Instruments of Torture: Contemporary Human Rights Issue

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) is partnering with the San Diego Museum of Man to illuminate the contemporary issues showcased in their new exhibit, "Instruments of Torture." The exhibit's goal is to provide a comprehensive interpretation of torture through historical artifacts and a discussion of present-day torture practices.

IPJ Deputy Director Dee Aker joined the panel that opened the exhibit on July 13, 2012. "Torture is still a common dark path in our world," she noted. "The IPJ knows too well that there is no shared or sustainable peace without justice and that there is no true justice where torture is practiced."

Panelists from partnering organizations included Kathi Anderson, executive director and co-founder of Survivors of Torture, International, William J. Aceves, J.D., professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs at California Western School of Law, and George Reed, Ph.D., associate dean of the School of Leadership and Educational Sciences at University of San Diego.

Rex Garniewicz, COO for programs and collections at the museum, expressed the intentions behind the exhibit in a blog post on the museum’s website: “We hope that by exploring this significant human rights issue, we will encourage people to join us and our partners – Survivors of Torture, International, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, and the International Legal Studies Program at California Western School of Law – to work towards putting an end to these atrocities. And we hope that, by developing a deeper understanding of ourselves, we can help create a future free of the intentional infliction of pain and suffering.”

To continue reading the blog by Garniewicz, please go to www.museumofman.org/blog/instruments-torture-now-open-sdmom.

The exhibit will be on display through June 2013. For more information, please go to www.museumofman.org/torture.

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