Transcript The ABCs of Global Governance

Human Rights and Bioethics:
Lessons from the Geneva Conventions, the
Guantanamo Hunger Strikes, and the Nuremberg
Code
George J. Annas
Professor and Chair
Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights
Boston University Schools of
Public Health, Medicine & Law
Military Medical Ethics
Nuremberg Principles
Are War
Crimes and Crimes Against
Humanity [murder, torture, slavery, arbitrary
detention]
Individuals can be held personally
accountable
Authorizing law of your country ineffective defense
as is “obeying orders”
The Nuremberg Code
• Consent of Subject: Voluntary, Competent,
Informed and Understanding
• Right to Withdraw at any time
• 8 Welfare Provisions relating to protecting the
interests of subjects and requiring application
of scientific methods in research in which risks
to subjects are outweighed by benefits
Article 5.
• No one shall be subjected to
torture or to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or
punishment.
International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (1966)
Art. 7: No one shall be subjected
to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or
punishment. In particular, no one
shall be subjected without his
free consent to medical or
scientific experimentation.
Geneva Conventions (1949)
Common Article 3
“persons...shall in all circumstances be treated humanely...the
following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time:
(a) violence to life and person, in particular murder...mutilation, cruel
treatment and torture;...
(c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating
degrading treatment.”
and
• UDHR
• ICCPR
• Global Lawyers & Physicians
“Working Together for Human Rights”
• Physicians for Human Rights
• Human Rights First