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Combating torture in Egypt
02-03-2010Over the past nine months, with the generous support of the Embassy of the Netherlands, the IRCT has collaborated with the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to combat torture in Egypt. The implementation of the plan will be overseen by the Council’s anti-torture unit, established in 2008 with the aim of “combat[ing] all forms of torture within the role and mandate of the council as a national frame that seeks to ensure respect for human rights in Egypt”. On 1 March, IRCT representative Mr. Giorgio Caracciolo delivered the following statement at an event marking the inception of the plan.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honoured to be here today to take part in this important event that sees the presentation of the draft action plan to combat torture in Egypt and I thank Prof. El Dakkak and the Focus Unit on Torture of the NCHR for this opportunity.
Today I represent the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, or the IRCT.
Some of you may be already familiar with our work but for those who are not, the IRCT is an independent, international health professional organisation which promotes and supports the rehabilitation of torture survivors and works for the prevention of torture worldwide. We collaborate with rehabilitation centres and programmes throughout the world that are committed to eradicating torture and to assisting victims and their families. Any independent and non-profit centre or programme working in the field of torture rehabilitation and prevention may become a member of the IRCT; today we have 142 member rehabilitation centres and programmes in 73 countries and territories.
The IRCT’s rehabilitation centres and programmes work within varying national and local contexts, with different target groups, and use a range of methods to address the effects of torture on individuals, families and communities.
My organisation is strongly inspired by the work developed in cooperation with the Council and welcomes the presentation of the action plan.
The IRCT began its cooperation with the NCHR in November 2008 with a workshop gathering members of the ombudsman office and focusing on the importance of documentation of torture according to international standards and the use of the guidelines of the Istanbul Protocol.
Today the IRCT’s role is to support the further specialisation of the professionals selected by the Council as members of the Focus Unit on Torture. Our support is offered through facilitating the Unit’s access to specialists belonging to the legal, managerial and medical fields. Our ultimate aim is to support the Council in establishing a unit that works according to principles of international human rights law and applying criteria of good self-management and accountability.
In this regard, the presentation of the draft action plan of the unit on torture represents an important moment for all of us working to support freedom from torture and ill-treatments and the right to reparation of torture survivors in Egypt. This plan is in effect a statement from the National Council for Human Rights to actively focus and contribute to the common struggle against the use of torture in Egypt; it is a statement that calls all of us for coordination; it is a statement that indicates that the council will systematically address the issue of torture and work against it.
Although this statement will reach the national and international community during the coming days it will nevertheless leave the news only a short period afterwards, but we are not bound to witness a vacuum. On the contrary, we will remain with a powerful plan that will direct first and foremost the Council but also the human rights community in general, to follow a growing engagement of the National Council for human rights in the anti-torture struggle in Egypt.
The meeting today gives us the chance to contribute to this plan. The Council has invited us – civil society organisations – to provide our comments to their plan. Our, or I should say, your contribution to this plan is key to its successful implementation in the future, is key to future cooperation.
Yesterday, in a similar event, the Council Focus Unit on Torture presented the plan to various representatives of public institutions, and recorded their reactions. Today this meeting gives you the same possibility.
The IRCT is proud to follow the Council in this path and we have strong expectations that this process will boost our work in combating torture in Egypt.
Before I conclude, I must say that this cooperation would not have been possible without the vision of the Embassy of the Netherlands to support the IRCT but above all to support the Council in defining this new path for intervention. Moreover, the Embassy is engaging with us in a non-stop active partnership, whose value is paramount.
I would like to conclude by wishing you a good and successful day.
I thank you for your attention.
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