Abstract
Background: The Center for Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation for Torture Victims and their Family (CPTRT) participated in the “Professionalization facilitated through training in key healthcare services for torture victims” project coordinated by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). Centers like CPTRT are typically created and run by small groups of healthcare professionals and human rights activists, often at great personal cost and risk [1]. The purpose of the project was to document the physical and psychological damage caused by torture as well as the results of the medical and psychological therapy. It also addresses: the socio-demographic profile of the victims, methods of torture and/or cruel, inhuman and degrading (CID), treatment, causal factors, and treatment effect. Material and Method: Psychometric and non-psychometric techniques were applied in order to obtain a baseline of the victims’ state of mental health, socio-demographic background, clinical and torture exposure, as well as evaluating the impact of the medical-psychological therapy at three and six months, respectively. The sample of torture victims is presented by the use of descriptive statistics and the effects during the study are presented with repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The victims mostly experienced depression and anxiety and to a lesser extent, post-traumatic stress and somatizations as a response to the traumatic events they endured. The analysis demonstrates a significant drop in symptoms over the six months of the study in those victims who participated in the entire project. Conclusion: Although the several limitations and unforeseen situations arose in a study of this type, a holistic, multidisciplinary and systematic approach is able to decrease disorders moderately, but not without taking into account the sociopolitical contexts and the obstacles appearing therein, which should also be considered and studied through triangulated methodologies that provide a broader perspective for exploring a complex phenomenon like torture. Therefore, a standard rehabilitation program is neither possible nor desirable in the field of torture treatment (this is amplified in a political context of a coup).
Highlights
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentWhen talking about torture, one can see that there are several different concepts that define the term more or less broadly
This leads directly to the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption on December 10, 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights1, which was clearly stated in Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
The medical-psychological care provided by the Integral Health area of the CPTRT, accompanied on some occasions by legal and social assistance, has always been given in difficult physical, political and social contexts
Summary
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentWhen talking about torture, one can see that there are several different concepts that define the term more or less broadly. This situation took a dramatic turn with France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was influential throughout Europe and the rest of the world because it supported the abolition of torture This leads directly to the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption on December 10, 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was clearly stated in Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”. The purpose of the project was to document the physical and psychological damage caused by torture as well as the results of the medical and psychological therapy It addresses: the socio-demographic profile of the victims, methods of torture and/or cruel, inhuman and degrading (CID), treatment, causal factors, and treatment effect. A standard rehabilitation program is neither possible nor desirable in the field of torture treatment (this is amplified in a political context of a coup)
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