PHR Action Center
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Establish a Commission to Investigate US Torture and Hold Health Professionals Accountable
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has proposed the establishment of a bipartisan commission to investigate torture and other abuses committed by the Bush Administration.
PHR has been at the forefront of calls for an investigative commission since we began the Campaign Against Torture over half a decade ago—this is our chance to make it a reality. And we need your support. Let Senator Leahy, President Obama and the world know you support this commission by Help us reach the goal of 10,000 petition signatures in support of a bipartisan commission to investigate the use of torture by the US Government. Sign on now and forward to 5 friends. Sign this petition to:
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , Dear Senator Leahy, I am writing to applaud your call for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Bush Administration's detainee treatment policies and its authorization of torture. Knowing the truth about our nation's descent into torture is necessary if the United States' reputation as a defender of human rights and the rule of law is to be restored. It is also essential that the commission be tasked to specifically document the use of the healing professions to design, supervise, and implement a regime of abuse intended to break the bodies and minds of detainees. According to the public record, some mental health professionals and physicians abandoned the core principles of medical ethics and became complicit in the torture of those in our custody. All evidence of health professional participation in violations of medical ethics and anti-torture law should be referred by the Commission to state licensing boards. Finally, the Commission should ensure that the voices of the victims of these policies be heard and that the impact of their treatment on their lives and their families be documented as part of your proposed inquiry. The tactics used by US personnel - as Physicians for Human Rights and others have shown - inflicted a horrific toll on those in our custody, including contributing to the deaths of unknown numbers of detainees. I thank you, Senator Leahy - as well as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and other Congressional supporters of the Commission proposal - for working to achieve accountability for these violations of US law and international human rights standards. It is time for the American people to fully learn what was done in our name.
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| Background Information |
Your advocacy has been crucial to turning the tide of torture over the past several years. PHR is asking for your support once again to ensure the truth comes out about the Bush Administration's torture regime.
The voice of health professionals and human rights activists is indispensible to this call for accountability. The US government weaponized the health professions to develop, monitor and execute a program to break the bodies and minds of detainees. The core tenets of medical training and ethics that PHR and our members espouse were grossly subverted. The end result was the complicity of the healing professions in a regime of psychological and physical torture.
Sign on today, and help ensure that the proposed commission includes an in-depth investigation of the complicity of medical professionals in torture—so it will never happen again.
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