Anna Funder - Anna Funder, born 1966, is an Australian writer who grew up in Melbourne. She studied creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney, also later studying at the Free University of Berlin as the recipient in 1994 of a DAAD Scholarship (German Government Academic Exchange Service Award). In 1995 after the Berlin Wall came down she applied for and received a Fellowship from the AGA to return to Germany.
Funder has worked as an international lawyer and in public relations for a German overseas television service in Berlin. Living and working in Berlin inspired her to write her first book, the non-fiction work Stasiland, which explores the machinations of the secret police known as the Stasi in the former German Democratic Republic. She was awarded the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in 2004.
Philippe Sands - Philippe Sands joined the Faculty at University College London in January 2002. He is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals in the Faculty, and a key member of staff in the Centre for Law and the Environment. His teaching areas include public international law, the settlement of international disputes (including arbitration), and environmental and natural resources law.
Sands is notable for authoring a book, Lawless World, where he accuses US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of conspiring to invade Iraq in violation of international law. His follow-up book, Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, was released in May, 2008. He also was the first to reveal a memo that revealed that Bush wanted to lure Saddam to shoot down a UN plane.
Philippe is a regular commentator on the BBC and CNN and writes frequently for leading newspapers. hHe is frequently invited to lecture around the world, and in recent years has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto (2005), the University of Melbourne (2005) and the Universite de Paris I (Sorbonne) (2006, 2007). He has previously held academic positions at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, Kings College London and , University of Cambridge and was a Global Professor of Law at New York University from 1995-2003. He was co-founder of FIELD (Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development), and established the programmes on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the European Journal of International Law and Review of European Community and International Environmental Law (Blackwell Press). In 2007 he served as a judge for the Guardian First Book Prize award.
As a practicing barrister he has extensive experience litigating cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, and the European Court of Justice. He frequently advises governments, international organisations, NGOs and the private sector on aspects of international law. In 2003 he was appointed a Queen's Counsel. He has been appointed to lists of arbitrators maintained by ICSID and the PCA.
Encyclopædia Britannica Article
torture
Infliction of intolerable physical or psychological pain. Torture has been used by governments throughout history for punishment, coercion, and intimidation and for extracting confessions and information. A common practice in ancient times, it was defended by Aristotle but eloquently opposed by Cicero, Seneca, and St. Augustine. Beginning in the 12th century, torture was increasingly used in Europe; from the mid-14th through the 18th century it was a common part of the legal proceedings of most European countries. The Roman Catholic church supported its use by the Inquisition in cases of heresy. Common instruments of torture were the strappado (for repeatedly hoisting the body by the wrists behind the back and dropping it), the rack (for stretching the limbs and body), and the thumbscrew (for crushing the thumbs). By 1800 torture was illegal in many European countries, but it became common again in the 20th century, notably in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and it is still widely practiced in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. In 1984 the United Nations adopted an international convention against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. By the early 21st century some 130 countries were party to the convention. The belief that only sadists are capable of committing torture was challenged by a study in the 1960s that found that ordinary people could be easily persuaded to inflict pain on others.
Professor of International Law Philippe Sands tells the story of a memo. Sent in December 2002 to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it requested the approval of a number of coercive techniques of interrogation. As Sands tells Anna Funder, with his acceding signature, Rumsfeld pushed the United States beyond the pale of international law and directly towards the abuses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay- Melbourne Writers Festival
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