This is episode 1 of an IBA Human Rights Law Committee podcast series looking at both obvious and overlooked aspects of litigating and documenting torture, in an ‘A-Z’ format. This episode covers A-C: arbitrary detention, as both a form of torture and environment which renders individuals susceptible to torture; beatings – physical torture; and ‘confessions and clean teams’.

Leading this project, and featured in the first episode, are Alka Pradhan and Melinda Taylor, Co-Vice-Chairs of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee. Alka is a US human rights lawyer who has represented Guantanamo Bay detainees, civilian drone strike victims and other torture victims. Melinda is an Australian international criminal defence lawyer who has worked on defence cases before tribunals in Rwanda and Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court, and engaged in human rights litigation concerning torture and arbitrary detention before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and UN special mechanisms.

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