Defense Department releases new medical policies for detainees News
Defense Department releases new medical policies for detainees

[JURIST] US Department of Defense officials Monday released [press statement] a new policy on responsibilities of military healthcare providers to detainees. The memorandum [PDF], circulated internally last week [JURIST report], reaffirms standards similar to those used in US federal prisons, indicating that military healthcare personnel have a duty to protect the physical and mental health of detainees, and establishes a clear separation of duties between "personnel providing healthcare to detainees and behavioral science personnel consulting with interrogators". Earlier this month, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine [text] alleged that military interrogators at Guantanamo had access to detainees' medical records, and had exploited information from the records during questioning. A Pentagon spokesman insisted again Monday that DOD had "no credible evidence that a military physician participated in detainee abuse."

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.