IRCT REGIONAL REPORT 2016 European governments need to learn from this experience and the existing expert capacity in their countries and prioritise the establishment or improvement of identification systems that effectively identify torture victims and other vulnerable groups as early as possible. Following identification, they should ensure that: Secondly, a credibility assessment remains the main tool for determining asylum claims despite ample proof that torture victims suffering from PTSD are unable to accurately recount their experiences in a consistent way over time. This often sees them determined to be unreliable or not credible. As a result, torture victims with valid protection claims risk being returned to countries where there is no rehabilitation support and where they are at risk of being tortured again. Learning lessons from the past European countries have extensive experience in successfully receiving and rehabilitating torture victims from other countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, more than a million people from Latin America fled the brutal military dictatorships in the region and some found safety in European countries. Many had harrowing experiences of torture and found refuge and rehabilitation support through IRCT members, who were able to offer them holistic and individually tailored treatment. • Victims have access to holistic rehabilitation services and these services are adequately funded • Victims are not placed in immigration detention • Victims have access to a full medico-legal examination of their torture allegations free of charge – in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol This experience has demonstrated that rehabilitation can help victims rebuild a life after torture and become active members of society in their host countries. Since then, IRCT members and other rehabilitation providers in Europe have provided rehabilitation to refugee torture victims from all over the world, including from the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, and helped them integrate in and rebuild their lives in European society.5 note • Victims’ vulnerability and possible psychological traumatisation is taken into account when developing refugee status determination processes The Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – commonly known as the Istanbul Protocol – establishes internationally recognised standards and principles for the investigation and documentation of allegations of torture and ill-treatment. It provides guidance for health professionals on how to recognise and document symptoms of torture to serve as valid evidence in court and in asylum proceedings. Its adoption by the United Nations in 1999 gives it global authority as an instrument that should be used to guide standards for the documentation and investigation of torture. By detailing the process of documenting medico-legal evidence, the Istanbul Protocol’s key objective is to ensure scientific and multi-disciplinary assessment of credible evidence in order to contribute to achieving justice and to the fight against impunity in cases of torture and other ill-treatment. page 7