U.N.-appointed human rights experts (called special rapporteurs) issue annual reports that raise thematic issues of concern to high-level forums of the United Nations (e.g., the U.N. General Assembly, and the U.N. Human Rights Council). Thematic reports are opportunities to define or redefine particular issues in the field, to highlight practices that violate existing standards, to expand the discussion and debate, and to contribute to the formation of standards and norms which will prevent the most egregious of practices.
In the fall of 2015, the clinic supported the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SRT), Juan Mendez, to issue a report on gender perspectives on torture. The report assesses the applicability of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in international law to the unique experiences of women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.
Clinic students researched and drafted a working paper which analyzed a wide range of practices to which women are subjected that might constitute torture under international human rights norms and discussed how existing standards preventing torture and CIDT are currently applied. The students’ semester culminated in their presenting their findings at November 2015 expert consultation sponsored by the SRT on gender and torture held in Washington, D.C.