Request for comments from the WHO Health and Human Rights Team -

December 13 2010
WHO Health and Human Rights Team
Dear Madam or Sir:


I would like to garner your perspective about the proposal we are working on;
http://stoptorture.ca/medical_ethics

Please reply with your comments and suggestions. Thank you.


with best wishes,

Ken Agar-Newman






---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ken Agar-Newman
Date: Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 2:35 PM
Subject: Fwd: international oversight agency to regulate nurses and other health professionals
To: humanrights@who.int



WHO Health and Human Rights Team
Dear Madam or Sir:


I am continuing to ask for your perspective about the proposal we are working on;
http://stoptorture.ca/medical_ethics

I won't give up trying to contact you.


with best wishes,
Ken Agar-Newman




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ken Agar-Newman
Date: Wed, May 19, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Subject: Fwd: international oversight agency to regulate nurses and other health professionals
To: humanrights@who.int


Dear WHO Health and Human Rights Team:
I am forwarding this email again in case it never reached you.

with best wishes,
Ken Agar-Newman

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ken Agar-Newman
Date: Tue, May 4, 2010 at 3:21 AM
Subject: international oversight agency to regulate nurses and other health professionals
To: humanrights@who.int



WHO Health and Human Rights Team
humanrights@who.int

Dear Madam or Sir:

I would like to obtain comments regarding a proposal I have been working on with the Victoria Coalition for the Survivors of Torture since August 1993 about establishing an international oversight agency to regulate nurses and other health professionals in relation to standards of practice to prevent or stop torture and other cruel inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment (CIDT or P) with respect to prisoners and detainees.

The web-link to the proposal is as follows:

http://stoptorture.ca/medical_ethics


As you know medical and nursing regulation is a complex topic however there is no inter-governmental regulation of standards for practice when state, provincial, or national bodies are unable (or unwilling) to exercise their mandate. If we reflect on the relevant UN statement, the WHO/WMA designed UN Principles of Medical Ethics (1982), there is no international mechanism to ensure competency. It is my observation that current UN mechanisms are not comprehensive enough, do not specialize in standards of practice of nurses and others, and do not encompass regulation.

You may observe that the scope of the proposed Oversight Committee is narrow, focusing on torture and CIDT or P, due to the need to focus on the worst violations.

I have discussed the concept informally with the President of the WMA during the summer of 2007 as well as presented the idea at the 2001 ICN Congress in Copenhagen. This October I talked with the former UN Rapporteur on “Health for All” Professor Paul Hunt. I have presented the idea at the International Congress for Law and Mental Health last year, attended by former UN Committee against Torture member, Dr Bent Sorenson and internationally recognized, Dr Inge Genefke.

In November 2009 Alvaro Moreno (a Canadian community development worker) presented the concept at a Congress for the Social Psychology of Liberation in Chiapas and we have obtained useful comments at this venue. Another colleague, Peter Golden (a Canadian lawyer), presented the concept at the International Congress for Law and Mental Health in New York in June 2009.

We presented the idea to the American Psychology Association Symposium in Toronto during August of 2009. We were part of a workshop titled Protectors as Perpetrators: vulnerability to doing harm in clinical, law enforcement and military settings. The proposal has garnered the interest of American psychologists due to psychologists’, medical doctors and other health workers' involvement with the interrogation of security detainees associated with the US military’s so-called war on terror.

In connection with this thread of psychologists and regulation, I will be participating in a panel discussion titled New Directions for the Anti-Torture Movement in Boston mid-July. This workshop is part of the conference "Toward A More Socially Responsible Psychology", Psychology for Social Responsibility 2010 Conference (Brookline), July 15-17, 2010;
http://www.psysr.org/conference2010/

I have learned that WHO is examining a resolution led by Denmark, (A/HRC/10/L.32), co-sponsored by Canada at the 10th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on the role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel with respect to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This resolution requests the Special Rapporteur on torture to discuss possible areas of cooperation with the WHO, to address the role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel in the documentation and prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
I understand that WHO is aware of this resolution, and requests that organizations such as the WMA develop guidelines in this area, and is currently considering the implications in terms of its work.

Briefly, in synopsis, ICN has stated that they are focused on self-regulation. WMA stated that they are concerned with doctors only. Prof. Paul Hunt encouraged me but stated that before such a body is created, the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights could be used to address some of the concerns. Dr Bent Sorenson suggested that the Oversight Committee utilize the UN Convention against Torture because it is law. Dr Inge Genefke suggested incorporating the ability to penalize physicians for breaching ethics.

The proposal is posted on the VCST web-site, linked above. I would welcome feedback - ken.agarnew@gmail.com

Thank you for your help.

With best wishes


Ken Agar-Newman