A/HRC/13/39/Add.5 civil proceedings. More generally, torture victims are particularly likely to face a lack of political will on the part of the authorities to investigate and acknowledge abuse inflicted by public officials linked to those authorities mandated to investigate and prosecute these allegations. I have therefore continuously urged States to establish complaint and investigation mechanisms that are institutionally and politically independent from those public authorities they are supposed to control. 177. On the substantive level, the amount of compensation awarded to victims in most cases does not reach more than a symbolic sum and by no means covers the actual costs of medical treatment and rehabilitation, which survivors of torture and ill-treatment have to fund by themselves or with the support of family, friends and civil society organisations. The majority of torture survivors, however, do not have access to the necessary medical, psychological and social rehabilitation measures at all, either because such services are too costly or altogether non-existent. In fact, in most countries I have visited so far, rehabilitation centres for torture victims were not set up by the State, but depended on private, mostly foreign funding and only had limited reach. In Moldova for example, the Medical Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims “Memoria”, which provided excellent services, was totally dependent on foreign funding and was therefore unable to cover the entire country. The same holds true for the excellent rehabilitation centre for torture victims in Zimbabwe which I visited in 2008. Existing rehabilitation services not only suffer from a lack of financial resources for the establishment of adequate facilities and adequate training of health personnel, but, to my utmost concern, have also sometimes received threats from the perpetrators of torture. I therefore strongly urge all States to provide support and protection to rehabilitation centres and other service facilities that provide relief and rehabilitation to victims of torture and their relatives. In addition, I would like to once again encourage States and civil society organisations to cooperate in stepping up efforts to provide assistance to torture survivors. 178. At the international level, the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture is a highly important step by the international community to demonstrate acknowledgment of the suffering of torture survivors around the world. However, much more financial commitment is needed to reach out to victims and their relatives, particularly in postconflict countries, where the majority of the population is traumatised by years and decades of brutal conflict and abuse. As I have suggested in a previous report to the Human Rights Council, consideration should be given as to how to hold those States, where torture is systematic or widespread, accountable to their obligations arising under article 14, for example by requiring them to contribute substantively to the UN Voluntary Fund. 3. The provision of extra-territorial reparation 179. In principle, the right of victims to adequate reparation needs to be interpreted as a remedy in relation to the perpetrator or the State responsible for the acts of torture. However, in most cases of serious and systematic torture, an effective remedy against the torturing State is not available in that State. If they have the opportunity, many victims flee the place of their torment and seek protection and asylum in other countries. Traumatised by the pain and suffering inflicted upon them, they are often in urgent need of medical and psychological care as well as professional rehabilitation services in the host country, which they are however in most cases not able to afford without monetary compensation, assistance from the host State or private donations. The question therefore arises whether the right to a remedy and reparation also applies under the jurisdiction of the State of residence, if this State was not involved in the act of torture. In other words, what is the extra-territorial scope of the right to a remedy and reparation of victims of torture and CIDT? 47

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