Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Human Rights

Waterboarding. Sleep deprivation. Sensory manipulation. Stress positions. Over the last several years, these and other methods of torture have become garden variety words for practically anyone who reads about current events in a newspaper or blog. We know exactly what they are, how to administer them, and, disturbingly, that they were secretly authorized by the Bush Administration in its efforts to extract information from people detained in its war on terror. What we lack, however, is a larger lens through which to view America's policy of torture -- one that dissects America's long...

The U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay has long been synonymous with torture, secrecy, and the abuse of executive power. It has come to epitomize lawlessness and has sparked protracted legal battles and political debate. For too long, however, Guantanamo has been viewed in isolation and has overshadowed a larger, interconnected global detention system that includes other military prisons such as...

The Darfur conflict has presented the international community with a number of challenges. How can the fighting be stopped in Darfur? What can be done to save lives and help the two million people displaced by the conflict? And how to help bring about peace, while ensuring that the peace agreement for the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983 - 2005) is implemented? Drawing on original research, and tracing the history of international responses to the conflicts in Sudan, Richard Barltrop investigates what has determined the outcomes of international mediation and relief in Sudan. In the...

In March 1995, Belgium became the first state to pass a domestic anti-personnel landmine ban. In December 1997, 122 states joined Belgium in signing the comprehensive Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. The movement to ban landmines became a turning point in global politics that continues to influence policy and strategy decisions regarding weapon use today.

Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines describes how non-government organizations (NGOs) brought the landmine issue to international attention by forming the International...

Since at least the Middle Ages, the laws of war have distinguished between combatants and civilians under an injunction now formally known as the principle of distinction. The principle of distinction is invoked in contemporary conflicts as if there were an unmistakable and sure distinction to be made between combatant and civilian. As is so brutally evident in armed conflicts, it is precisely the distinction between civilian and combatant, upon which the protection of civilians is founded, cannot be taken as self-evident or stable. Helen M. Kinsella documents that the history of...