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For Immediate Release

New York State Senate and Governor Must Act Immediately to Complete Historic Anti-Torture Legislation

Human Rights Group Applauds Assembly Vote on Gottfried Bill

Cambridge, Mass - 06/25/2010

The New York State Assembly has passed historic legislation to prohibit the participation of health care professionals in torture and ill treatment of prisoners. The legislation would prohibit any New York licensed health care professional from undertaking these abusive acts, whether in New York, elsewhere in the US, or internationally.

"PHR applauds the leadership of Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) in securing passage of this legislation by the Assembly," said PHR Chief Executive Officer Frank Donaghue. "We also acknowledge with gratitude the many prominent New York health professionals and health professional students who successfully advocated for this action by the Assembly."

"The citizens of New York should be proud that their elected representatives have acted despite the federal government's failure to respond to the ethical and moral crisis of health professionals' complicity in torture," said Nathaniel Raymond, Director of PHR's Campaign Against Torture. "It is now up to the New York State Senate and Governor David Patterson to ensure that this landmark legislation becomes law before the legislative session is completed."

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Investigated the epidemic of violence spread by Burma’s military junta
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring
  • 2012 — Trained doctors, lawyers, police, and judges in the Democratic Republic of
                  the Congo, Kenya, and Syria on the proper collection of evidence in
                  sexual violence cases
  • 2013 — Won first prize in the Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention with MediCapt,
                  our mobile app that documents evidence of torture and sexual violence

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