International human rights law Part 9

PROSECUTING TORTURERS, PROTECTING “CHILD MOLESTERS”: TOWARD A POWER BALANCE MODEL OF CRIMINAL PROCESS FOR International human rights law
Mykola Sorochinsky
Michigan Journal of International Law
Volume 31, Number 1, Fall 2009 p.157

NORM CONFLICT IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: WHITHER HUMAN RIGHTS?
Marko Milanovi?
Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law
Volume 20, Number 1, Fall 2009 p.69

Human rights, human dignity and the right to die: Lessons from Europe on assisted suicide
Brendon Murphy
Criminal Law Journal
Volume 33, Number 6, December 2009 p.341

In July 2009, the House of Lords ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions (for England and Wales) to publish a policy clarifying the exercise of discretion in cases of assisted suicide. In the United Kingdom, assisted suicide is a criminal offence, regardless of where it takes place. International travel for the purpose of medically assisted suicide is a reality. This article examines this landmark decision and considers the important legal and human rights lessons arising out of the case in the context of Australian law.

Rosanne Van Alebeek, The Immunities of States and their Officials in International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law
British Year Book of International Law
Volume 79, 2008 p.388

Warwick International Development Law and Human Rights Special Feature
Law, Social Justice & Global Development
2009, Issue 1

International Sanctions from a Human Rights Law Perspective: Some Observations on the Kadi Judgment of The European Court of Justice
Eckart Klein
Intercultural Human Rights Law Review
Volume 4, 2009 p.111

Withdrawing treatment at the direct or indirect request of patients or in their best interests: HNEAHS v A; Brightwater CG v Rossiter; and Australian Capital Territory v JT
Thomas Faunce, James Bai and Hilary Russell
Journal of Law and Medicine
Volume 17, Number 3, December 2009 p.349

In Hunter and New England Area Health Service v A [2009] NSWSC 761; Brightwater Care Group (Inc) v Rossiter [2009] WASC 229; and Australian Capital Territory v JT [2009] ACTSC 105 Australian courts have recently considered the circumstances in which technically futile treatment may be withdrawn from patients at their direct or indirect request or purportedly in their best interests. The cases provide many valuable lessons about how norms of ethics, law and international human rights shape the regulatory framework of this area of health care in Australia.

Can we prevent doctors being complicit in torture? Breaking the serpent’s egg
Mike O’Connor
Journal of Law and Medicine
Volume 17, Number 3, December 2009 p.426

A significant minority of the tortured prisoners who survive report that a doctor was present during their torture. Yet few medical practitioners are ever criminally prosecuted or even disciplined by their regulatory bodies. Can such gross violations of the Hippocratic Code be so easily ignored or are these doctors carefully shielded from detection and prosecution by a grateful state? Mostly doctors act to vet prisoners for their capacity to withstand the torture or resuscitate them to allow torture and interrogation to continue. However, on occasion, the “healers”may be the actual torturers as happened in Russian psychoprisons in the latter part of the 20th century. This article argues that the de facto immunity which complicit doctors currently appear to enjoy must be stripped away and replaced by effective processes to detect and then prosecute criminal behaviour. This will require widespread reporting of cases and action by international bodies, including non-government organisations. Prevention is clearly preferable and this will require improvements in undergraduate and graduate medical Education about international humanitarian and human rights law. There is evidence that many medical faculties pay scant attention to this Education and their students graduate with serious flaws in their understanding and attitudes towards human rights. Education should target “doctors at risk”in prisons, armed forces and the police. It should address professional behaviour which tolerates or even protects cultures of abuse. A code of professional conduct would assist “doctors at risk”to resist overtures for them to become complicit in torture. Medical Practice Acts should include statements on respecting human rights when defining good professional conduct. Doctors who become complicit in torture betray their profession. Swift action should be taken to stop such abuses and perpetrators should receive strong disciplinary action from regulatory bodies.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Education, International Criminal Law, International human rights law.