Over the last 20 years, journalists, human rights workers, and torture survivors have traced U.S. complicity in the design and implementation of torture to the highest ranks of American government. Throughout this history, psychological principles have been abused to abet physical torture and to bring about the devastation of the human psyche.
As socially responsible psychologists, we recognize our professional activities must center on enhancing the quality of human existence while protecting the integrity of our science.
PsySR’s End Torture Action Committee resists those processes that have legitimized the world wide use of torture and related abuses. We work to rollback institutional polices that perpetuate state sponsored torture. And we aim to restore the integrity of our profession to one that upholds international human rights and truly realizes our ethical commitment to “do no harm.” Read More »
Join PsySR's End Torture Action Committee Today!
Interested PsySR members are encouraged to join the End Torture Action Committee. For more information about the committee’s projects, recent actions and how to join, please email Action Committee co-chairs Jill Flores (jillflores@centurytel.net) and Stephen Soldz (ssoldz@bgsp.edu) or contact PsySR's Central Office at info@psysr.org. You can join the committee’s listserv by sending an e-mail message with a blank subject and body to psysr-endtorture-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
June is Torture Awareness Month
Come and show support for survivors of torture, and speak out against the unspeakable. Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) is holding its 11th annual 24-hour vigil from Saturday, June 28 (7:00 AM) to Sunday, June 29 (7:00 AM) at Lafayette Park in front of the White House.
Jill Flores, co-chair of PsySR’s End Torture Action Committee, will speak at 1:15 AM Sunday morning, essentially delivering a “wake up” call to the White House. The message is simple: she’ll insist that the administration respect international law and treaties, repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and stop the practice of kidnapping, secret detention, torture, and related abuses. Dr. Flores will also spread good news about the efforts ethical psychologists have made to eliminate psychologists’ complicity in Bush regime abuses and to defend the role of psychologists as professional healers--and not as tormentors of the mind. You too can lend your support to TASSC by signing their petition HERE.
Appeal for International Support: Condemn Psychologist Participation in Detainee Abuse
U.S. abuse of detainees is of concern for citizens around the world as U.S. tolerance for detainee torture and abuse is taken as a signal by other countries that it is acceptable to weaken their human rights protections. Dictators and oppressive regimes around the world point to Guantanamo and CIA abuses as an excuse for their own governments' abusive actions. Mental health colleagues in other countries have also expressed concern about the actions of the American Psychological Association (APA) which, while condemning torture in the abstract, have in practice provided cover for psychologists to participate in U.S. abuse at Guantanamo and elsewhere. In June 2008, PsySR's End Torture Action Committee issued a call for international colleagues to protest the APA's position on psychologists participating in U.S. interrogations of so-called "enemy combatants." The committee's full statement and more information is available HERE. A letter from the Nordic Committee of Psychologists' Associations is available HERE.
Recent Committee Activities
PsySR's End Torture Action Committee is engaged in a broad range of projects on multiple fronts. A listing of some committee activities over the past few months is available HERE.
New PsySR Casebook for Interrogation Ethics
Under the leadership of PsySR members Jean Maria Arrigo and Stephen Soldz, PsySR has received grant awards from the Open Society Institute and the Arca Foundation to develop a Psychology and Military/Political Intelligence Casebook for Interrogation Ethics. More information about this important project is available HERE, where regular updates will also appear.
Petition the American Psychological Association TODAY
“Be it resolved that psychologists may not work in settings where persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law (e.g., the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions) or the US Constitution (where appropriate), unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights.” Read the full petition of Psychologists for an Ethical APA and sign online HERE.
North and South, the People Say: Close the School of the Americas!
Jill Flores, co-chair of PsySR’s End Torture Action Committee, provided a workshop at the 2007 Annual School of the Americas Watch (SOAW): "Addressing Complicity During Anti-Torture Advocacy.” SOAW is an independent organization that seeks to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, under whatever name it is called, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work. More information about the SOA torture manuals is available HERE.
Torture is for Amateurs
Published by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, in December 2007, this Special Issue of the Journal of Peace Psychology is based on a seminar for psychologists and former military interrogators sponsored by PsySR and Georgetown University, with contributions from PsySR members Jean Maria Arrigo (Ed.), Clark McCauley, Fathalhi Moghaddam, and Richard Wagner (Ed.). A related press release from Georgetown University is available HERE.
Links and Resources to Learn More and Take Action
The Center for Justice & Accountability
CJA is an international human rights organization dedicated to ending torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress.
The Center for Victims of Torture
CVT works to heal the wounds of torture on individuals, their families and their communities and to stop torture worldwide.
Detainee Interrogations, Physicians, & Psychologists
This webpage from Dr. Kenneth Pope’s website provides citations of over 250 articles, books, and chapters addressing the ongoing torture controversy.
Focus Reframed
This new website offers social commentary in words and images from PsySR member, psychologist and photographer, Bob Parker.
The Ignacio Martín-Baró Fund
The fund supports progressive, grassroots groups throughout the world who are challenging institutional repression and confronting the mental health consequences of violence and injustice in their communities.
Psyche, Science, and Society
This website offers the thoughts of PsySR member and End Torture Action Committee co-chair Stephen Soldz on war, peace, politics, psychoanalysis, and research methods.
School of the Americas Watch
SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, under whatever name it is called, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work.
Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International
TASSC is an organization founded by and for torture survivors. It’s mission is to end the practice of torture wherever it occurs and to empower survivors, their families and communities wherever they are.