Magister Legum - LLM / The international community saw the need to completely eradicate the use of torture and, as a result, adopted the 1984 Convention against Torture. The Convention obliges states to take effective legislative, judicial, and administrative and any other measures necessary to prevent acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment within their jurisdictions. Cameroon, following the preamble of its Constitution, which prohibits torture in all its form, ratified the Convention in 1986 and other international treaties that deal with the prohibition of the use of torture. According to article 45 of the Constitution, duly ratified international treaties and conventions enter into force following their publication into the national territory. Cameroon has amended its Constitution and incorporated intoits domestic laws, provisions which prohibit the use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. It goes further to prescribe appropriate penalties for public officials and other persons working in official capacity, who subject detainees and prison inmates to torture and other forms of ill-treatment.Despite all these instruments and mechanisms put in place to prevent and eradicate the use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, this heinous crime continues to be widespread and is practiced systematically in almost all regions in the country and with impunity. This study will analyse whether Cameroon has put in place adequate constitutional and legal framework and mechanisms to guarantee the right to freedom from torture and other forms of ill-treatment for persons deprived of their liberty.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo compreender os entrecruzamentos entre as masculinidades militares e policiais e o processo de tortura na ditadura civil-militar brasileira, através da análise dos depoimentos prestados à Comissão Nacional da Verdade. Para tanto foi necessário passar em revista a lógica do butim de guerra, os discursos militares sobre o regime ditatorial e a tortura e a violência sexual contra mulheres e homens. Utilizando-me dos conceitos de masculinidade personalista e burocrática, sistematização proposta por Huggins, Fatouros e Zimbardo no livro Operários da Violência, busquei visualizar mais nitidamente o papel das masculinidades dos agentes estatais na construção do sistema repressivo. Agindo como um exército de ocupação de um território estrangeiro, os policiais e militares levaram a cabo a tarefa de reprimir – legal e ilegalmente - os opositores e opositoras do governo. Ao controle social, exercido pelas forças de segurança, se somou a vigilância da ordem de gêneros. Assim como a guerra contra as esquerdas, o trabalho de restabelecimento dos lugares sociais de gênero conhecia poucos limites. / The present dissertation has the objective understand the criss-cross between militaire and police masculinities and the torture process in the civil-militaire brasilian dictatorship, through the Comissão Nacional da Verdade depositions analysis. For the task was necessarie to go through the war booty logic, the militaire discourse on the dictatorial regime and the torture and the sexual violence against women and men. Using the concepts of personalistic and burocratic masculinities, systematization proposed by Huggins, Fatouros and Zimbardo in the book Violence Workers, I seeked to visualize more clearly the state agents’s role in the repressive system’s building. Acting like a occupation army in a foreign country, the policemen and militaires bring off the task of repress – legally and illegally – the government opponents. To the social control, exercised by the security forces, the gender order’s vigilance was added. As the war against the lefts, the social gender places restoration work knowed few limits.

The use of mechanical restraint is a common practice in psychiatric care, often defended by medical necessity but seldom questioned from a human rights perspective. The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate under which circumstances mechanical restraint by bed through belt fixation could amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Persons with psychosocial disabilities are in a particularly vulnerable situation and as the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the most comprehensive rights framework for this group, it has been discussed whether the CRPD sets out additional safeguards in relation to restraint.  A legal doctrinal approach is the basic methodology used in order to outline the current international and European legal framework on torture and other ill-treatment and disability rights. A survivor-controlled research methodology has been applied and to amplify other voices of persons with firsthand experience of being mechanically restrained, interviews have been conducted with persons from Sweden and Spain. Healthcare professionals have also been interviewed. A feminist perspective on the law is applied.  Different international conventions and bodies of the United Nations have diverse interpretations on what acts or omissions that amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, although there is an aim and will to streamline the conventions. It is clear that the use of mechanical restraint can create such intense mental or physical suffering required to reach the common criterion of seriousness. However, some people do not experience the required levels of suffering for it to be considered torture, meaning that it might not amount to torture but rather other ill-treatment. The threshold for being considered torture according to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) seems to be somewhat higher than that of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). In this thesis it was found that the most critical element for this is the requirement of intent. Intent can however be implied under certain circumstances if the practice is of discriminatory nature. If a person has a psychosocial disability, intent might be presumed if States do not provide appropriate health care. In the case of girls and women, intent might also be presumed since they seem to have a higher risk of getting restrained for unlawful reasons.  The main conclusion in this thesis is that mechanical restraint by bed through belt fixation could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment according to the UNCAT, ICCPR and ECHR.

Three severely developmentally delayed institutionalized adolescent individuals were treated for severe self-injurious behavior over a three month period. Treatment consisted of positive practice overcorrection, restraint delivered as a reinforcer for an absence of self-injury, and increased interaction during task training sessions. Treatment was faded for two of the individuals in successive steps involving decreased restraint and interaction. Self-injurious behavior was reduced in all cases. Prosocial behaviors increased with reductions in self-injurious behavior.

Background: Many of the people who have been forced to flee their countries have experienced torture or other potentially traumatic events [PTE]. These experiences can lead to serious health consequences. The care staff experience difficulties in caring for these individuals. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe how refugees with history of torture and other PTE experience the encounter with with healthcare. Method: Literature review with a qualitative methodology that includes eleven articles, through the databases CINAHL and PubMed, which are analyzed through a thematic analysis. Result:Two overarching themes were identified through the analysis; ‘Perceived success factors’ and ‘Perceivedobstacles in care’. These themes had two and four sub-themes respectively. Conclusion: Refugees with experiences of torture and other PTE need to be met with caution before their experiences. This can be achieved in a good caregiver-patient relationship, characterized by caring and trust. However, there seems to be a need for increased knowledge among healthcare staff in meeting this patient group in a person-centered way. In order for these people to receive good care, a well-functioning interaction between all the different actors who are in contact with refugees is also required. / Bakgrund: Många av de människor som tvingats fly sina länder har erfarit tortyr eller andra potentiellt traumatiska händelser (potentially traumatic event [PTE]). Dessa erfarenheter kan leda till allvarligakonsekvenser för hälsan. Vårdpersonalen upplever svårigheter i att vårda dessa individer. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur flyktingar med erfarenheter av tortyr och andra PTE upplever mötetmed hälso- och sjukvården. Metod: Litteraturstudie med kvalitativ ansats som inkluderade elva artiklar, genom databaserna CINAHL och PubMed, vilka analyserats genom tematisk analys. Resultat: Två övergripande teman identifierades genom analysen; ‘Upplevda framgångsfaktorer i vården’ och ‘Upplevda hinder i vården’. Dessa teman hade två respektive fyra subteman. Slutsats: Flyktingar med erfarenheter av tortyr och andra potentiellt traumatiska händelser behöver mötas med varsamhet införvad de har varit med om. Detta kan göras bra i en god vårdare-patientrelation, präglad av omtanke och tillit. Det tycks dock finnas ett behov av ökad kunskap hos vårdpersonal i att möta denna patientgrupp på ett personcentrerat sätt. För att dessa personer ska få en god vård krävs även ettvälfungerande samspel mellan alla de olika aktörer som är i kontakt med flyktingar.

The main area of inquiry for this thesis is super-maximum security prisons or as commonly referred to “supermax prisons”. First, the thesis traces the shift from the use of physical punishment to the use of disciplinary measures in punitive institutions and the development of the modern prison until it reaches its latest form as embodied in the supermax model. Secondly, the design, characteristics, and conditions of these prisons are also explored to demonstrate how they systematically contribute to the dehumanization and depersonalization of prisoners. These institutions are subsequently found to represent physical spaces of the lawless “state of exception” that reduces inmates to a “bare” animal-like form of living through depriving them of all the rights and prerogatives granted to them by law. Third, the thesis analyzes the penological rationale commonly invoked to justify supermax prisons and concludes that it suffers from a clear deficiency in demonstrating any evidence-based credibility. Finally, the thesis sheds light on the devastating and long-lasting impacts of supermax confinement on mental health and argues that it may be in violation of fundamental human rights such as the right against torture and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment or punishment as provided by international law.

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Outrages committed during violent conflict and as part of the 'war on terror' are not only an affront to human dignity -- they also violate the Geneva Conventions. This book examines recent high-profile cases of repeated and open abuse of the Conventions. The contributors explore why these and related violations of international humanitarian law cannot be viewed as anomalies, but must be regarded as part of a pattern which is set to undermine the Geneva Conventions as a whole. The contributors argue that an international system in which there is diminishing legal restraint on the use of force means that the world will become less secure and more volatile, even for those in the most powerful countries. Individuals everywhere face the prospect of a horrifying vulnerability. This is the first scholarly yet accessible work to consider the meanings of outrages such as the normalisation of torture, as well as the worrying new normative, technical and tactical developments that challenge the purpose and standing of the Geneva Conventions.

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