• Lobbying and advocacy at national, regional and international levels, to ensure that • Domestic law provides for all five forms of reparation;
• National courts order these reparations;
• Rehabilitation is made available at the earliest point in time, based on a health assessment and not a
judicial decision;
• States take responsibility for providing specific funding for torture victims.
3
Sharing knowledge
Promoting education and research — Ensuring rehabilitation of torture victims and torture prevention is
included in standard medical and legal schools’ curriculums and research programmes of academic institutions;
Training relevant stakeholders — At a local level this can be a way of overcoming barriers to collaboration
between stakeholders, e.g. training police, prison officials or judiciary as a first step to encouraging state
involvement at a national level on further justice reforms;
Promoting multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration – between the state, civil society organisations, victims of torture as advocates in their own right, actors working in public health in general, academic
institutions and professional associations, for example:
•
•
•
•
•
•
To encourage empowerment of victims of torture;
To encourage capacity development;
To hold states accountable for the provision of rehabilitation services;
To strengthen the evaluation process of any rehabilitation services provided (by state or NGO-led);
To implement the right to rehabilitation more widely;
Using coalitions to strengthen collaboration on national, regional and global levels. In countries where
states actively participate in torture, international collaboration is all the more essential.
Conclusion
The UN Committee against Torture’s General Comment No. 3 lays out a framework indicating that services
have to be available, appropriate and accessible in order to fully realise the right to as full rehabilitation as
possible. The expert opinion confirms that State Parties to the UNCAT may be held accountable in meeting
this obligation. The global conference organised by IRCT and Restart has paved the way for identifying
the key challenges currently faced by torture victims in enjoying the right to rehabilitation by encouraging
discussion and an exchange of ideas on how this work should be taken forward. The key recommendations
that came out of the conference, which are summarised above, should shape the future work of the torture
rehabilitation movement in order for the implementation of the right to rehabilitation to become a reality.
Right to Rehabilitation for Torture Victims, Beirut, Lebanon – 27/28 June 2013
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