Dear friends,

In this week’s update, we take a closer look at acts of torture and abusive treatment condoned in the name of "health care." First, we present two new reports published by the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care. The reports provide personal testimonies of men and women who were detained in drug rehabilitation centers where they were regularly abused. We also look at new international medical guidelines that recognize coercive sterilization as acts of violence.

Thank you for reading and please join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Paul Silva
psilva@sorosny.org
Follow me on Twitter: @PauloNYC

Treatment or Torture? Inside Drug Rehab Centers

Over the past decade, governments have increasingly turned to arbitrary detention, cruelty, and even torture in order to combat drug abuse. This so-called rehabilitation rarely resembles the evidence-based drug treatment people deserve—a supportive experience, entered into voluntarily, and with full consent to the treatment plan.

Two new publications from the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, a coalition led by the Open Society Foundations, document the abuses that people detained in the name of drug treatment regularly suffer. The first, Treated With Cruelty: Abuses in the Name of Drug Rehabilitation, is a compilation of personal testimonies of detainees in Russia, China, Cambodia, and Mexico. The second book, Treatment or Torture? Applying International Human Rights Standards to Drug Rehabilitation Centers, makes the case that such abusive treatment constitutes torture and violates international law.

Read more and learn what you can do to stop the abuse.

Putting an End to Forced Sterilization

The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics has released strong new guidelines on female contraceptive sterilization, recognizing the long history of forced sterilization of women who have been deemed “unworthy of reproduction.” The guidelines will be a valuable tool in efforts to end coerced sterilizations worldwide, but we need government leaders and national medical bodies to put these guidelines into practice and protect the rights of all women. Read more. 

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