(APA = American Psychological Association)
Be it resolved that psychologists may not work in settings where persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law (e.g., the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions) or the US Constitution (where appropriate), unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights. (Homepage);
The 2008 Protest for an Ethical APA, Boston, August 16, 12pm – 2pm;
Governance Resolution, adopted by APA on February 22, 2008;
Resolution;
Sign the resolution;
Frequently Asked Questions about the Resolution;
Archived Links (with texts, videos, audios);
Links to more information about colleges and universities that have protested the APAs stance on psychologists’ involvement in illegal detention sites: Inside higher ED; and Psyche, Science and Society, Archive for May 24th, 2008.
About: We commend the American Psychological Association for having recently amended its 2007 Resolution Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Application to Individuals Defined in the United States Code as « Enemy Combatants » (Amendment) so as to unequivocally condemn all techniques considered to be torture, thereby closing loopholes that existed in the original Resolution (see below). However, the International Committee of the Red Cross determined in 2003 that the conditions in such Centers are themselves tantamount to torture. Yet psychologists maintain a presence in such sites and in 2007 the elected and appointed leaders of the APA voted once again against an amendment that would have prevented psychologists from working in facilities in which detainees are deprived of their human rights except as health personnel.
By continuing its collaboration with the US Government in its policy of holding detainees indefinitely without due process in detention centers that are in direct violation of International Human Rights Law and the Geneva Conventions, the APA is lending credibility to unacceptable detention and interrogation practices, thereby undermining the integrity of American psychologists throughout the world. The APA’s position is condemned by human rights groups, by the ACLU, by professional groups such as the American Psychiatric Association and The American Medical Association, by Britain’s medical journal The Lancet, and by many of its own members …
Latest Developments and Relevant Links: … (full text).
External Links: Mass. Convention.com, Boston: their Homepage; the Contact-Site; and Direction.