The U.S., Civil and Political Rights and Torture

Question 1

Traditionally, prior to 1945, what was the status of the individual in international law?

Question 2

What are the three related areas of international law that have since developed to protect human dignity?

Question 3

What’s the relationship between international human rights and international humanitarian law?

Question 4

What are the primary goals of human rights law?

Question 5

What are some of the overlapping human rights implementing mechanisms listed at the beginning of the chapter?

Question 6

There are some rights that can be waived in times of emergency. What are some rights that can never be waived?

Question 7

What’s the relationship between IHL and International Criminal Law?

Question 8

What is positivism in international law?

Question 9

Does the UN Charter contain an international bill of rights?

Question 10

Where were the guidelines for US interrogations contained prior to 9/11?

Question 11

What happened after 9/11 regarding interrogation?

Question 12

What did these enhanced interrogation methods include?

Question 13

What’s waterboarding?

Question 14

In September 2002, the commanding officer at Guantanamo sought to use enhanced interrogation techniques. How did all four military branches respond?

Question 15

What happened at Abu Ghraib?

Question 16

Was there any push-back, in Europe for example?

Question 17

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Question 18

Why do you think the US and the Soviet Union at first preferred a non-binding declaration over a binding treaty?

Question 19

What is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights?

Question 20

Some rights cannot be derogated from. What are they?

Question 21

What are some differences between the UDHR and the ICCPR? Has the US accepted these instruments?

Question 22

What is the Convention Against Torture?

Is the US a party?

Do we have any domestic legislation incorporating that treaty?

Question 23

What about extraterritorial application of human rights treaties?

Question 24

What happened in Ireland v. UK at the European Court of Human Rights?

Question 25

What were the methods?

Question 26

What was the decision?

Question 27

In the court’s view, what’s the difference between torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment?

Question 28

Did the use of the five techniques amount to torture?

Question 29

What happened in Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v. State of Israel (1999 Supreme Court of Israel Case)?

Question 30

What are the values that the court says are clashing?

Question 31

What’s the holding of the court about the appropriate balance to be struck?

Question 32

What is the ticking time bomb argument?

Question 33

What’s the Israeli Court’s response?

Question 34

Under the Nuremberg principles, would legality under US law have worked as a defense in international law?

Question 35

Did the US ratify the Torture Convention?

Question 36

How did that legislation define torture?

Question 37

What did the August 2002 Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee memo provide regarding the torture convention and its implementing legislation?

Question 38

What is Army Judge Advocate General Thomas Romig’s view of the OLC memo argument that customary international law cannot bind the executive branch?

Question 39

What were some of the lawyering problems with the torture memos?

Question 40

What was the congressional response to the OLC memos and the Detainee Abuse Scandals?

Question 41

What was the international reaction to the US detention and interrogation policies?

Question 42

What were some of the acts prohibited under the army field manual?

Question 43

What was the significance of the 2006 Supreme Court Case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld?

Question 44

What did President Obama do upon entering office?

Question 45

What did the Senate do in response to the torture saga?