Darius Rejali (born c. 1959) is an Iranian-born American academic specialized on torture, who taught political science at Reed College.
Rejali obtained a Bachelor of Arts at Swarthmore College in 1981, a master in 1983, and a PhD in political science from McGill University in 1987. [1]
He joined Reed College as assistant professor in 1989, rose to associate professor in 1994, and has held a chair of Political Science since 2003. [1] From 2000, he served at the board of the Human Rights Review .
He published Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran in 1994, and Torture and Democracy in 2007, which won the 2007 Human Rights Book of the Year Award from the American Political Science Association, [2] and also the biennial 2009 Raphael Lemkin Award from the Institute for the Study of Genocide . [3]
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties.
John Howard Francis Shattuck is an international legal scholar and human rights leader. He served as the fourth President and Rector of Central European University (CEU) from August 2009 until July 31, 2016. He is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and he joined the faculty of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in January 2017.
Abdolkarim SoroushPersian pronunciation:[æbdolkæriːmsoruːʃ]), born Hossein Haj Faraj Dabbagh, is an Iranian Islamic thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar, public intellectual, and a former professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran. He is among the most influential figures in the religious intellectual movement of Iran. Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. He was also affiliated with other institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, the Leiden-based International Institute as a visiting professor for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. He was named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2005, and by Prospect magazine as one of the most influential intellectuals in the world in 2008. Soroush's ideas, founded on relativism, prompted both supporters and critics to compare his role in reforming Islam to that of Martin Luther in reforming Christianity.
José Miguel Insulza Salinas is a Chilean politician, lawyer, and academic serving as a senator for the Arica y Parinacota Region since 2018. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1999 and Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1999 to 2000 under president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, as Minister of the Interior from 2000 to 2005 under president Ricardo Lagos, and as Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015.
The ticking time bomb scenario is a thought experiment that has been used in the ethics debate over whether interrogational torture can ever be justified. The scenario can be formulated as follows:
Suppose that a person with knowledge of an imminent terrorist attack that will kill many people is in the hands of the authorities, and he will disclose the information needed to prevent the attack only if he is tortured. Should he be tortured?
Baháʼís are persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Baháʼí Faith originated and where one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world is located. The origins of the persecution stem from a variety of Baháʼí teachings which are inconsistent with traditional Islamic beliefs, including the finality of Muhammad's prophethood, and the placement of Baháʼís outside the Islamic religion. Thus, Baháʼís are seen as apostates from Islam.
Michael M. Gunter is a professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee and considered an authority on the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Brendan O’Leary referred to Gunter as, "The doyen of Kurdish political studies in the United States,” while Martin van Bruinessen wrote that Gunter is "probably the most prolific of today’s scholars of Kurdish politics.” Gunter has written or edited more than 15 books on the Kurdish struggle and 2 more criticized for promoting Armenian genocide denial. Two of those books on the Kurds were among the first analyses in English in modern times of the Kurdish unrest in the Middle East. In writing his analyses, Gunter has worked directly with top Kurdish and other Middle Eastern political leaders. He received the Kurdish Human Rights Watch's “Service to the Kurds Award” in 1998. "Gunter’s analyses and writings sometimes strike readers as controversial, but he says his views are often based on information that hasn't yet been made public." He has served as the secretary-general of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), an NGO in Brussels that lobbies the EU parliament on behalf of the Kurds since 2009. He is a member of the Board of Advisory Editors of The Middle East Journal, The Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and The International Journal of Turkish Studies, among others.
Mehrangiz Kar, a human rights lawyer from Iran, is an internationally recognized writer, speaker and activist who advocates for the defense of women’s and human rights in Iran and throughout the Islamic world. A common theme in her work is the tension between Iranian law and the core principles of human rights and human dignity. She is also author of the book Crossing the Red Line, and an activist of women's rights in Iran. Born in 1944 at Ahvaz, in southern Iran, she attended the College of Law and Political Science at Teheran University. After graduating, she worked for Sazman-e Ta’min-e Ejtemaii and published over 100 articles on social and political issues.
Foot whipping, falanga/falaka or bastinado is a method of inflicting pain and humiliation by administering a beating on the soles of a person's bare feet. Unlike most types of flogging, it is meant more to be painful than to cause actual injury to the victim. Blows are generally delivered with a light rod, knotted cord, or lash.
Juan E. Méndez is an Argentine lawyer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and a human rights activist known for his work on behalf of political prisoners.
Ramin Jahanbegloo is an Iranian philosopher and academic based in Toronto, Canada.
René Lemarchand is a French-American political scientist who is known for his research on ethnic conflict and genocide in Rwanda, Burundi and Darfur. Publishing in both English and French, he is particularly known for his work on the concept of clientelism. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida, and continues to write, teach internationally and consult. Since retiring he has worked for USAID out of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire as a Regional Consultant for West Africa in Governance and Democracy, and as Democracy and Governance advisor to USAID / Ghana.
Scott Straus is an American political scientist currently serving as a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Strauss received a BA in English from Dartmouth College and a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on genocide, violence, human rights and African politics. He was previously a freelance journalist based in Africa, and in 2000 was a visiting fellow at Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. He is the 2018 winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas for Improving World Order for his book Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa.
Israel W. Charny is an Israeli psychologist and genocide scholar. He is the editor of two-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide, and executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem.
John King Roth is an American-based author, editor, and the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) in Claremont, California. Roth taught at CMC from 1966 through 2006, where he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, which is now the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights. Best known for his contributions to Holocaust and genocide studies, he is the author or editor of more than fifty books. In 1988, he was named the U.S. National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Interrogational torture is the use of torture to obtain information in interrogation, as opposed to the use of torture to extract a forced confession, regardless of whether it is true or false. Torture has been used throughout history during interrogation, although it is now illegal and a violation of international law.
Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. Although once considered Asian Americans, the modern definition of "Asian American" now excludes people with West Asian backgrounds.
Timothy Paul Longman is a professor of political science and international relations at Boston University. A protege of Alison Des Forges, he is recognized as one of the top authorities on the Rwandan genocide and its legacies.
Christian Davenport is the Mary Ann and Charles R. Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding and political scientist at the University of Michigan. affiliated with the Ford School of Public Policy as well as the University of Michigan Law School. He is also a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo and an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Davenport was employed at the University of Notre Dame in political science and sociology as well as the Kroc Institute, the University of Maryland in political science, University of Colorado Boulder in political science and the University of Houston in political science. He received his PhD in 1992 from Binghamton University.
In fictional representations, torture is often portrayed as a method for obtaining information through interrogation. Unlike the real world practice of torture, fictional representations of torture are often portrayed as being professional and efficient methods of obtaining reliable information, and as selective rather than indiscriminate. Torture can be a convenient plot device to extract information, and when the hero is the torturer, it almost always works, usually quickly. Popular culture representations have an effect on how torture is practiced in the real world; United States Army interrogators as well as the staff at Guantanamo Bay have copied torture techniques that they learned from TV. Positive depictions of torture during the Algerian War of Independence helped shape the public perception of torture, a trend that continued with American media produced after the September 11 attacks.