President Kazdin protesting APA's current policies on
the involvement of psychologists in military
interrogations.
Link to Frank Summers' interview on Chicago Public
Radio describing the history of the APA's involvement in
Guantanamo Bay and other illegal detention centers in
which foreign nationals are being kept. Dr. Summers is
President of Psychoanalysts for Social Responsibility and
he is on the Steering Committee of
withholdAPAdues.com.
Link to the Martin Baro fund petition.
www.refugemediaproject.org
Link to archived files reporting on the 2007 Ethical APA
demonstration at the APA convention in San Francisco
and other relevant documents
Website continuing further links to articles on the APA
interrogation controversy: www.focusreframed.com
For information on the status of SJR No. 19, a bill
introduced by Senator Ridley-Thomas into the California
state senate removing all California licensed health
professionals from participating in any way in detainee
interrogation practices, click on this link about this link.
Read PHR's letter supporting the California resolution at:
http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/letter-2008-01-
11.html.
A similar measure is being considered in the New York
State's Assembly.
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" (http://www.
apa.org/governance/resolutions/amend022208.html) 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.
The homepage of the Ethicalapa.com website currently carries information
about a Resolution that, if passed would end this collaboration.
This link will take you back to the homepage. Or, this link will take you to
the petition site where you can add your signature to the Resolution
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"I am running for President of the American Psychological Association because I believe that the
APA must take a principled stance against our nation’s policy of using psychologists to oversee
abusive and coercive interrogations of detainees and ‘enemy combatants' at centers like
Guantánamo and secret CIA black sites, that operate in violation of international law and the
Geneva conventions." For more information go to:Reisnerforpresident.org
Connecticut College has joined Guilford College, Smith College, University of Rhode Island, York
College of the City University of New York, the California State University at Long Beach, and
Earlham College in calling on the APA to prohibit the participation of psychologists directly and
indirectly in interrogations in sites where foreign detainees are deprived of due process. The
text of the Earlham College resolution and letter are contained in this link. (link to Earlham
College Resolution & letter) Contact: Michael Jackson.
Links to more information about colleges and universities that have protested the APAs stance on
psychologists' involvement in illegal detention sites:
- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/12/06/apa
http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/24/
student petition seeking to ban psychologist participation in military investigations http://www.
thepetitionsite.com/1/APAban
Psychologists who have withheld their 2008 dues or who intend to withhold their 2009 dues from
the American Psychological Association in protest over the APA's current ethics have created a
website and listserve in order to discuss how to organize as a group and how to maximize the
impact of their decision. Website for withholdapadues