2007 June Una-tampa Bay Newsletter

United Nations Association of the USA

In this issue — Meeting Location………....1 Program………………..…..1 From the President’s Desk.2 Laws Against Torture…….2 RSVP-Reservation………...3 Overview of Torture.....…..3 Officers and Directors….....4

United Nations Association of the United States of America Tampa Bay Chapter

Tampa Bayhttp://unatampabay.org Chapter

7833 Second Avenue South, St Petersburg FL 33707 Tel: 727-345-4280 E-mail: [email protected] “Working Together for Peace, Freedom and Justice” Web Site: http://unatampabay.org

“Working Together for Peace, Freedom and Justice” Tel: 727-345-4280

[email protected] Volume XXXI, No.5

Vol. XXXI No.5 Jun 2007

Jun 2007

Monthly Speaker Series Date: Saturday, Jun 23, 2007 Time: 11:45 th Location: . St. Petersburg College EpiCenter - 13805 58 St. N., Largo/N St Petersburg, FL 33760 Directions: From Tampa I-275 – South Right on Route 688, Ulmerton Rd. (Exit 31) to 58th St. Turn right to EpiCenter 13805 on right. From St. Petersburg I-275 North, take Exit 30 (Largo-Roosevelt Blvd.) Route 686 West to Ulmerton Rd.(Route 688) Left on Ulmerton to 58th St. Turn right to EpiCenter 13805 on right. RESERVATIONS & Payment in Advance Requested: Use coupon on pg 3. Note amount and deadline.

PROGRAM The Topic this month, presented by Dr. Inge Genefke, will be:

“Together Against Torture” (An International, National and Local Perspective) This program is provided in conjunction with the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture (FCST), a program of the Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, It is provided in observance of the United Nation’s International Day, June 26, in Support of Survivors of Torture. Dr. Genefke, a MD and founder of the International Rehabilitation Council of Torture Survivors (IRCT) and its current Ambassador, will be introduced by Gulf Coast CEO & President Michael Bernstein who met Dr Genefke in Berlin at the 2006 General Assembly of IRCT., Dr. Inge Genefke, will keynote the program after which a panel of three torture survivors (a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian) will be introduced by Stacie Blake, Program Administrator of the FCST. Dr. Genefke is from Denmark, and has devoted her career specifically to the treatment and rehabilitation of victims of torture. She has over thirty years experience in the treatment of torture survivors. Next Board of Directors Meeting: June 23 at 10:15 am. Next Regular Meeting-Speaker Series/People Speak: Sept 29

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From the PRESIDENT'S Desk….. In spite of treaties and laws protecting human rights, torture has continued to take place around the globe, directly and indirectly affecting hundreds of thousands of people. As much as we have heard since the tragic event of 9/11 about the use of torture in the free world as well as in other regimes, the topic for our meeting today should prove quite soul-searching. The perpetrators on both sides feel they have sufficient cause for inflicting the pain and the hurt. Can anything like the rules of the Geneva Convention ever be made to apply? On either side? If not, then the side that does not comply merely succumbs to the standards and barbaric principles of the bad guy. Background on the laws and overview of torture are provided on this page and the next to give attendees of our meeting a preview of the subject. --- Paul Yingst

In Fond Remembrance Dr Bill Leonard passed away the second week in May after having been in Germany on vacation as recent as May 1. We remember Bill as our Chapter President in 2003, a great scholar and speaker, a former adjunct professor at USF, a former dean, and a strong, long-time leader in Rotary. Bill received his PhD in Economics from Columbia University and served as Professor of Economics and Department Chair at Rutgers, Penn State, Hofstra University and the City University of New York. He had authored four books and over 70 articles in economics. In recent years, Bill was a resident of Sun City Center. He will be missed.

Continued from previous column...

rights and privileges under the present Convention. In each case, such persons shall nevertheless be treated with humanity. The Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, currently ratified by 17 nations of the Americas and in force since 28 February 1987, defines torture more expansively than the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Its definition includes: "the use of methods upon a person intended to obliterate the personality of the victim or to diminish his physical or mental capacities."

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Laws Against Torture On December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It states in part: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Since that time the use of torture has been regulated by a number of international treaties, of which the two major ones are the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) which came into force (only for signatory nations) in June 1987, requiring those states to take effective measures to prevent torture within their borders, and forbidding states to return people to their country of origin, if the threat of torture there is likely. And the Geneva Convention (GC) has been in force for some time. The UNCAT states in part: Any act is prohibited which causes severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, whish is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. Nor may an order from a superior officer or a public authority be invoked as justification of torture. . Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. The Geneva Convention provides protection for people who fall into enemy hands. It envisages war in its traditional form, whereby people in uniform fight clearly defined enemies in uniform, within a clearly defined arena. It therefore divides people into two explicit groups: combatants and non-combatants (civilians). There is a third group whose existence and treatment are not covered in treaties. These are unlawful combatants, such as spies, mercenaries, and other combatants who have broken the laws of war, for example by firing on an enemy while flying a white flag. While combatants and non-combatants are provided substantial protection, a lesser level of protection is afforded to unlawful combatants. The Geneva Convention provides an important exemption: In the territory of a Party to the conflict, the latter is satisfied that a protected person is definitely suspected of or engaged in activities hostile to the security of the State, such individual person shall not be entitled to claim such

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New> You may RSVP on line, use http://unatampabay.org; payment in advance preferred UNA-USA Tampa Bay Chapter Luncheon Meeting Reservation Saturday, Jun 23, 2007 11:45 am Location: St Petersburg College EpiCenter To reserve your seat for lunch send this coupon with check made payable to: Tampa Bay Chapter UNA-USA and mail by Tuesday June 19 to: Ms Sujatha Chetty, Treasurer 5222 Beach Breeze Court Tampa FL 33609 [ ] $ 10.00 Students Name______________________________________ [ ] $ 14.00 Members Phone ______________________________________ [ ] $ 16.00 Non-Members e-mail Address _______________________________ [ ] $_____ Donation (Tax Deductible)

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Overview of Torture Something the average person may not think about is the application of science and technology to devise efficient mark-free interrogation and torture techniques, and their proliferation. Yet years of research and development have been expended in devising ever more cruel and inhumane means of extracting obedience and information from reluctant victims or achieving excruciatingly painful and long-drawn-out deaths for those who would question or challenge the prevalent status quo. What has changed in more recent times is (a) the increasing requirement for speed in breaking down prisoners' resistance; (b) the adoption of sophisticated methods based on a scientific approach and (c) a need for invisible torture which leaves no or few marks which might be used by organizations like Amnesty International to label a particular government, a torturing state. According to Amnesty, there is also an increasing trend for torture and ill treatment directed at common criminal suspects and social 'underdogs' such as immigrants and members of racial minorities. Today, the phenomena of torture has grown to a worldwide epidemic. A report by the Redress Trust in 1995, found that 151 countries were involved in torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, despite the fact that 106 states have ratified, acceded to or signed the Convention Against Torture. The advent of modern torture technique can be traced back to the Russian NKVD, which used sensory deprivation and multiple levels of brutality to induce stress before 'conveyor' style questioning by relays of interrogators for days on end, thereby industrializing state terror. These approaches had the dual requirement of extracting information and breaking down personality in order to elicit public support. There is a continuum between such coerced confessions and torture.

These techniques can themselves be regarded as part of an evolving technology which can be further researched and developed before being transferred elsewhere. Again, like all the technology of political control, torture technology has three components, hardware, software and live-ware (the human elements), which are all woven together to form manipulative programs of socio-political control. The hardware can include both modern and medieval prisoner restraining, disabling and repressive technologies, for example leg shackles, thumb-cuffs, and suspension equipment, which despite being prohibited by Rule 33 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules For the Treatment of Prisoners (United Nations, 1955), are still being manufactured; it also encompasses an array of blunt traumainducing drugs . After World War II, the USA undertook considerable research on the use of drugs for obtaining intelligence from interrogees independent from their volition. This research was expanded during the Korean War and included laboratory experiments on animals and humans to determine their speech inducing qualities. Overseas experiments were conducted as part of the project and the CIA later expanded this work. A whole series of projects were then initiated which were concerned with "the research and development of chemical, biological and radiological materials capable for employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." Much of the CIA work on behavior modification was later adapted towards less-lethal disabling chemicals. More recently, Spain has been accused of using vagrants to test the use of anesthetic drugs to make it easier for the security forces to kidnap guerillas of the Basque separatist organization. §

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The price of UN peacekeeping is far less than the human and financial costs of war. .

International Day of UN Peacekeepers, May 26, gave special recognition to the more than 100,000 blue-helmeted troops currently deployed around the world.