Torture Journal

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

Alejandro Forero Cuellar — 2023-12-28

The article addresses the issue of prison overcrowding and how it can be declared as a situation constituting ill-treatment or torture under international law. Faced with such a broad phenomenon, the piece focuses on two elements that may help to assess this circumstance: the existence of a minimum standard with respect to living space, and the use of tools to establish the existence of harm caused by inhuman conditions of incarceration. The article will show a novel jurisprudence regarding the decision of some Courts to secure reparation for victims (early release and reduction of sentence time as offsetting) and will address discussion on the scope and limitations of these decisions with the aim of proposing even more courageous measures to ensure group and generalized reparation measures to reduce the rates of structural institutional violence in prisons.

Ukrainian universities at the time of war: From occupation to temporary relocation

Natalia Tsybuliak — 2023-12-28

Introduction: This paper presents a deep analysis of the impact of the Russian occupation on the activities of Berdyansk State Pedagogical University in Ukraine. This reflection sheds light on numerous challenges faced by the university community under occupation due to the the Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, particularly emphasizing human rights violations and academic freedom. Methods: Utilizing a qualitative research approach, this study employs document analysis, online surveys, and semi-structured interviews. Results: The findings reveal a profound impact of war and occupation on academic and physical freedom. We share the experiences of staff and students during life under occupation, which are filled with fear of violent actions by the occupiers. Berdyansk State Pedagogical University had to adapt to changing conditions, transitioning to a digital educational platform and decentralizing its structure while concurrently fulfilling its third mission: social service and support of the university community and Berdyansk local community.Discussion: Our research-reflective piece calls for immediate intervention and further research toward developing effective strategies to protect the rights of staff and students of higher educational institutions in conditions of war and occupation. We urge the academic community, civil society orgnisations, international orgnisations, and governments to direct their efforts to protect the rights of academic communities during war and occupation. Conclusions provide a critical view of the catastrophic consequences for academic communities and science if timely measures are not taken. Keywords: war, Ukraine, university, occupation, relocation, educational process, scientific work, higher education.

Tales of resilience: voices from detention and imprisonment in Russia

Daria Rud — 2023-12-28

As the exposure to state violence could have long-term negative consequences on
the survivors, we analyzed which optics and measures could be used regardless of the
vulnerabilities of the individual, their social status and institutional context. We examine the ways in which law enforcement system challenges individuals and measures used to practice resilience. We use the concept of resilience within
torturing environment to achieve our goal. Various actors of Russian law enforcement
and penitentiary systems – detainees and prisoners, their family members, human rights activists, state agents etc. – participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews, which we coded basing on grounded theory. Measures employed by survivors to exercise resilience involve regaining bodily control (both by exercise and self-harm), having projections for future (by threats of legal prosecution or publicity), exploiting bureaucracy to one’s advantage, controlling information flow (by bluffing), controlling material evidence, employing allies and preserving the meaning of “normal self”.
We believe that our findings can have practical applications, e.g. for preventing some of the negative consequences of torture by training vulnerable individuals to employ resilient strategies. Describing the way to interpret the power imbalances inherent to the torture environment might also be helpful for appreciating even the smallest acts, including the choice not to act.

Voice hearing in refugees survivors of traumatic events

Alberto Barbieri — 2023-12-28

Introduction: Voice hearing (VH) is commonly associated with psychosis but it has also been reported in PTSD. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to identify the prevalence of VH in a sample of 110 treatment-seeking trauma-affected refugees, and to examine the relative role of certain interpersonal traumatic events (i.e., torture, inprisonment, sexual assault, non-sexual assault), PTSD severity as well as a range of socio-demographic variables in the emergence of VH.

Methods: VH was operationalised in accordance with item 27 of Dissociative Experiences Scale-II. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). The relationship between potential predictor variables and VH was analyzed using binary logistic regression.

Results: The VH prevalence rate in our sample was 29.1%. Among traumatic events only torture significantly predicted the emergence of VH. Also PTSD severity and a higher degree of education were significantly associated with VH.

Discussion: Our study confirms that the experience of VH is relatively frequent in refugee population surviving traumatic events. Moreover, this study suggests the construct validity of severe PTSD with VH related to specific interpersonal traumatic events such as torture. These findings have important diagnostic and therapeutic implications, as increased awareness by clinicians that VH is not uncommon in trauma-affected refugees can potentially reduce misdiagnosis, e.g., by preventing cases of PTSD from being misidentified as psychosis. It is crucial to provide health care professionals with adequate knowledge on the diagnosis and treatment of these particularly complex patterns of post-traumatic disorders in refugees, as they are increasingly present in daily clinical practice in both developing and high-income countries.

Enforced disappearances in the context of migration: A brief review of General Comment No.1 of the Committee against Forced Disappearances

Karlos Castilla — 2023-12-28

The reasons that lead a person to initiate a migratory movement are manifold. Therefore, the conditions and the way in which this movement is carried out are also diverse and unequal. Currently, there is not a single country in the world with open borders. This means that each country sets the requirements that a person must meet to enter its territory. This confirms that the “right to migrate” is not fully recognized in any legal system1. Because not everyone can meet these requirements or are denied visas, in many cases people are forced to use forms, routes, and modes of transportation that risk their integrity or lives to make a cross-border migration move. But that’s not all: thousands of migrants disappear on the way to their destination country or in the destination country itself. In many cases, we do not even know whether they have died or whether something 1 Human rights treaties generally recognize the right to enter and leave one’s own country, but not the right to enter another country. Most of what is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” See: (Castilla Juárez K. , 2024) has happened to them. We simply do not know anything more about these people. Faced with this situation, which has been analyzed, studied, and attempted to be documented for several years2, the United Nations Committee against Forced Disappearances took a step forward by adopting, on September 18, 2023, its first General Comment dealing specifically with “enforced disappearance in the migratory context3”. This occurred primarily because the Committee is deeply concerned about the increasing trends of enforced disappearances in the context of migration, and because it notes with great concern that cases of enforced disappearances are frequently reported along various migration routes.

Introducing the International Guiding Statement on alternatives to solitary confinement

Rachele Stroppa — 2023-12-28

Based on the reflections of a multidisciplinary group of experts, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Antigone worked on the International Guiding Statement on Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, proposing global guidelines for reducing and finally overcoming the use of solitary confinement in prisons

Book Review: Victoria Canning. Torture and torturous violence. Transcending the definitions of torture

Pau Pérez-Sales — 2023-12-28

Book review by Pau Pérez-Sales on Victoria Canning's book "Torture and torturous violence. Transcending the definitions of torture"

Substitutive trauma: preparing grounds for the Russian attack on Ukraine

Jana Javakhishvili — 2023-12-28

Unprocessed collective trauma may create fertile soil for political manipulation. This article introduces a new concept, that of "substitutive trauma," which refers to the utilization of unprocessed collective traumatic experiences by political leadership to create shared feelings of victimhood and vengeful attitudes within a population. The analysis explores how a substitutive trauma-based psycho-political dynamic culminated in February 2022 in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The article argues that the community of traumatic stress professionals, studying and understanding macro-societal processes can contribute to reducing and ameliorating such destructive psycho-political developments.

Resilience in torture survivors: reflections, learnings and ways forward

Pau Pérez-Sales — 2023-12-28

The paper develops initial reflections on the possibility of resilience in torture survivors and how resilience would be defined in that case, who would be resilient and whether it is possible to learn to be resilient. The second part suggests a comprehensive list of individual and collective resilience mechanisms relevant during and after the experience of torture.

Argentina: the new government and denialism

Darío Manuel Lagos — 2023-12-29

On 10 December, a new government took
office in Argentina, the product of democratic
elections.
The human rights movement has dealt a
blow with the victory of the representatives of
the fascist extreme right, Javier Milei and Victoria
Villarruel. They refer to Donald Trump,
Benjamin Netanyahu, Jair Bolsonaro and
some European sectors, represented by the
Spanish Vox, or the Prime Minister of Italy,
Giorgia Meloni among others. All of them
with an agenda that backlashed human rights
achievements and anti-torture work.
In their proposals, Milei and Villarruel
openly vindicate the genocidaires of the military
dictatorship. Days before the elections,
the new vice-president held an act in the Legislature
of the city of Buenos Aires, the content
of which was the justification of the genocidal
actions of the military dictatorship (1976-
1984). Denialism of the State terrorism that
took place during those years is more than an
exercise of manipulation of memory; it is a political
interpretation of the present that aims
to influence the construction of the future.