Texte remanié de: Thesis Ph. D.--Universiteit Maastricht, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 424-438.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McGill University. / Written for the Dept. of Political Science. Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 453-489.

In this work, I defend the view that torture is an inexcusable practice for a democracy. Philosophical defenses of torture rely on hypothetical, abstract scenarios in which we are asked to imagine that a ticking bomb has been planted in the center of a metropolitan area and will kill thousands of innocents unless the terrorist, who has been captured by state agents but refuses to divulge the bomb’s location, is tortured. This model gives insufficient attention to the problematic relationship between pain and truth and reduces the recognition of torture as a practice of social and political domination. By taking a closer look at how democracies have practiced torture and how they have tried to reconcile its practice with democratic norms such as accountability and the rule of law, we are better equipped to understand what is at stake in justifying torture. The justifications that service and promote this violent practice fail to satisfy epistemic conditions of truth and evidence, and neglect moral restraints regarding our treatment of others as well as the profound consequences for allowing torture to persist in a democratic society. / Graduate / 0422 / jerryst.peter@gmail.com

When African states were under colonisation, the colonial masters violated the rights of the African people &ndash / men, women and children- with impunity. The protection and promotion of human rights was, however, not high on the agenda of African countries at independence. This is reflected in the 1963 Charter of the Organisation of African Unity, which does not accord the promotion and protection of human rights the status they deserve. The preamble to the OAU Charter states that the states are to promote international cooperation having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is against that background, that many African states violated human rights in the immediate post-independence era and continue to do so.<br /> More recently, African countries have taken steps to follow the world trends of the promotion and protection human rights. This has resulted in the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples&rsquo / Rights (that has mechanisms of ensuring that human rights are promoted and protected in Africa), the desire to establish the African Court on Human and Peoples&rsquo / Rights, the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Grand Bay Declaration, the Protocol on the Rights of Women, and the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The Constitutive Act of the African Union emphasises the protection and promotion of human rights.<br /> <br /> However, one scholar has doubts whether by adopting the Constitutive Act of the African Union African leaders were genuinely committed to the protection and promotion of human rights and he is of the view that the &lsquo / treaty could actually provide a cover for Africa&rsquo / s celebrated dictators to continue to perpetrate human rights abuses.&rsquo / <br /> <br /> Torture continues to feature as a serious human rights violation in Africa. This explains why during its 32nd ordinary session held in Banjul, The Gambia, the African Commission on Human and Peoples&rsquo / Rights (the African Commission) resolved to adopt the Guidelines and Measures for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa (The Robben Island Guidelines (RIG)). This is a new development in Africa aiming at &lsquo / operationalising&rsquo / article 5 of the African Charter. The RIG are phrased in a seemingly ambitious language but their implementation by the African States remains doubtful because they are not legally binding. This has to be viewed in the light of the fact that many African countries are States Parties to major regional and international human rights instruments but human rights violations still persist.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

The central aim of the current study is to examine structural models of posttraumatic stress symptoms, as measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ-R; Mollica et al., 1992; Mollica, McDonald, Massagli, & Silove, 2004). Participants were international torture survivors who sought psychological treatment from a torture rehabilitation center in the United States. It was hypothesized that the factor structure of posttraumatic stress reactions among this heterogeneous sample of torture survivors would be consistent with the aroused intrusion model (Rasmussen, Smith, & Keller, 2007) rather than the dysphoria model (Simms, Watson, & Doebbelling, 2002). In order to evaluate model superiority, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted. It was also hypothesized that avoidance and numbing are two discrete factors in the aroused intrusion model. To determine whether these two constructs are distinct, convergent and discriminant validity were examined. Lastly, it was hypothesized that there is no difference in the means of the latent variable emotional numbing across culture. A one-factor ANOVA was conducted to compare means of the numbing construct between ethnic groups. The findings indicate that the dysphoria model was marginally more preferential than the aroused intrusion model (Rasmussen, Smith, and Keller, 2007; Simms, Watson, & Doebbeling, 2002). The results of a post hoc CFA support previous research, which suggests that a four-factor structure is preferred over the previously accepted three-factor model (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The findings also suggest that emotional numbing and avoidance are two separate factors. Lastly, the ANOVA resulted in the failure to reject the null hypothesis. Future research is needed to establish model superiority for posttraumatic stress reactions among torture survivors and the generalizability of the model across cultures.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-273).

Is it an activity qualified as torture only when it is carried out for certain purposes? At the heart of the debate lies the question of whether or not corporal punishment is a form of torture. Aspects of corporal punishment remain acceptable according certain religious traditions. An example of this is found in traditional Islamic law, which has banned both torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, when used for the express purpose of obtaining confessions or information. In other circumstances, however, severe corporal punishment is acceptable in Islamic law. As a result, some Islamic states whose domestic law is rooted in traditional Islamic law, justify their use of torture by invoking Islamic traditions: they claim that corporal punishment is derived from God's will. These states tend to consider its use as lawful sanctions, and it is made legal under their domestic law. In this paper, Iran is studied as one such state.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-273).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-273).