdrawal under a United Nations-brokered ceasefire. Rather than abide by its commitment, the Government of Syria has instead continued to attack civilians after the deadline.

In light of the deteriorating situation in Syria, PHR renews its call for the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Although the UN Security Council has publicly called upon the Government of Syria to cease its attacks on the opposition, recent attacks demand stronger action by the Council. A referral to the ICC would send an important signal by the international community that it is committed to ensuring accountability for all those responsible for attacks on civilians in Syria.

Under the ceasefire agreement, both the Syrian government and the opposition are to completely cease all violence by Thursday, April 12. In the interim, PHR urges the Security Council to immediately authorize an effective and impartial monitoring mission to observe Syria’s progress in implementing the ceasefire agreement.

PHR calls on both sides of the conflict to abide by all relevant international laws, to cease all attacks on civilians, and to take immediate steps to abide by the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Physicians for Human Rights has investigated and produced a report on the Syrian government’s assault on the country’s medical community and civilian populations, including the denial of medical treatment for patients, the arrest and torture of doctors and patients, and the attacks and misuse of medical facilities.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) calls for the immediate release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights defender and democracy activist who reportedly faces death after a nearly two-month long hunger strike.

Al-Khawaja was arrested one year ago in the wake of popular protests against the Bahraini government and was sentenced to life in prison. While in detention, al-Khawaja allegedly suffered torture and severe ill-treatment.

To protest his ongoing detention and mistreatment, al-Khawaja began a hunger strike on February 8. His health is rapidly deteriorating, and his family reports that his life is in danger. PHR calls on the Government of Bahrain to immediately release Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, allow an impartial investigation of allegations of torture and ill-treatment during his detention, and hold all perpetrators of torture accountable for their actions.

PHR remains concerned about individuals in Bahrain, including medical professionals and democracy advocates, who continue to face detention conditions and abuse similar to that suffered by al-Khawaja.

A group of twenty medical professionals who were arrested, detained, and sentenced to long prison terms for providing medical care to protesters reported torture in detention. These allegations were confirmed through independent evaluations by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).

While most of the medical professionals arrested and charged following the protests are now released from detention pending an ongoing trial, three other medics are currently serving two to three year sentences.

PHR calls on the Government of Bahrain to immediately release the three medics, Hassan Matooq, Younis Ashoori, and Ahmed Ali Al Moshatat, and all others who are imprisoned for adhering to professional duties or exercising basic freedoms.

In response to international pressure, the US Administration has withheld a $53 million arms sale to Bahrain; however the Administration continues to deliver smaller amounts of military assistance to Bahrain.

The Administration should take a stronger public stance against the ongoing detention of Al-Khawaja and other prisoners of conscience by publicly demanding their immediate release. The United States should also call on Bahraini authorities to establish independent and efficient mechanisms to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment in detention, as demanded in the report of the BICI. 

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today applauded President Obama for creating a new interagency panel which can play a crucial role in preventing global mass atrocities. The Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) is the result of a 2011 Presidential study directive on addressing mass atrocities as a policy priority. The Board will combat genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. PHR also congratulates Samantha Power, who will chair the Board.

The panel includes the Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, and other agencies whose representatives are tasked with the early identification of threats of mass atrocities and with developing adequate responses by the US government. Policies could include the imposition of sanctions, such as those announced today by President Obama against companies which enable Syria and Iran to use communication monitoring technologies to crack down on protesters.

PHR calls on all relevant agency heads to fully commit to this new panel by assigning senior level staff to its meetings, so it can operate in a rapid response fashion without the hindrance of bureaucratic red tape. PHR also calls on the intelligence community to make all possible resources available to the Board in a timely manner to provide the necessary broad-based intelligence for its important deliberations.

PHR also requests that the Board engage openly with international and local human rights organizations as it develops methods to prevent mass atrocities.

PHR further calls on the US Congress to fully endorse this important body and to provide all the necessary resources to ensure its successful operations.  

PHR criticized today United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks to Burma’s Parliament, which urged Western nations to lift or suspend remaining sanctions against Burma.

During his remarks the Secretary General highlighted Burma’s recent elections and political changes to support his call for increased international economic engagement.

Ban did note that serious problems remain in Burma, and he spoke about the need to release all political prisoners, end attacks in Kachin State, and resettle those displaced from their homes.

PHR believes that by discarding the political leverage of sanctions, the Secretary General is erasing remaining mechanisms through which the international community can push for these and other substantial reforms.

Leaders of ethnic minority communities and women’s groups have called on the international community to exercise caution when lifting or suspending sanctions; Ban’s support for the wholesale suspension of sanctions without defined criteria for further improvement betrays these groups.

PHR calls on the international community to put the needs of civilians who are bearing the brunt of military abuses ahead of business opportunities in the country.

The European Union has announced a suspension of sanctions, keeping only a ban on arms sale to the country. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also seemed willing to suspend some sanctions against Burma, noting in an April 4 announcement that there may be some easing of the US investment ban.

Recently, PHR joined eight partner organizations in calling on the Administration to ensure that any shift in US policy toward Burma reflects true human rights progress in Burma.

On 9 April 2011, two hours after I left his family and flew home from Bahrain, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a well-known human rights activist, was brutally beaten in his home and dragged away by security forces. A military court later sentenced him to life in prison for participating in last year’s Arab Spring demonstrations.

For the past seven weeks, Abdulhadi has led a hunger strike protesting his imprisonment and torture at the hands of his captors, who this week transferred him to a military hospital. There, he is likely physically restrained to his bed. Military doctors could by now have forced a thick nasogastric tube up his nose and down the esophagus into his stomach.

Such forced feeding may sound like the best thing for Abdulhadi, who has reportedly lost 25% of his body weight due to his decision not to eat. But this painful procedure more probably caused him undue psychological trauma if it were done against his will.

Forced feeding without consent is a flagrant violation of a patient’s medical autonomy. When conducted by a physician against the patient’s will, it is medical complicity in torture, according to the World Medical Association.

This week, PHR requested that the Government of Bahrain allow an independent medical doctor to visit Abdulhadi. PHR urges that Government authorities abide by its pledge to implement the Bassiouni Report recommendations and allow such access. More importantly, the life sentence given to Abdulhadi as a prisoner of conscience should be overturned and he should immediately be released.

Why do rules aimed at preventing sexual assault, providing care for mental illnesses and infectious diseases, and ensuring that pregnant women aren’t shackled while giving birth make immigration detention facilities less safe?

This question was left largely unanswered by yesterday’s “Holiday on ICE” hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, ostensibly held to discuss the 2011 Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS). 

Instead of a meaningful debate about what constitutes humane treatment in the detention setting, the hearing devolved into what Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren characterized as, “The Republican war on immigrants meets the Republican war on women.”

The Subcommittee’s Republican members trotted out the same tired half-truths they’ve been using for years to justify inhumane conditions for immigration detainees while brushing aside the 120-plus immigrants who have died in detention over the past decade.

Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, repeated his assertion that the PBNDS were “hospitality guidelines for illegal immigrants.” In a characteristically ludicrous diatribe, Iowa Congressman Steve King argued that since only 120 detainees have died over the past 10 years, compared with millions of non-detained Americans, it’s statistically safer to be detained than free.

Jessica Vaughn, a witness from the anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies, said the PBNDS were an attempt to “help illegal aliens game the system” and referred to an unnamed detention facility that offers detainees a “juice bar.”

But, she said, “I’m not here to ask the government to house detainees in tents in the desert.” She doesn’t need to ask – the government already detains immigrants in tents at the Willacy Detention Center in the Texas desert.

Vaughn’s confusion is understandable. Under questioning from California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, she admitted that she has visited only one detention center in her career.

She noted that this detention center provided “well-rounded meals to detainees,” many of whom were on a first-name basis with the officers guarding them. Detainees had freedom of movement, and the whole thing “seemed a little relaxed” to her. When asked what the problem was with a facility where detainees and guards alike feel relaxed and safe, Vaughn couldn’t answer.

Throughout the hearing, Republicans and their witnesses brought up the new Karnes Civil Detention Center, which they said was more like a college than a prison. I visited this facility a few weeks ago, along with representatives from other human rights organizations. While Karnes is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, it is still a jail. Like my college, it had internet access and a volleyball court. Unlike my college, heavy steel doors and high walls topped with barbed wire prevented anyone from leaving.

The Subcommittee’s Democratic members, who often fail to adequately rebut the demonstrably false claims of their Republican counterparts, seemed finally to be incensed enough at the mocking tone of the hearing to respond. Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s representative in the House, started his statement by saying that the premise of the hearing was “misguided, and frankly appalling.” The assertion that detainees are being pampered, he said, “does not even pass the laugh test.”

Lofgren noted that, “It’s very easy to pick on the most vulnerable people, and I think that’s what’s going on here.”

Indeed, it’s difficult to think of an easier target for reactionary politicians looking to score political points. Immigration detainees, of course, are not allowed to vote.

They are held in facilities that are often built far away from cities, depriving them of access to families, communities, physicians, and lawyers. Detainees don’t have the right to a lawyer at government expense, and the vast majority are unrepresented.

The media gives woefully inadequate coverage to the issue, and reporters covering immigration detention reflexively parrot Republican assertions without bothering to check their accuracy.

The worst part is that most of the problems Republicans complain about were created by Congress.

California Congressman Elton Gallegly, the Subcommittee’s Chairman, noted that we should be trying to reduce the amount of time immigrants spend in detention. True enough – but this won’t happen unless Congress appropriates more money to the Immigration Courts, which are critically under-funded and under-resourced.

And complaints about the $32 million spent on the Karnes facility (which, in fact, was paid for by the GEO Group, the private prison corporation that runs the facility, and not the federal government) ring hollow when Congress enacts laws requiring the government to detain 34,000 immigrants every night.

So how do the new PBNDS make immigration detention facilities less safe than they already are? Yesterday’s hearing failed to answer that question.  But no amount of standards – especially standards that, like the PBNDS, are not legally enforceable – will make up for the fact that our government detains far too many people, unnecessarily, and at great cost to American taxpayers.

The Subcommittee’s Republicans would do well to spend a few days in Karnes, Willacy, or any other detention facility the next time they need a vacation. If they did, they might think twice before holding another “Holiday on ICE” hearing.