I started my journey as executive director of PTV last month, and each passing day deepens my sense that this is where I belong. Perhaps it was listening to Rossana, who fled El Salvador after being beaten and raped by death squads. "I had no job, no home, no family," said Rossana. "I wanted to die. PTV saved my life, and I am now able to help others in Los Angeles without fear I will be tortured.......more
06/24/2010 - Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilmember Jan Perry, and Assembly Speaker John Perez are endorsing PTV's Profits for Peace campaign. The campaign will raise funds for the Program for Torture Victims to kick off its 30th anniversary year on United Nations Day in Support of Victims of Torture, observed on June 26 by human rights groups across the world. Participating businesses will contribute a portion of their profits to PTV for a day, a week, a month or a year....more
06/18/2010 - This year the Program for Torture Victims (PTV) commemorates 30 years of service to survivors of torture. To raise awareness about the problem of torture and our work with survivors here in Los Angeles, PTV will be hosting an number of events in honor of our 30th year....more
4/16/2010 - LOS ANGELES - Mayor Villaraigosa issued the following statement on Julie Gutman, Vice-President of the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works Commission and Senior Labor Advisor, being named Executive Director of the Program for Torture Victims, the first human rights organization of its kind in the country....more
4/16/2010 - Julie Gutman, Commissioner and Senior Advisor to Major Villaraigosa, named Executive Director of the Program for Torture Victims, the first human rights organization of its kind in the country....more
03/29/2010 - Despite some difficult compromises, the annual resolution relating to torture and ill-treatment of the Human Rights Council, approved on March 26, has a number of positive elements, which can be built on in future years. Mirroring last years resolution on the role of health professionals, this years resolution focused on how judges, prosecutors and lawyers can contribute to the prevention of torture......more
03/29/2010 - Description: Despite some difficult compromises, the annual resolution relating to torture and ill-treatment of the Human Rights Council, approved on March 26, has a number of positive elements, which can be built on in future years. Mirroring last years resolution on the role of health professionals, this years resolution focused on how judges, prosecutors and lawyers can contribute to the prevention of torture... ...more
3/15/2010 - WASHINGTON - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Monday introduced legislation to strengthen the country's commitment to protecting refugees fleeing persecution or torture. The Refugee Protection Action of 2010 will help to improve protections for refugees and asylum seekers with bona fide claims. The legislation is cosponsored by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.)....more
03/07/2010 - Washington D.C. - This Supreme Court justice has a history of dismissing prisoner brutality. And it's his former law clerk who was investigated for authorizing harsh interrogation tactics as a Justice Department lawyer. According to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a prisoner who was slammed to a concrete floor and punched and kicked by a guard after asking for a grievance form -- but suffered neither serious nor permanent harm -- has no claim that his constitutional rights were violated....more
A previously unreleased internal Department of Defense (DoD) memo, summarizing a review of the Navy SERE program in late February - early March 2007, reveals that there was fierce criticism within the DoD of the Navy SERE school in North Island, San Diego, for being the only SERE facility to still use waterboarding in its training program....more
03/09/2010 - On 9 March, the IRCT and WMA jointly hosted the side event Exploring Sustainable Systems to Document Torture – The Role of Health Professionals at the 13th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Moderated by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak, the event was attended by some 50 representatives from governments, NGOs, the academic community, UN agencies and health professional organizations.
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03/03/2010 - Letters to the Editor regarding: Torture Lawyers, AND Doctors Without Morals
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03/01/2010 - Last week, the American Psychological Association (APA) finally revised its ethics code so that it no longer contained the so-called Nuremberg Defense, allowing dispensing with professional ethics when they conflicted with law, regulations, other governing legal authority. This clause was added in 2002, at the heyday of the Bush administration. APA dissidents, retired military personnel, ethicists,and human rights advocates have long pushed for its removal.
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03/01/2010 - After five years of investigation, the Justice Department has released its findings regarding the government lawyers who authorized waterboarding and other forms of torture during the interrogation of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere... In contrast, the government doctors and psychologists who participated in and authorized the torture of detainees have escaped discipline, accountability or even internal investigation...
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02/24/2010 - Is this really the state of ethics in the American legal profession? Government lawyers who abused their offices to give the president license to get away with torture did nothing that merits a review by the bar?
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December 16, 2009 -
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Wednesday it will stop detaining asylum seekers who have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries.
To be released into the U.S., the asylum seekers will have to establish the credible fear and their identities and show they are not dangerous or a flight risk, said John Morton, Department of Human Services assistant secretary overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement....more
November 19, 2008 - Senate Joint Resolution 19, resolution to stop California doctors and nurses from participating in torture passes through the Assembly. ...more
April 7, 2009 - Medical officers who oversaw interrogations of terrorism suspects in CIA secret prisons committed gross violations of medical ethics and in some cases essentially participated in torture, the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a confidential report that labeled the CIA program "inhuman."...more
