Physicians for Human Rights
Using science and medicine to stop human rights violationsPress Room
How the US Rendered, Tortured and Discarded One Innocent Man
In fall 2009, I found myself in a Tanzanian hotel lobby, sitting across from Suleiman Abdallah, a lanky man with a goofy smile and a broken tooth. Over the next few days, he would describe in excruciating detail how he had been captured in Mogadish in 2003 by a Somali warlord and handed over to American officials, who had him rendered via Kenya and Djibouti to Afghanistan for five years of detention and torture.
In the News
We're Still Accused by Those We've Tortured
Nat Hentoff of the CATO Institute questions the Obama administration's commitment to stopping enhanced interrogation methods at Guantánamo Bay. A US Court rules that documents containing information regarding interrogation methods can be kept secret.
Fighting for the Forgotten
As director of PHR's anti-torture program and as an attorney for Guantanamo Bay detainees, Kristine Huskey has been fighting for basic human rights and social justice since a few months after 9/11, when she took on her first clients. In a Yin Radio interview, Huskey talks about her work and how she manages to stay with it amid the worst of what human beings are capable of.
Press Release
PHR Experts to Speak at Law Conference on Refugee Crises
Still Waiting for Tomorrow: The Law and Politics of Unresolved Refugee Crises (pdf), a conference in Boston that will explore the scope and consequences of global refugee crises as well as potential policy responses to these crises, will feature PHR experts.
A Doctor's Response to Torture
In the recently released Annals of Internal Medicine, PHR volunteer Dr. Sondra Crosby describes her experience treating a torture survivor who she calls “Rashid.” Kidnapped from a hospital bed and sold for a bounty, Rashid spent 5 years in US custody where he suffered severe beatings, prolonged solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, and rape. All along, he was innocent. (Please note, the below linked article is in PDF format.)

