Physicians for Human Rights
Using science and medicine to stop human rights violations
How Doctors Would Know If Syrians Were Hit With Nerve Gas
President Obama affirmed Tuesday that there's evidence Syrians have been attacked with chemical weapons — in particular, nerve gas. But that's not the same as proof positive. So PHR is setting up a network to get fact sheets about chemical weapons into the hands of Syrian physicians.
Independent Investigation and Forensic Protocols Are Key to Assessing Chemical Weapons Use
Amid accumulating signs that chemical weapons may have been used recently in Syria, PHR repeats its call for a thorough independent investigation of such allegations to be conducted immediately that follows forensic protocols for handling evidence.
New Bipartisan Report Supports PHR’s Position on Torture of Detainees
PHR applauds the publication today of a bipartisan independent report that supports PHR’s longstanding contention that the interrogation and treatment of many detainees in US custody since 9/11 amounted to torture.
Burma’s Leaders Should Take Steps to Investigate and Prevent Anti-Muslim Violence
PHR calls on Burma’s government to act urgently to halt anti-Muslim incitement and to invite international investigators to launch an immediate independent investigation into a reported massacre of more than two dozen Muslim students in Meiktila on March 21.
Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System
Solitary confinement is a form of segregation in which people are held in total or near-total isolation in small cells for 23 hours a day. It is used to control and discipline detainees in federal and state prisons, local jails, and immigration and national security detention facilities. Unlike incarcerated prisoners, immigration and national security detainees are held not as punishment for a crime but as a preventive measure, and will likely never be charged with a crime. For these people, solitary confinement then becomes entirely punitive, with dire consequences for their mental and physical health.
New York City Cardiologist Named New Chair of PHR
PHR is delighted to announce the appointment of Deborah D. Ascheim, MD, as its new board chair. Dr. Ascheim is an associate professor in the Department of Health Evidence & Policy and a cardiologist in the Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
PHR-Led Bill to Protect Health Workers Introduced
PHR today helped introduce a bill that would protect health workers globally from increasing attacks during times of war and unrest, and ensure they can continue to provide services without fear of violence, retribution, or arrest.
Evaluating Asylum Seekers: An Interview with Dr. Arno Vosk (SampsoniaWay.org)
Asylum Network volunteer Dr. Vosk discusses the role coincidence plays in keeping asylum seekers alive, his method of assessing trauma via an individual’s scars, and the difficulties people face when seeking refuge in the US, where “fearfulness and rejection of immigrants have become an accepted part of national policy.”
Dr. Eddy Ameen, Asylum Network Volunteer (SampsoniaWay.org)
Sampsonia Way speaks to Dr. Eddy Ameen, a licensed professional counselor who works as a volunteer in Physicians For Human Rights’ Asylum Network program.
Ongoing Politicization of Medical Affairs in Bahrain Requires Vigorous Response (May 3, 2013)
The cancellation of an international medical ethics conference that had been scheduled for April 10-12 in Bahrain is another sign that the country’s rulers continue a systematic pattern of politicizing medical affairs.
Failing to Heal: Hunger Strikes in Guantánamo and the Role of Medical Professionals (April 30, 2013)
In a recently released bipartisan report on detainee treatment at the detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the Constitution Project’s Expert Task Force devotes a whole chapter to the spectacular failure of medical professionals in GTMO to protect detainees from harm or injustice.
Stained Glass Transparency: Bahrain’s Latest Obfuscation of International Human Rights Accountability (April 25, 2013)
Bahrain has again indefinitely postponed a visit by the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, the latest in a series of attempts to deter human rights observers from scrutinizing the kingdom’s dismal human records record. The government told the rapporteur, Juan Méndez, that his visit could be “immensely damaging” to the Bahrain National Dialogue, an initiative that should welcome such a visit if it truly seeks to promote reform.
President Obama Urged to Coordinate Executive Branch Response to Senate Committee's Study on CIA Interrogation Program (May 2013)
PHR has joined seven other NGOs, including the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, The Center for Victims of Torture, and others, to urge President Obama to make sure the Executive Branch response to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence study is not driven by individuals who might be implicated in the CIA’s use of torture.
Securing Afghanistan's Past: Human Remains Identification Needs and Gap Analysis (April 2013)
PHR's report outlines steps that Afghanistan can take if it is to make progress in addressing the right to truth of victims of more than three decades of violent conflict by identifying missing and disappeared persons.
Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System (April 2013)
Solitary confinement is a form of segregation in which people are held in total or near-total isolation in small cells for 23 hours a day. It is used to control and discipline detainees in federal and state prisons, local jails, and immigration and national security detention facilities. Unlike incarcerated prisoners, immigration and national security detainees are held not as punishment for a crime but as a preventive measure, and will likely never be charged with a crime. For these people, solitary confinement then becomes entirely punitive, with dire consequences for their mental and physical health.
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