East Africa
Since 2007 the bzfo has been working together with the African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV) in Uganda.
ACTV is an independent human rights organization based in Kampala. The organization verifies physical evidence of torture, provides victims with psychosocial and medical treatments and undertakes nation-wide preventative measures with the aim of prohibiting human rights violations.
ACTV cares for around 400 people each year who have been victims of human rights violations: including torture survivors who have been abused at police stations or in custody of the military, as well as internally displaced persons, refugees from neighbouring countries and former child soldiers.
Protecting Children’s Rights and Human Rights
ACTV runs a district office in northern Uganda, where the Rebel organization, the Lords Resistance Army, has terrorized the population and enslaved thousands of children for military or sexual purposes for over 20 years. The therapeutic team in Uganda seeks to provide holistic assistance to these people, including psychotherapy, medical treatment and social work. This involves outreach work for families and refugee camps as well as reintegration of former child soldiers and abducted girls back into their families.
ACTV has also established a nation-wide advanced training program for police, prison officers and military personnel; the number of incidents of torture at police stations has decreased since this program began. In October 2008, ACTV received the National Human Rights Award from the Uganda Human Rights Commission. Since then, ACTV has developed a draft act for the Ugandan Parliament that aims to permanently protect victims of torture in Uganda.
Cross-Cultural Partnership Against Torture
ACTV is also involved in providing better care for torture victims beyond the borders of Uganda. In 2007, ACTV began a joint project with the bzfo and two other treatment centers in Kenya and Ethiopia. With the support of the European Union, the partner centers were able in less than two years
- to provide medical and psychosocial care and legal assistance to more than 1200 torture victims in East Africa (including refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo)
- to improve the medical care of torture victims in remote regional areas through the work of mobile teams
- to systematically document the types and range of torture that exist in East Africa through studies and questionnaires
to organize regional training courses and workshops for 40 staff as well as around 100 healthcare professionals in East Africa
to raise public awareness of the hardships but also the rights of torture survivors in East Africa through lobbying and media campaigns
ACTV is planning, together with the bzfo and the organization Hope After Rape and the Refugee Law Project further projects that will provide better assistance and care for underage children and women who have been victims of violence.
Links
Contact
Michael Lehmann
International Projects · Zentrum Überleben
Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! JavaScript muss aktiviert werden, damit sie angezeigt werden kann.
';
document.write( '' );
document.write( addy_text95826 );
document.write( '<\/a>' );
//-->
Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! JavaScript muss aktiviert werden, damit sie angezeigt werden kann.
