Torture : quarterly journal on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture最新文献

Background: Israel's occupation, apartheid and blockade of the Gaza Strip have always exposed Palestinian children to traumatic experiences. Their trauma has been exacerbated since 7 October 2023 through different practices by the Israeli military, including the well-established and institutionalised use of Palestinians as human shields.

Methods: The article provides details on four recent incidents throughout the Occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers have deliberately targeted and forced Palestinian children into being human shields. Drawing also from testimonies collected by other organisations, it explains how each incident affected these children, both physically and mentally.

Results: Children reported significant long-term trauma they sustained after being used as human shields, sometimes for several hours, as well as the pain they felt while being beaten repeatedly by Israeli soldiers.

Discussion: The legal analysis demonstrates how such acts qualify as torture. It further examines how Israel's indiscriminate attacks targeting Palestinian civilians who Israel claims are shielding military objectives give rise to terror and may amount to inhumane treatment. It finally and briefly expands the scope of analysis to discuss how Israel's acts in using Palestinian civilians as human shields fit into the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Introduction: Since 7 October 2023, the number of Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities has increased dramatically.

Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted between December 2023 and November 2024 with 100 Palestinians who were detained by Israel. A mix of snowball and convenience sampling was adopted. Thematic analysis was based on a qualitative codebook, and findings were complemented by open-source material.

Results: Detention conditions were generally poor, including insufficient and poor-quality water and food, and substandard hygiene conditions. Access to healthcare was usually delayed, restricted or absent. All interviewees reported ill-treatment or torture. This included but was not limited to prolonged, tight mechanical restraint with blindfolding, positional torture, forced nudity, sexual violence, and being used as human shields in military operations.

Conclusion: We found that the treatment of Palestinians from Gaza in Israeli custody constitutes torture. We found that the treatment of the interviewees fulfils two acts under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute, namely, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group, and inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

Introducción: Waleed Daqqa escribió durante su estancia en prisión el ensayo "Molding Palestinian Conscious (2010)", donde describe las fases diseñadas por el aparato militar de Israel para conseguir el objetivo de reestructurar la conciencia de los presos palestinos, de manera que rechacen la resistencia, cambien su identidad, y abracen un colonialismo subjetivo. Daqqa afirma que Israel utiliza las prisiones como laboratorios de estrategias psicosociales que después transfiere a toda la población civil en los territorios ocupados. Método: Analizamos si estas fases se están implementando en los territorios palestinos. Resultados: La comparación indica que Israel está implementando las fases descritas por Daqqa con mucha más intensidad, con el objetivo de moldear su conciencia. Desde el 7 de octubre de 2023 se intensifica el sufrimiento pero se observa un cambio, el objetivo ya no es el politicidio, sino el genocidio físico. Para conseguirlo, de similar manera que en el 2004 Israel convirtió una la huelga de hambre en una oportunidad para hacer un cambio estructural en las prisiones; en el 2023 también ha utilizado el 7 de octubre como una oportunidad para cambiar la estrategia, ahora es la destrucción total, de todo tipo de infraestructura necesaria para sobrevivir, y con nuevos métodos de tortura. Discusión: Aunque intensifica las fases descritas por Daqqa, Israel no consigue su objetivo de remodelar la conciencia de la sociedad palestina; que sigue apoyando a la resistencia, su identidad y su derecho a existir. Israel ha pasado de tener como objetivo el politicidio al genocidio físico, que le lleva a conseguir su objetivo final, el plan mega inmobiliario "Gaza 2035".

Introduction: October 7, 2023, has intensified the vulnerability of torture survivors among asylum seekers in Israel, mainly from Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Ukraine, who remain without legal recognition or access to essential services.

Materials and methods: This study integrates quantitative surveys on poverty and food insecurity, qualitative interviews, and policy analysis, based on data from ASSAF and partner organisations.

Results: At least 4.000 documented asylum seekers who are torture survivors live in Israel experiencing food insecurity at severe levels. The war triggered PTSD, depression, and anxiety, while survivors were excluded from governmental emergency aid and mental health programs. Proposed legislation threatens to further erode rights.

Discussion: War-related trauma, combined with structural exclusion, has deepened humanitarian crises. Urgent policy reforms are necessary to secure recognition, access to services, and trauma-informed rehabilitation in accordance with international obligations.

In May 2025, the International Accountability Platform for Belarus (IAPB) published a practice note called 'A Survivor-Centred Approach to Documentation for Criminal Accountability'. Building on years of documentation of human rights violations, the publication offers a detailed and valuable guide for civil society actors seeking to document human rights violations while also prioritising survivors' needs, agency, and safety at the centre. The note is issued within the context of an increasing emphasis on survivor-centred approaches to justice, especially in contexts where state institutions are either unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute torture (IAPB, 2025: 33). This focus emerges against the background of a long history of survivor-led organisations that have documented torture. Developed through consultations with survivors, NGOs, and international bodies, the guide outlines a documentation process informed by principles such as the 'do no harm' principle and incorporates initiatives like informed consent protocols (IAPB, 2025: 5-6). At its core, this approach recognises survivors not just as passive victims or witnesses, but as active rights-holders whose dignity and self-determination must guide every step of the documentation process (IAPB, 2025: 6). This is especially crucial in settings where survivors may risk reprisal and retraumatisation.

Introduction: This paper examines Israeli detention practices since 7 October 2023 as a system of colonial carcerality that normalises torture and ill-treatment, benchmarking findings against the Nelson Mandela Rules, the Geneva Conventions, CAT, and the ICCPR.

Materials and methods: We analysed 917 testimonies gathered by Addameer (Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association) through lawyers' prison visits and post-release interviews (7 Oct 2023-30 Jun 2025) from Sde Teiman, Ofer, Damon, Naqab, Megiddo, and other sites. Testimonies were thematically coded (techniques, frequency/severity, setting, health sequelae) and mapped to applicable international and Israeli law; descriptive counts tracked change over time.

Results: We present the results according to types of abuse: starvation and deliberate food deprivation, extreme overcrowding, prolonged solitary confinement, sexual violence/forced stripping, systematic medical neglect, pervasive shackling/blindfolding and denial of hygiene. Intensification coincided with the expansion of camp-like facilities and emergency amendments to the Law on the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants (prolonged incommunicado detention and delayed judicial review). Reported torture/ill-treatment rose across periods: late-2023 73/91 testimonies; 2024: 500/628 (including 343 from Gaza); Jan-Jun 2025: 184/198. Health impacts included acute injuries, infections, malnutrition, and sustained psychological harm.

Discussion: Convergent qualitative and legal evidence indicates an integrated policy rather than isolated violations, which contravenes binding norms on humane treatment, medical care, food, water, and protection from torture. We recommend: (1) independent monitoring with unimpeded access; (2) suspension of measures enabling incommunicado detention; (3) immediate compliance with minimum standards of care and nutrition; and (4) criminal accountability for torture and ill-treatment.

Introduction: The "Aspects of Trauma and Torture" conference, a collaborative effort between the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, aimed to elevate awareness and deepen comprehension of torture and its multifaceted psychological, social, and legal ramifications. Centred around the launch of the Hebrew translation of the updated Istanbul Protocol, the conference addressed the diverse populations in Israel vulnerable to torture, including Israeli citizens, African asylum seekers, and Palestinian detainees.

Methods: Utilising a series of interdisciplinary lectures and interactive sessions, participants explored the profound implications of trauma and torture on individuals and communities, with a particular emphasis on the critical role of mental health, medical, and legal professionals in prevention and advocacy. This study investigated how participation in a conference focusing on trauma and torture influences attendees' levels of awareness and motivation to engage in actions against torture. Forty attendees completed an online questionnaire that incorporated both open-ended and closed questions regarding the conference's impact.

Results: The findings revealed significant increases in attendees' familiarity with the subject matter, a strengthened sense of professional collegiality, and an enhanced commitment to combating torture. Notable variations were observed between physical and virtual participants, as well as between those with an active role at the conference and passive attendees, and between individuals in psychosocial professions and those in other disciplines.

Discussion: The findings highlight the pivotal role of conferences as catalysts for human rights education and advocacy, while also identifying areas for improvement in accessibility and engagement within hybrid formats. These insights contribute to the broader discourse on effective strategies for addressing torture and fostering systemic change. Furthermore, the article proffers recommendations for future conferences.

Introduction: This article examines the gendered dimensions of torture and ill-treatment perpetrated by Israeli Forces against Palestinians from Gaza following the escalation of hostilities after 7 October 2023. It investigates whether gender is a secondary feature of the violence or rather a central mechanism through which suffering, intentionality and purpose are inflicted. It probes into whether traditional legal analyses of torture and other ill-treatment often overlook how gender shapes both the method and impact of torture and other ill-treatment, leading to gaps in recognition, documentation, and accountability.

Methods: The article adopts a legal-analytical methodology grounded in international criminal, human rights, and humanitarian law. It first evaluates the legal framework on torture through a gender-competent lens to surface how the legal elements of torture may be perpetrated and experienced along gendered identities and modes of power. It applies this gender-competent lens to factual findings from United Nations investigative bodies and human rights organisations detailing the types and modes of harm experienced by Palestinians in Gaza post-7 October 2023. This analysis focuses on three domains where gendered torture and ill-treatment have been most evident: arrest and detention, technology-facilitated abuse, and reproductive violence. Each domain is assessed for patterns of torture and ill-treatment that exploit culturally and socially defined gender roles.

Results: The findings demonstrate that Palestinian men and boys have been systematically emasculated through forced nudity, sexual violence, and digitally broadcast humiliation. Women and girls have been sexualized, exposed, and denied basic reproductive dignity through invasive searches, lack of menstrual hygiene, and the collapse of maternity care.

Discussion: These practices amount to torture and other ill-treatment under international law, not merely because of their physical or psychological severity, but because they are deliberately gendered in design and effect. A gender-competent application of torture law is essential to capture the full scope of harm experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. The article calls for legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms to incorporate gender not as a modifier, but as a core analytic of torture itself.

Introduction: This paper presents an autoethnography from a Gaza-based scholar who documents, in real time, the war's effects on himself and his family. It situates a personal trajectory-bombardments, repeated displacement, injury, bereavement, and the collapse of essential services-within the broader humanitarian emergency, arguing that first-person evidence is indispensable to grasp lived experience and cumulative harm.

Materials and methods: Using an autoethnographic case-study design, the author combines contemporaneous field notes, direct observations across hospitals and shelters, and family narratives with publicly available situational reports. Narrative analysis is applied to episodes of displacement, rescue and burial operations, access to health care, and day-to-day survival under siege, to derive thematic patterns of risk, harm, and adaptation.

Results: The account documents: (i) continuous exposure to airstrikes, artillery, and drones; (ii) direct physical harm to the author(tank-shell blast injury with persistent symptoms), (iii) family losses-the death of a son, a brother,and the disappearance and later recovery of his detained daughter-as well as the discovery and burial of his mother; (iv) health-system collapse (closures, staff shortages, lack of imaging and essentialmedicines) that intensified preventable morbidity and mortality; (v) repeated displacement through overcrowded shelters and hazardous checkpoints; and (vi) resource deprivation (famine conditions, unsafe water, disrupted transport). These stressors produced profound psychological distress, exhaustion, and functional impairment, exemplifying cumulative, multisystemic impacts on civilians.

Conclusions: Autoethnography provides granular evidence of civilian burden that aggregate statistics cannot capture. Lessons for readers and practitioners include: protect health facilities and corridors; prioritize family-centred psychosocial care after bereavement and detention; pair needs assessmentswith first-person testimonies to detect hidden harms; and design humanitarian responses that address cumulative risks (safety, nutrition, water, mobility, and continuity of care) rather than siloedneeds. The narrated events engage potential violations of international humanitarian and humanrights law; therefore, responses should pair humanitarian relief with accountability: independent investigations with evidence preservation and survivor protection; avenues to justice (domestic courts, universal jurisdiction, ICC where applicable); and reparations. The narrative underscores.