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ABOUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE TITLED: WHAT ARE YOUR
THOUGHTS?
PURPOSE:
1.
As the
title says, the questionnaire welcomes individual’s thoughts about
relational violence, specifically on relational abuse and torture.
2.
Participating offers the challenge to consider that torture happens in
the private sphere, meaning in homes, cabins, cottages, private
buildings, rented spaces, warehouses, barns, or private out door spaces
on farms, for example, and that such acts of torture are committed by
persons generally known to the person – child or adult – being
victimized. Click here for more on a torture free zone (http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/cdntorturefree.pdf).
3.
It
provides an opportunity for reflective Self-education and awareness
development if a person has never considered that torture happens in the
private sphere.
4.
And, it
encourages grass root conversation which corresponds to recent
discussion and reports on torture at the United Nations (UN) level (see
the report by Mr. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur (SR) on torture, and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, dated January
15, 2008, entitled Promotion and protection of all human rights,
civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the
right to development. A/HRC/7/3,
Geneva.)
WHY USE A
SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE?
Questionnaires provide a way to collect public opinion while permitting
respondents to keep their identity private. We have, however, had a
considerable number of people, who have answered the questionnaire,
identify themselves, providing us with their additional comments (their
identities will remain confidential). Respondents have been both female
and male victimized persons and non-victimized persons; they have been
professionals in health care delivery, counselors, teachers, housewives,
university students, and for example, members of non-governmental
organizations. Replies have come from
Canada,
the United States, Western Europe, and Australia.
Reactions
to the questionnaire are varied. We have been told that answering the
questionnaire raised new thoughts about relational violence. Other
respondents questioned the value of the questionnaire and did not know
that the UN was already discussing non-state actor torture. And from
persons so victimized have come thank you notes and comments stating
that filling out the questionnaire was an “enlightening experience” and
they were “deeply grateful’ for the work we do.
When we
finish tabulating the responses we will include some of this information
in our writing and/or post this information on our website.
HISTORICAL BRIEF: TORTURE AS A VIOLATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS
The UN Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm),
came into being on December 10, 1984.
For nations who signed this Convention their commitment was/is that as a
state they would abide by the articles listed in the Convention which
made torture committed by state actors – police or the military for
example – a criminally punishable offence. That women and girls and boys
needed protection from torture inflicted by non-state actors – parents,
family members, guardians, spouses, or strangers – in the private sphere
was not a reality that was given consideration in 1984. In recent years
however, efforts to have non-state actor torture that occurs in the
private sphere recognized as an emerging violation of human rights has
been/is gaining visibility on the human rights agenda. Most recently in
the report of Mr. Manfred Nowak, SR on torture and other cruel, inhumane
or degrading treatment or punishment, referenced in point four above.
PARTICIPATING IN THE
QUESTIONNAIRE
To
participate in the one-page questionnaire you can either:
1.
Download it, fill in your comments, then mail it back to us at:
Jeanne Sarson & Linda MacDonald
361 Prince Street, Truro, NS, Canada, B2N 1E4
2. Or, once you have opened the
questionnaire go to edit, select all and copy it, fill in your answers
then recopy it with your answers, returning it to us via email at:
flight@ns.sympatico.ca
Please be
aware that the questions are very direct in that the questionnaire
contains a list of acts perpetrators inflict and asks for your opinion
about whether you think the situation and the acts
constitute abuse or torture.
Date: May 26, 2008
Thank-you, Linda &
Jeanne
Click here for questionnaire
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