Focus on women in Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo

Current and planned priority areas of work

 

Helping torture survivors rebuild their lives 

• We are working to secure specialised rehabilitation services for torture victims in Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, with a focus on women (including victims of war-related sexual torture and mass rape); persons tortured in pre-trial detention; tortured child soldiers; and children tortured as a result of accusations of witchcraft. Our work includes training 95 medical staff in eleven torture rehabilitation centres, and supporting them to provide community-based rehabilitation for at least 10,000 victims of torture. These individuals live in communities totalling some 400,000 people, many of which are affected indirectly by torture; hence our work impacts far beyond the victims themselves. A special focus of this work includes supporting the establishment of referral systems between our members and other health service providers, so that victims of torture can access specialised surgery to address the complicated and debilitating injuries associated with sexual torture.
   
• We are supporting our members in Latin America (Mexico, Peru and Argentina), the Middle East (Lebanon and the Palestinian territories), Sub Saharan Africa (Cameroon and Uganda), and Asia (Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka) to develop their physical, psychological and social rehabilitation services for some 10,500 torture victims and their families. Our work includes training 320 medical doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists, lawyers and other professionals working directly with torture survivors, and supporting our members to learn from each other through south-south/south-north peer exchanges and supervision.  

Promoting justice for victims and holding torturers accountable 

• The most serious obstacle to the prevention and elimination of torture is a widespread culture of impunity for perpetrators of torture. Impunity is not only a failure of justice to be had; it prevents victims from healing as they are haunted by a constant fear of repetition. We are seeking to promote and support fifteen ground-breaking court cases in favour of torture victims and against alleged torturers, by generating high quality forensic documentation that can serve as crucial evidence in these cases. The programme targets Latin America (Ecuador), Asia (The Philippines), the Middle East (Lebanon), Eastern Europe (Georgia) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe/Uganda). 

Urgent actions to protect colleagues in immediate danger 

• Many of our colleagues work in unstable and extremely dangerous contexts, such as in Iraq, DR Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan. Far too often our colleagues are harassed, threatened and sometimes arrested and tortured – just like those they’re working to help. Sometimes, they pay with their lives. Each year we carry out several urgent actions to protect colleagues facing imminent danger. In such situations we mobilise the diplomatic corps in the country in question as well as other human rights groups and the media. Where possible we follow up with legal and practical support, including evacuation assistance. For example, we are seeking to provide legal follow-up on three urgent actions in 2010, namely the murder of forensic expert Dr. Germán Ramírez in Ecuador, the killing of DR Congo’s leading human rights activist Mr Floribert Chebeya, and death threats against two IRCT member centre staff in Kenya.