International Symposium 'On Torture'

in cooperation with the George Washington University & the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Tuesday, 18 November 2008,
Jack Morton Auditorium, George Washington University,
805 21st Street NW, Washington DC

The "torture debate" since the Abu Ghraib photographs has involved talk of legal permissibility, costs and benefits, policies, ticking time bombs and moral absolutes. Yet torture is much broader and deeper in its moral, political, legal, and social implications.

This public symposium explored torture as a systematic means of exerting control and extracting information; it examined official depictions of torture; analyzed the history and institutionalization of torture; and raised the issue of accountability.

The keynote speakers were Santiago Canton (head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) and Aryeh Neier (President of the Open Society Institute, a founder of Human Rights Watch, and author of several books).

On November 19th, 2008, the exhibit "Los Desaparecidos" (The Disappeared) was opened at the Museum of the Americas. For more information visit their website.

• Click here to download the program

Further Readings on Torture:
- Stephanie Athey: Torture, Archetypes and the Speculative Press
- Christopher Britt Arredondo: The Tortured Tongue
- Pilar Calveiro: Torture in the heart of “democracies”
- Thomas C. Hilde: Liberal Torture
- Alphonso Lingis: The Future of Torture
- Eduardo Subirats: Contra la tortura: un año después
- Rebecca Wittmann: Sadists on the Stand
- Michael Hatfiled: Acquiescence: Torture, Lawyers, and Moral Failure
- THE MANIFESTO “AGAINST TORTURE”