Archive for category Sharing Knowledge – Project Work
The most interesting blog post you’ll ever read on ‘capacity development’
Posted by IRCT in Sharing Knowledge - Project Work on 10/04/2012
Andrés Bastidas Beltrán of Colombian member centre Corporación AVRE (Support to Victims of Sociopolitical Violence for Emotional Recovery) gave a presentation during the 2011 seminar of the Latin American region in Lima, Peru in September. Hosted by Peruvian member Centre of Psychosocial Attention (CAPS), last year's regional seminar brought together professionals from 15 torture rehabilitation centres in the region to discuss issues such as public policy on torture documentation and different treatment methods.
As I started working at NGOs, a phrase kept popping up that, honestly, I didn’t quite understand at the time.
“Capacity development” or “building capacity” was among the new NGO-ese I had yet to become acquainted with. In this field – as any other – there is a whole new language to learn. This included “concept note”, “actors”, “stakeholders”, “facilitators”, “good governance”, among many others. However, as I started working at the IRCT, I heard this particular phrase a lot, and most often in context with our Non-State Actors project.
“Non-state actors” is also not a very helpful term, and it doesn’t get any better with the longer version: developing the capacity of IRCT member centres to deliver holistic torture rehabilitation services through south-south and south-north peer supervision and support.
But this is my attempt to explain this project, and why building capacity is so vital for the future of the global anti-torture movement.
We are a membership organisation comprised of more than 140 rehabilitation centres all over the world. We have members in Sudan and Peru, Australia and Nepal, Egypt and, most recently, Namibia – more than 70 countries. And as one might surmise, not all the centres have the same resources or expertise.
EATIP in Argentina has a lot of experience in supporting torture victims – medically, psychologically, and financially – through justice proceedings. They have done so with several victims who are providing witness testimony in cases from the former dictatorial regime. African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims in Uganda has been at the forefront at developing livelihood programmes – training women how to sew or weave, for example – as part of their rehabilitative care for female victims of sexual violence and torture. Other centres are stars at fundraising and understanding how to apply for grants from the European Union or philanthropic foundations.
These are all skills that are not evenly distributed across the 140 centres. Building capacity is simply trying to improve all the rehabilitation centres by having the centres teach each other. Our project is to facilitate that through exchanges, seminars and organising training. A doctor in Sri Lanka travels to an Indian centre to learn a new psycho-social treatment method. A partner in Cameroon meets with other Sub-Saharan African treatment centres to discuss fundraising options – to work together rather than in competition. A forensic specialist from Colombia might visit a centre in Mexico to explain the most up-to-date information on documenting torture in the proper fashion (according to the Istanbul Protocol), so that the information can be used to prosecute the perpetrators or apply for asylum cases.
Capacity development – despite the esoteric wording – is simply making organisations better through training, sharing information and expertise, and cooperating, so that all members of the IRCT benefit from the incredible wealth of knowledge in each of the rehabilitation centres that comprise that membership. Improving the centres means improving their ability to treat victims of torture, aid survivors in accessing justice, and prevent torture from happening in the first place.
Tessa works in the Communications Team at the IRCT.
Combatting torture in trying contexts
Posted by IRCT in Middle East North Africa, Sharing Knowledge - Project Work on 18/01/2012
In Palestine and Israel despite tough conditions, skilled and hardworking organisations are working to combat torture
By Lars Døssing Rosenmeier
Just before the end of 2011, I visited the IRCT member centre the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (TRC) in Ramallah, Palestine. The visit was technically a “monitoring and coordination mission” under the European Commission-supported NSA project. TRC is a partner to this project that has now progressed into the third and final year.
What we call the ‘NSA’ is a project to improve the skills of 11 rehabilitation centres through exchange of knowledge between them and other IRCT member centres. If one centre excels, for example, in psycho-social rehabilitation or UN advocacy, they can share their knowledge and skills through seminars or other trainings.
As I had heard from other Secretariat staff before going to TRC (and can now personally confirm), TRC has a great management team leading a group of well trained psychotherapists. Therefore, TRC has not only taken part in NSA project activities aimed at building their own staff capacity, but has also been able to act as peer supervisors and trainers visiting other centres to share their experiences, knowledge and best practices on treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors. The main objective of my visit was to discuss the project activities of the last two years and plan for the current.
When we visit our members, we also always try to visit current and potential donors as well as other international or local partners to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones. As the NSA project, of which I am the deputy manager, is mainly supported by the European Commission, it was only natural that I had a longer meeting at The Office of the European Union Representative to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to discuss both the work of TRC and the progress of the NSA project. I also met briefly with representatives of OHCHR and of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation as I was lucky enough to attend and even deliver a short speech at TRC’s celebration of the UN Human Rights Day. During this event, Palestinian Authority Minister of Justice Dr. Ali Khashan promised to facilitate better cooperation with local human rights organisations both in general and on specific cases. This was in dialogue with Samih Muhsen, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, who in his speech had stated that Palestinian security personnel widely (to some extent even systematically) practice torture with impunity.
Most TRC clients are victims of torture or inhumane, cruel or degrading treatment at the hands of the Israeli occupation and the Israeli security forces, who are responsible for an overwhelming amount of severe human rights violations. Another important partner of the IRCT in the area is the Israeli NGO the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). The IRCT and PCATI work together on cases of torture with IRCT providing (psycho) forensic expertise and documentation, and PCATI’s legal team pursuing cases of torture in the Israeli judicial system to bring perpetrators to justice and advocate for victims.
While meeting with PCATI in Jerusalem, I was fortunate enough to also join the legal team for a case in the Israeli Supreme Court. This case was also included in our FEAT project as part of the IRCT-PCATI collaboration on cases described above.
I sat in the benches as the legal team argued in front of the Supreme Court that a criminal investigation should be opened into the torture case, and that the State Attorney had failed to live up to his responsibility of properly looking into opening an investigation. Disappointingly for us and likely devastating for the victim, the court did not intervene. Instead the State Attorney Office’s decision to refer the assessment of whether or not to open an investigation to the Israel Security Agency (also known as the Shin Bet) internal investigator, rather than to look into the issue itself, was upheld. As a result, the case may only see a closed internal inquiry rather than an actual impartial investigation, which Israel is obliged to ensure under international law and which it has failed to ensure in this and every one of the over 700 other complaints of torture submitted in the last decade.
It is obvious that PCATI is doing very important and very difficult work as they must overcome obstacles placed in front of them by a politically biased judicial system, as is also the experience in many other countries where our centres or collaborating legal organisations pursue cases.
There are some common difficulties that face human rights work in Palestine and around the world that can be mitigated more easily. This includes a profound obstacle currently faced by not only TRC but also many other of our member centres in Europe, North America and around the world: a lack of funding for the provision of their rehabilitation services. It is painful to see that a well functioning centre such as TRC has in the last six months been hit hard by a batch of bad luck, with several key donors cutting down funding at the same time. The IRCT and its member centres are of course extremely grateful for any funding we receive, but we must also stress that the fight against torture and the rehabilitation of torture victims is too important to become a victim of budget cuts. The consequences for TRC as an organization is serious cuts in staffing for at least a large part of 2012, meaning that far less clients can benefit from their crucial services in this period.
I am confident that TRC will in the long term again function at full capacity, but in the meantime the untreated suffering is immense and it is worrying to see the funding difficulties facing well run rehabilitation centres of torture, as human rights work dealing with torture is especially difficult to fundraise for.
Lars assists the membership team and serves as deputy manager of the NSA project. The NSA project is supported by the European Commission.
Collaboration across Europe
Posted by IRCT in Europe, Sharing Knowledge - Project Work on 26/10/2011
By Nicolas
The regional meetings – from the Middle East to Latin America– often provide our member centres a chance to meet their peers in rehabilitation of torture survivors, compare problems and challenges, and learn from each other on the best ways forward.
Last week, the IRCT organised a meeting for its European members in Brussels. The meeting lasted two days and facilitated the exchange of ideas on rehabilitation and current challenges between representatives of 32 rehabilitation centres based in Europe.
Despite the deep challenges – from funding to documenting torture cases in asylum hearings – the sense of optimism, good humour and passion about the future of work with survivors of torture emanated from the 44 participants of predominantly doctors, legal advisors, and psychologists.
We, at the IRCT Brussels Office, were in charge of organising the meeting, attended by our European members and other regional centres. Hélène (head of the IRCT Brussels Office) explained how the Brussels office could help and assist all member centres, especially when it comes to coordination, funding opportunities and lobbying of EU institutions. The meeting was then divided into workshops on various topics such as the use of medico-legal reports or sharing of experiences concerning stress management in rehabilitation centres. We also made sure that enough free time was given for participants to meet each other and to exchange ideas and experiences on the daily work of their centres.
From the first feedback and comments we received from participants, we can say that, all in all, this IRCT European Alliance meeting was a big success – participants enjoyed the topics covered and the networking opportunities. Torture in Europe remains an important challenge today, and I am very happy to see that doctors and psychologists working in rehabilitation centres from Ireland to Armenia and from Finland to Turkey are ready to gather, learn, and to face this challenge together.
Nicholas works at the IRCT Brussels Office and has a background in politics and EU affairs, particularly in regards to immigration and asylum policies.
Latin America: Annual seminar allows for regional knowledge sharing over external training
Posted by IRCT in Latin America & the Caribbean, Sharing Knowledge - Project Work on 06/10/2011
By Dea Kopp Jensen, former Programme Coordinator for Latin America
Santiago Pedraglio, a sociologist, speaks during one of the presentations during the week-long seminar. Ruth Kristal Mitastein, from the hosting member centre Centre of Psychosocial Attention in Peru, looks on.
Centres in Latin America have been global pioneers in the rehabilitation of torture victims and the sharing of knowledge is particularly relevant to the member centres of the Red Salud, the Latin American Network of Institutions Providing Assistance to Persons Affected by Torture and Other Human Rights Violations.
IRCT’s Head of Programmes Peter Hellmers and I travelled to Lima, Peru in September for a regional seminar for knowledge-exchange among 14 centres from 13 Latin American countries.
Annual seminars in Latin America differ from other regions. Here, they have become both training seminars and serve also as annual meetings for the network including its own general assembly.
Throughout the week, the group of nearly 30 participants addressed several main topics related to the regional struggle against torture. These included the centres experiences with lobbying public prosecutors against perpetrators of torture, presentations on specific torture cases where the Istanbul Protocol – which provides internationally recognised standards on how to identify, document and report symptoms of physical and psychological torture – was used, and human rights in the socio-political context of Latin American countries.
Each centre made a presentation and shared their hands-on experiences with these issues, and several organisations coordinated together to focus on a particular topic. (See many of these at the CAPS, our member centre, website)
For example, the Foundation for Integral Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence (PRIVA) of Ecuador presented two cases where the member centre had used the Istanbul Protocol. The seminar’s host, the Centre of Psychosocial Attention (CAPS), presented a guide on assessment of psychosocial damage for victims of sexual violence, family violence, and torture.
These unique opportunities for knowledge sharing and exchange through the regional network and across the Global South comprise part of the IRCT’s project entitled Non-State Actors. The project targets health professional in 11 of our member centres to share knowledge, experience, and provide support and supervision between and beyond regions. The goal is to allow member centres to share their experiences and knowledge on providing holistic rehabilitation services without filtering. Thus, the knowledge is exchanged through peers rather than through top-down structures.
In my view, it is very important to note that these regional seminars within the NSA project have given this network the opportunity to select the themes for the seminar to a larger extent and prioritise knowledge sharing over of external training.
The Latin American Network of Institutions Providing Assistance to Persons Affected by Torture and Other Human Rights Violations (Red Salud) was established during a regional seminar in Montevideo, Uruguay, in August 1999 at the initiative of the four Latin American Council Members and the IRCT secretariat.
The group for the regional seminar: nearly 30 participants from 15 centres in 13 Latin American countries.
The network was the first of its kind in the region. In close collaboration with the IRCT secretariat, the network created a project plan for their activities, including annual training seminars. Today, the network consists of 16 rehabilitation centres and programmes, 12 of which are members of the IRCT. The network includes countries from Mexico in the north to Chile/Argentina in the south.
The network is independent from the IRCT and should be viewed as such. It has worked closely with the IRCT secretariat which, in my view, should be seen as a substantial and technical collaboration that the IRCT secretariat should, if possible, prioritise in the years to come.
Dea served as the IRCT’s programme coordinator for the Latin American region. She was at the organisation for more than 10 years, but sadly left at the end of September 2011.
