Lecture Explores American Torture Practices

“Torture and the Future,” the 2007 Critical Issues in America series at the University of California at Santa Barbara, continues on April 26 with a lecture given by Scott Horton and Gita Gutierrez. Horton, an attorney and president of the International League for Human Rights. Gutierrez is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. They will discuss how the U.S. deals with prisoners at facilities abroad, like Guantanamo Bay. The speakers will explore U.S. policy in regards to detention and interrogation practices, as well as accountability for those who have authorized cruel treatment and torture for the prisoners. This lecture is the next installment in the series that focuses on the effects of torture conducted by Democratic countries, the role of mass media in influencing consciousness of torture, and the relationship between torture in U.S. prisons abroad and Human Rights violations within our nation’s borders.

The lecture is open and free for the public, and will begin at 4 p.m. in Engineering Sciences Building 1001 at UCSB.