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Torture is an act that seeks to profoundly damage a person's both physical and mental well-being. It is often used to create fear, discourage community unity, and, ultimately, drive people into silence. In the United States alone, there are up to 1.3 million refugee torture survivors, comprising nearly half of all refugees in the country.
What happens after a person survives torture? How are they able to move on? Click through this gallery to understand more about the torture rehabilitation process.
Torture is a crime. It is a violation of both human rights and international law. Yet millions of people around the world have experienced its horrid effects.
According to the United Nations Declaration Against Torture, torture is defined as the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering.
Torture consists of a “deliberate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Torture rehabilitation is a multi-layered process that focuses on helping survivors recover from the harms (physical, psychological, and social) caused by their experiences.
Rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary process, typically engaged via a holistic approach. Medical and psychological care, legal assistance, and psycho-social support, such as community reintegration, are some key aspects to the process.
Each survivor is unique. Their experiences, cultural contexts, resources, traumas, and needs comprise a set of unique components that determine what the rehabilitation process should look like.
There are at least 170 torture rehabilitation clinics spread out over 76 countries. Each clinic typically contains highly specialized medical professionals.
Europe hosts the most clinics in the world. According to the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), there are 57 torture rehabilitation clinics in Europe alone. Pictured is Danish doctor Inge Genefke (right), founder of the IRCT.
The second-largest region with the most torture rehabilitation clinics is Sub-Saharan Africa, which holds a total of 31 torture rehabilitation clinics. Pictured is Senegalese lawyer Sidiki Kaba from the African Center for the Prevention and Resolution of Conflicts (CAPREC).
North America holds 24 clinics, closely followed by Asia, which holds 21 torture rehabilitation clinics (representatives from Filipino organizations and clinics pictured). In addition, there are clinics in the Middle East and North Africa region (15), Latin America (11), and the Pacific (11) regions.
Many survivors of torture attempt to seek refuge in third-party nations. Torture is one of the legitimate qualifications for the asylum-seeking process.
Not all torture is the same. Some survivors may not have physical scars that mark the torture they experience, but may, rather, have psychological trauma. Therefore, it is essential that there are trained professionals available in receiving nations to understand all signs of torture.
The challenge to adequately document a torture survivor’s experience is a complex issue, particularly in nations that are hostile toward asylum seekers more broadly. Pictured: an asylum-seeker draws out torture scenes that he experienced.
Authorities may be directed by domestic or regional policies that prioritize the negation of asylum claims, perhaps creating conditions and obstacles to ‘proving’ torture that may not be possible for survivors. Pictured: Syrian torture survivor and refugee.
For example, like many forms of violence that may not have left physical scars but have caused trauma and other long-lasting effects, ‘evidence’ may be challenging to provide, unless there are specialists involved that may be able to identify symptoms. Pictured is a former Palestinian prisoner who was left with mental disabilities following torture in Israeli prisons.
Survivors with physical evidence of torture, such as cigarette burns or other markings that leave physical marks, may be able to ‘prove’ their experiences far easier than those who, for example, have survived sexual violence.
Since torture rehabilitation is a health-based process, it includes a diagnostic element, which means that the extent of someone’s experience is analyzed and measured in accordance to specific standards.
Once a survivor has undergone the in-take process and has been fully evaluated, the process of torture rehabilitation typically begins with medical treatment.
Torture rehabilitation is not just an independent process that has been taken on by caring medical professionals seeking to do good in the world–it is a fundamental right in accordance with Article 14 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT).
What does Article 14 guarantee? Internationally recognized, torture survivors have a right to “as full rehabilitation as possible,” which is the responsibility of nations to fulfill.
One of the key steps that the international torture rehabilitation community has recognized is that the best rehabilitation outcomes occur at the earliest possible time following the experience.
When survivors are able to access care shortly after their experience with torture, the healing process can begin as soon as possible, offering survivors support during their transition following trauma.
Without access to rehabilitation services, torture survivors typically are unable to recover from the violence they experienced. Therefore, without support, it is very unlikely that they are able to reintegrate back to their normal lives pre-torture.
In addition to the healing elements that are integral to the torture rehabilitation process, there is another key part that is just as important for survivors: justice.
What does justice refer to? Justice refers to the legal processes that, through judicial processes, seek accountability on behalf of the torture survivor.
These legal processes typically include documentation of the survivor’s experiences in seeking reparations for the harm they experienced. Pictured is a 2018 trial of German detention guards accused to torturing and abusing asylum seekers.
Torture is a criminal offense. The IRCT notes that: “Without justice, healing is incomplete. And without healing, justice is superficial.” Pictured is a sculpture from the Amna Suraka Museum in Iraqi Kurdistan, depicting torture under Saddam Hussein's regime.
Understanding torture rehabilitation as a holistic experience, we can understand the health-based elements and the justice aspects to be mutually reinforcing and essential to ensure torture survivors can seek redress.
Sources: (Amnesty International) (Human Rights Watch) (International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims)
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Torture is an act that seeks to profoundly damage a person's both physical and mental well-being. It is often used to create fear, discourage community unity, and, ultimately, drive people into silence. In the United States alone, there are up to 1.3 million refugee torture survivors, comprising nearly half of all refugees in the country.
What happens after a person survives torture? How are they able to move on? Click through this gallery to understand more about the torture rehabilitation process.