4. Provide legal assistance to victims; collaborate with legal professionals and the court to improve support Providing direct legal assistance to torture victims and collaborating with lawyers through a referral system are essential best practice solutions to ensure that appropriate psychosocial support is available to torture victims participating in legal proceedings. As described in Balay Center’s case study, this can take the form of specialised sessions provided by legal and health staff to prepare victims for the judicial process, discuss the case and inform victims of the legal procedures. The rehabilitation centres in this report consider legal professionals to be one of the primary actors to address in order to improve the situation of torture victims involved in legal proceedings. Thus, collaboration between health and legal professionals is essential. In particular, lawyers are likely to have the most influence on managing victims’ expectations from trial as well as the best skills needed to prepare victims adequately for court. Lawyers and judges need additional training in order to address the needs of victims appropriately.” TPO, Cambodia Despite this, legal professionals often lack the specialised knowledge to understand torture victims’ needs and the effect legal proceedings can have on them. Providing training on psychosocial support to lawyers, prosecutors and judges is another example of a best practice solution to overcome this challenge. Establishing legal clinics to assist victims and their families to access justice is another recommended way of collaborating with legal professionals. Legal clinics may offer a variety of services, including specialised legal advice, assistance with court procedures, access to legal aid and support to torture victims when attending court. In many instances, the legal clinics are run by voluntary staff and on a pro-bono basis. They provide an effective forum for raising awareness of torture victims’ rights within the wider community and encouraging victims to engage with legal proceedings to bring perpetrators to justice and contribute to the fight against impunity. In addition, rehabilitation centres may directly collaborate with the court by offering their expertise during the legal proceedings, for example by monitoring the 40