Elimination of Torture and Rehabilitation of Its Victims
Prerequisite for Achieving Millennium Development Goals
22-09-2010
Today, as the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals draws to a close the IRCT calls upon global leaders attending to remember their legal and moral obligations to work towards the elimination of torture – an essential requirement for the development goals to be achieved.
Despite its prohibition in international law, well over half of the world’s countries continue to practice the horror of torture. The majority of the world’s torture victims are not suspected terrorists held captive by Jack Bauer-like characters from the popular television show 24. They are from poor, disadvantaged communities in low-income countries, where torture is used as a systematic means of control – either officially sanctioned or executed by corrupt officials.
The IRCT’s 25 years of experience of supporting tortured men women and children across the world to rebuild their lives speaks an unmistakable message: torture has devastating consequences, not only for the victim, but for his or her family and wider community as well.
Brita Sydhoff, IRCT Secretary-General said: “The eradication of torture and the rehabilitation of its victims are part and parcel of sustainable development. Our experience show that torture can, and very often does, undermine relationships between individuals, families, communities and state institutions and create widespread fear, trauma and mistrust. In other words, torture is thus not only a grave violation of individual human rights; it seriously hampers democracy, freedom and, crucially, sustainable development.”
“It is of paramount importance that torture victims can access health-based rehabilitation services so that they can function and take actively part in the development of their communities and societies. And it is equally important that they can access justice so that the wrong-doing they’ve been subjected to is recognised and compensated, and perpetrators held to account” added Sydhoff.
Press contact
Scott McAusland
T: +45 50 20 56 99 e: sma@irct.org
About the UN Summit
With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), world leaders are meeting at a summit in New York (20-22 September) to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.
The high-level meeting of the General Assembly is being held to take stock of the progress made so far towards the MDGs – which include slashing poverty, combating disease, fighting hunger, protecting the environment and boosting education – and to accelerate progress to reach the Goals by their 2015 target date.
