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## Torture in the United States

### (abridged - with focus on involuntary human experimentation)

### A report prepared by

### World Organization Against Torture - USA

### Morton Sklar, Director

### October 1998

Contact:
World Organization Against Torture USA
1015 18th Street NW
Suite 400
Washington DC 20036 USA
Voice: 202-861-6494
Fax: 202-659-2724
Email: msklar@igc.apc.org

                        I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    A. Background -- Why This Report Was Prepared

    The International Convention Against Torture (CAT) was ratified
    by the United States Government in 1994, with the Government's initial
    report reviewing compliance with the Convention's provisions due to be
    submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture one year
    later.  This report is now more than three years overdue.

    In its absence, our Coalition, made up of more than 60 contributing
    non-governmental organizations dealing with a broad cross section of
    issues and concerns related to torture and other forms of cruel and
    inhuman treatment or punishment, has decided to release its own evalua-
    tion of U.S. compliance under CAT.  Our goals are to:

    - encourage the Government to fulfill its responsibilities on a more
      effective basis, both in terms of submitting the required compliance
      report, and eliminating the practices detailed below that violate
      internationally recognized human rights standards related to torture
      and,

    - promote a better understanding among government officials, the general
      public, and the non-governmental organization community of how inter-
      national human rights standards and enforcement mechanisms can be
      applied to domestic issues and needs.

    ...[snip]

    B.  What Are The Major Areas of Non-Compliance?

    Torture, which is identfied by CAT as including all forms of government
    sponsored (by affirmative action or by acquiescence) cruel and
    inhuman treatment and punishment, or other forms of severe pain and
    suffering, both physical and psychological, currently is taking place
    in the United States in a number of important areas.

    1.  The Death Penalty

    ...[snip]

    8.  Abuse in Treatment of Those Considered Mentally Ill

    ...[snip]

    9.  Involuntary Human Scientific Experimentation

    Considerable evidence recently has surfaced that the U.S. government,
    in past years, has conducted a number of what have been classified as
    "scientific" experiments on human subjects without their knowledge or
    consent.  This includes large-scale exposures to radiation emissions,
    and purposeful denial of available medical treatment to African-
    American syphilis victims, allegedly for medical testing.

    Recent media disclosures and admissions by government officials suggest
    that the scope of these "experiments" has been far wider than previously
    acknowledged.  As was true for the human experimentation conducted by
    the Nazis in prison camps during World War II, the "so-called"
    scientific aspects of these tests do not eliminate the cruel and abusive
    elements that were involved.

    Nor do they justify the severe pain and suffering impost on individual
    test victims.

    Although the tests that have been publicly acknowledged took place some
    years ago, sufficient action has not been taken to compensate victims,
    and to assure that similar forms of abusive experimentation would be
    prevented in the future, especially in newly emerging areas of tech-
    nology and weapons development.

    REQUIRED ACTION - HUMAN SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTATION:  Additional
    steps should be taken to ensure full disclosure and proper compensation
    for past involuntary scientific experimentation.  Secret testing of
    technology and weapons on humans, especially without their fully
    informed knowledge and consent, should not be permitted, and adequate
    methods for assuring that such practices not take place should be
    developed.

    ...[snip]

                    10. INVOLUNTARY HUMAN SCIENTIFIC
                             EXPERIMENTATION

            This section draws heavily on the 1995 submission
            to the Human Rights Committee by the Science and
            Human Rights program of the American Association
            for the Advancement of Science, included in
            "The Status of Human Rights in the United States"

    SUMMARY STATEMENT

    In past years, the U.S. has conducted a number of scientific experi-
    ments on human subjects without their consent or knowledge.
    This includes exposure to of at least 9,000 human subjects,
    including children and newborns, to radiation testing by the Atomic
    Energy Commission, and the Tuskeegee experiments in which African-
    American subjects were denied medical treatment for syphilis in order
    to document how this disease affected the human body.

    Although these cruel and inhuman tests were conducted many years ago,
    ther are two aspects that continue to be of concern.  First is the
    fact that government kept information about the tests secret for a
    number of years, and continues to release data that suggests that
    testing of this type has been far more frequent, and with a greater
    impact, than initially acknowledged.  Second is that appropriate
    action still has not been taken to compensate the victims, and to
    assure that similar activities will not take place in the future.

    I.  RELEVANT CONVENTION PROVISIONS (CAT)

    The prohibition against torture in Article 7 of the International
    Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that "no one shall
    be subject, without his free consent, to medical or scientific
    experimentation."  This provision is not included in CAT, which
    focusses in Article 1 on pain inflicted for punishment or intimidation,
    or for any reason based on discrimination.

    Howver, it was the overwhelming consensus of our working group that
    human scientific experimentation conducted by government without the
    knowledgeable consent of victims constitutes, by its very nature, a
    type of punishment that fits within the CAT definition as constituting
    "severe pain and suffering" as described by CAT.

    There is no question that the human experiments conducted by the Nazis
    during World War II constituted torture, despite their alleged scien-
    tific purposes, because the dangers and inhumanity victims were
    subjected to evidenced an essential lack of concern for the well-being
    of the subjects that resulted in the unnecessary inflicition of pain
    and suffering.

    Simliar experiments that constitute punishment under the meaning of the
    CAT definition are present whenever human beings are unknowingly
    subjected to scientific tests, especially when they involve potential
    severe or long-lasting health consequences, or the purposeful denial of
    appropriate medical care.  this type of disdain for human subjects can
    not be viewed as anything other than the purposeful infliction of
    punishment, even if legitimate scientific goals are involved, and
    the intent to do harm may not be present.

    It is the lack of due care for the severe (though unexpected) conse-
    quences that produces the pain and suffering of the type prohibited by
    CAT.  This is the reason why the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
    makes special mention of human scientific experimentation under its
    treatment of torture, and justifies its inclusion among the activities
    subject to review under Article 1 of CAT.

    II. NON-CONSENTUAL HUMAN TESTING BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

    The 1995 "Initial Report of the United States" to the United Nations
    Human Rights Committee acknowledges that a number of Cold War era
    experiments involving the exposure of humans to radiation were conducted
    that would be in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and
    Political Rights ("Covenant").  It does not, however, discuss
    in any detail:

    - the nature of these experiments
    - the manner in which they were conducted (particularly pertinent
      is how the issue of consent was treated)
    - whether steps have been taken to remedy the results of inappro-
      priate testing through appropriate compensation of victims, and,
    - whether any steps have been taken to ensure that such
      experimentation does not take place in the future

    In early 1994, in response to public pressure generated by reports
    appearing in "The Albuquerque Tribune", and a report issued by the U.S.
    General Accounting Office confirming that the U.S. government had
    sponsored Cold War experiments involving the exposure of human subjects
    to large doses of radiation, the Clinton Administration created an
    Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.  The Advisory
    Committee was charged with investigating these experiments and
    determining how scientific and ethical standards were observee in these
    activities, and was given access to the records of all relevant federal
    agencies.

    The Advisory Committee's research acknowledges that government sponsored
    experiments involving the exposure of human subjects to potentially
    dangerous levels of radiation were far more common than had been
    believed.  Between 1948 and 1952, they included at least 13 deliberate
    releases of radiated materials into the atmosphere near populated areas
    to study fallout patterns and the rate of radioactive decay of atmos-
    pherically released particles.  Initial reports also indicate that,
    while high level officials were aware of the dangers and the ethical
    considerations involved, there was a consistent lack of effective
    regulation governing administration of the tests.

    Based on the Advisory Committee's research, six broad categories of
    experiments can be identified:

    - Experiments aimed at determining the dnager to workers assembling
      nuclear weapons from ingestion, inhalation, or injection of
      irradiated materials.  These experiments involved total body
      irradiation and the injection of radioactive isotopes into human
      subjects.

    - Experiments aimed at determining the effects of exposure to
      radiation on soldiers serving either as part of the crew of a
      proposed nuclear powered aircraft, or on a nuclear battlefield.
      These experiments involved total body radiation, injection of
      radioactive isotopes, ingestion of irradiated materials by
      human subjects and exposure of subjects to atomic clouds during
      and after bomb detonations.

    - Development of nuclear weapons.  These experiments involved
      atmospheric releases of radiation without the knowledge of
      exposed civilian population.

    - Studies on the dispersal, fallout, biological intake and decay
      of radioactive materials following a nuclear explosion.  These
      experiments involved atmospheric releases of radiation, ingestion
      of radioactive and exposure to atomic clouds.

    etc. etc. ...[snip]

    Similar concerns also are being rasied about involuntary human
    experimentation involving new forms of classified research and testing
    of high technology military weaponry, including microwave and laser
    equipiment.  Groups working on these issues cite, among other evidence
    of the existence of these unauthorized testing procedures, a White
    House inter-governmental memorandum dated March 27, 1997, establishing
    stronger guidelines prohibiting non-consentual testing for classified
    research, but suggesting, by implication, that this type of human
    research may, in fact, be taking place.  Because of the classified
    nature of these activities, it is very difficult to confirm or disprove
    that they are taking place.

    Given the serious negative impacts on non-consentual human subjects
    that classified research of this type is capable of producing, and
    given the past history of secret experimentation by the government,
    these allegations of continuing improprieties involving secret
    government-sponsored human testing should not be dismissed without
    more thorough, impartial investigation.

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