Is it ever right to torture?

On this morning's Sunday programme there was an excellent moral discussion on the rights and wrongs of torture between Philippe Sands and Alan Derschowitz, both professors of law and practising civil rights lawyers.
Derschowitz argued in favour of legislating for torture in democracies as a necessary evil and doing this openly, claiming that the choice between harm to an individual and possible prevention of mass loss of human life from information gathered justifies the use of torture in the age of terrorism.
Sands clearly affirmed that use of torture by democracies just helps terrorists recruit and that it is wrong and counter productive. It is also not proven at all that torture produces reliable or useful information.
You can listen to the Sunday Programme again for the next seven days, the discussion runs from minute 24 for six minutes. It's good radio and thought-provoking stuff.
You can guess from my choice of book to picture here that I took Sands' side - finding his arguments both more convincing and more in line with my own convictions. Find out more about Torture Team here. You can raed some of his commentary of the recent UK Iraq enquiry here.
You can find link to Derschowitz's prolific output here.

Justice for women in Mexico

For international women's day, Réforme is leading this week with the campaign of Mexican women for justice for the 400 women who have been found murdered over the past 15 years in The Mexican-Texas border town of Ciudad Juarez, a further 4,000 women are reported missing. Nakaworari Leál Ortíz pictured here has set up an association which works with the families of the victims, most of whom live in situations of extreme poverty. The association recieves free legal aid from lawyers in Mexico City and the Ford Foundation also supports their work.
Naka however also says that the work has to continue until age old problems of men seeing women only as sexual objects are overcome. "Pour Nakaworari, rien ne sera résolu tant que la femme mexicaine ne sera pas traitée à égalité de l’homme. « Quand les garçons parlent entre eux des filles, ils les voient uniquement comme des objets sexuels »"
The work of the association and its campaign for justice is supported by ACAT Christian Action Against Torture.
What campaign, which people are you supporting for international women's day?

La nuit des veilleurs - praying for victims of torture and human rights abuses

The night of 28-29 June is "la nuit des veilleurs" for ACAT groups in France. ACAT is Christian Action Against Torture and the prayer vigil takes place each year on the Saturday following June 26th, which was the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Christians of all confessions are invited to pray throughout the night "Pour une nuit où la prière se fait cri et louange, accompagne les actions et les relaie jusqu'au coeur de Dieu" - For a night on which the cry and praise of prayer becomes one with action, bringing them before God. In Ferney Voltaire tomorrow evening my colleague Guillermo Kerber from Uruguay will speak on Prayer and Human Rights before we begin the prayer vigil proper.

In a moment of complete unreality I signed up for the hours between midnight and 2am - that was before I realised how tired I'd feel after travelling by train to and from the UK in 48 hours!

Anyway wherever you are please take some time to remember and pray for prisoners of conscience and victims of torture.

Words against woes - Mots contre Maux!

Today I had catechism again with the young people. It's very much a joint enterprise - we learn at least as much from them as we manage to teach. We looked at the problem of evil and suffering with them today. I became a storyteller and told the tale of the Magi visiting Herod the dictator - rather more briefly than in my sermon earlier in the week. Afterwards we got them to write letters of lamentation and protest either to Herod or to God ( we all found that quite therapeutic!) and then we read some passages from the book of Lamentations, from Job and from Psalm 22 "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?".
Later still we painted posters, pictures and ideas for overcoming evil. One of them painted words in the colours of the French flag calling for help to all people who are disadvantaged, others painted stars and colours of hope shining to overcome evil. I came up with "an alphabet of responsability - words against woes". It works rather better in French "Un ABCédaire de responsabilité: mots contre maux", which literally means words against evils, but the two words mots and maux are pronounced exactly the same.
What in part inspired this was being in the same room where a few days previously I had joined the newly founded local section of ACAT (Action by Christians Against Torture). Working against evil is about a spirituality of resistance, it's about plodding on, writing letters, raising awareness of the problem of prisoners of conscience, struggling against the death penalty, month after month, year after year. Doing the boring, repetitive abc work. It's also about being willing to be in a tiny, sometimes rather disorganised and unfocused minority. A spirituality of resistance is also about making do with small insignificant changes some of the time, picking oneself up and starting over when all seems lost.