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
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.
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.
Follow
health-related tweets from the Open Society Foundations: @OpenSociety/health-team.