IRCT addresses lack of torture documentation and investigation in Armenia
21:33, December 21, 2014
The IRCT and OSF-Armenia in cooperation with Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor, Armenia and the Human Rights House Tbilisi with the support of Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands to Armenia are conducting a training session on effective medico-legal documentation for victims of torture and ill-treatment on 18-22 December, 2014 in Aghveran, Armenia.
The five-day workshop aims at strengthening capacities of Armenian NGOs, health and legal specialists and psychologists in the area of medical and psychological documentation of victims of torture and severe trauma in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol.
The training will address the need in Armenia for more expertise on how to properly document and investigate torture, and will benefit more than 30 of the country’s lawyers, doctors and mental health experts.
“While the Istanbul Protocol is vastly used by experts in Georgia in the region of South Caucasus, our consultations with the representatives of Armenian civil society, showed that the tool is not very well known in Armenia,” said IRCT Director of Advocacy Miriam Reventlow.
“With this initiative we want to strengthen the pool of health and legal professionals working on issues of torture in Armenia but also to sensitise key government stakeholders for the importance of including torture documentation and rehabilitation in government policies and practices,” she continued.
The trainers include the director of GCRT Lela Tsiskarishvili, the head of the rehabilitation unit at RESTART Sana Hamzeh, and one expert from the Independent Forensic Expert Group, Rusudan Beriashvili who will deliver the health aspects of the training.
“It is important to initiate a discussion on the inclusion of the Istanbul Protocol in the higher education curriculum in the country and to enhance torture documentation in Armenia,” concluded Ms Reventlow.
The Istanbul Protocol is the internationally recognised standard for torture documentation and investigation. The protocol provides comprehensive, practical guidelines for the assessment of persons who allege torture and ill treatment, for investigating cases of alleged torture, and for reporting the findings to the relevant authorities.
ENDS
For further information please contact IRCT Senior Adviser for Europe Mr Mushegh Yekmalyan at my@irct.org or IRCT Senior Legal Advisor/IP Program coordinator Mr James Lin at jkl@irct.org, OSF-Armenia Deputy Director for programs Mr David Amiryan at adavid@osi.am or OSF-Armenia Strategic Litigation program coordinator Ms Mariam Vardanyan at mariam@osi.am.
About the organisers
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims is a health-based umbrella organisation that supports the rehabilitation of torture victims and the prevention of torture worldwide. Our members comprise more than 140 independent organisations in over 70 countries. Our work is governed by these member organisations. Today, we are the largest membership-based civil society organisation to work in the field of torture rehabilitation and prevention.
The Open Society Foundations – Armenia was established in 1997 to assist democratic transformations and promote the values of an open society, the one characterized by rule of law, democratically elected government, respect for minorities and their rights, vigorous civil society. Towards this end, the OSF – Armenia has been supporting numerous projects and activities in the field of civil society, law, education, mass media, information, including publishing, electronic communication, support for libraries, public health, women’s rights, arts and culture. Like all other Soros foundation throughout the world, the OSF – Armenia seeks to collaborate and partner with other international organizations, local NGOs and governmental structures in implementation of its projects in order to ensure the efficiency and consistence of its operations.
Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly-Vanadzor NGO (HCA Vanadzor) is a non-political, non-religious, non-profit, NGO, which unites individuals who support the principles of Democracy, Tolerance, Pluralism, and Human Rights, as values. HCA Vanadzor was founded in 1998 as a branch of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Armenian Committee. It was registered as an independent organization in 2001 and was re-registered in 2005.
The Mission of HCA Vanadzor is the promotion and support of civil initiatives, the strengthening of human rights protection, and peacebuilding activities on national and regional levels.
Human Rights House Tbilisi is a collaborative project, which unites six Georgian human rights organizations. Human Rights House Tbilisi was founded in September 2009, registered in July 2010 and became a member of the international Human Rights House Network the same year. HRH Tbilisi is comprised of: the Human Rights Center, Article 42 of the Constitution, Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, Union “Sapari,” the Caucasian Center for Human Rights and Conflict Studies and Media Institute. All of these organizations share office space and resources at the House premise. In addition, HRH Tbilisi serves as the headquarters of the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders.
About the Istanbul Protocol
The Istanbul Protocol is the first set of international standards and guidelines for health and legal professionals on how to recognise and document symptoms of torture for use as evidence in court cases. Since 1999, the Istanbul Protocol has become a crucial instrument in the global effort to eradicate torture and has been endorsed by the United Nations as a standard for the proper investigation of torture.
The Istanbul Protocol enables medical and psychological experts to:
- Gather relevant, accurate and reliable evidence on torture allegations;
- Reach conclusions on the consistency and the degree of support between the torture allegations and the medical findings; and
- Produce high-quality medical reports for submission to judicial and administrative bodies.
The Istanbul Protocol enables legal experts to:
- Obtain relevant, accurate and reliable statements from torture victims and witnesses;
- Recover and preserve evidence related to the alleged torture which will aid in the prosecution of those responsible; and
- Determine how, when and where the alleged incidents of torture occurred.
About the International Forensic Experts Group (IFEG)
In 2009, the IRCT Secretariat, in collaboration with the Forensic Department of the University of Copenhagen, set up an international focal point for forensic expertise. More than 30 eminent forensic experts from 18 countries have to-date joined the group, who provide support in examining torture victims in cases at the international, regional or national level to establish best practice examples. Through this International Forensic Experts Group (IFEG), the IRCT has to-date provided support to more than 70 forensic examinations in torture investigations cases.