Part II: Challenges and opportunities 52 Diploma course on prevention and documentation of torture in Mexico By Felicitas Treue Psychologist, Collective against Torture and Impunity (CCTI), Mexico Since the founding of Colectivo Contra la Tortura y la Impunidad (CCTI) in 2004, the training of health professionals in documenting torture has been a priority issue. These efforts have become particularly urgent since Mexico saw a significant increase in torture incidents across the country in late 2005. There are two main reasons why these training efforts are essential to the future protection against torture in Mexico. Firstly, independent human rights organisations in the country have a general lack of medical personnel qualified in documenting torture. Only 2 out of 80 employ physicians, while some rely on psychologists who are generally unqualified in documenting physical torture. Secondly, the Mexican government has monopolised torture documentation using the Istanbul Protocol by not affording expert status to independent medical personnel and in certain cases by criminalising CCTI staff for using the Istanbul Protocol. The investigations are mainly carried out by the National Institute of Penal Science or professionals working for the police and investigating forces, which creates a situation where different government agencies are tasked with investigating each other, leaving no room for independently collected evidence. Forensic psychiatry and medicine courses are already part of the regular curriculum at the faculties of medicine and psychology in Mexican universities. This has created the opportunity for developing a postgraduate course on documentation of torture. The Metropolitan Autonomous University has an interdisciplinary area for teaching human rights. Through its mediation, students have approached the CCTI with the purpose of writing their postgraduate thesis on torture. Through this collaboration the CCTI made an agreement with the university to establish a diploma course on documentation of torture (which equals an academic credit of 120 to 400 hours/class). In 2005 and 2006, two attempts were made to establish the course, but none of the independent enrolled participants were