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ESCR / About

The History of OMCT’s Work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has recognised for many years that the fight to eliminate torture and other forms of violence cannot be considered in purely legal, administrative or judicial terms, in isolation from their socio-economic context.

In 1989, OMCT published a report that addressed the correlation between poor socio-economic performance and gross violations of civil and political rights in connection with the first evaluation meeting of the United Nations Programme for Least Developed Countries.

OMCT’s 1991 General Assembly, held in Manila, decided to give specific attention to socio-economic considerations in the organisation’s fight against torture, summary executions, forced disappearances and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. As a result, during the 1990s, OMCT carried out further research on the subject and conducted seminars relating to economic policies and the prevention of torture in the Philippines, India, Kenya and Burkina Faso. These reflections also influenced OMCT’s work on children and women, in as much as they are more directly affected by socio-economic inequalities.

Based on this work, OMCT’s Council, in 2000, established a full programme to focus on the socio-economic dimensions of torture, arbitrary detentions, summary executions, enforced disappearances and other forms of ill-treatment. This programme joined OMCT’s other programmes addressing violence against women, violence against children and violence against human rights defenders. Reports and documents prepared in connection with these activities are contained in the present library.

In August 2003, OMCT launched an international research project designed to analyse the socio-economic dimensions of violence, including torture. It was carried out within the programme of activities of the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) and with the financial support of the GIAN, the Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO), the Foundation for Human Rights at Work and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (DDC).

That project resulted the Interdisciplinary Study “Attacking the Root Causes of Torture; Poverty, Inequality and Violence”. That study was critically reviewed by the International Conference “Poverty, Inequality and Violence: Is there a human rights response?” held in Geneva from 4 to 6 October 2005.

The Interdisciplinary Study elicited many positive responses. For example, Ms. Louise Arbour as High Commissioner for Human rights, in her preface to the Study stated:
“It is my pleasure to make some introductory remarks on the challenging question addressed in the present study: how to prevent or reduce violence, including torture, by acting on its root causes, often found in violations of economic, social and cultural rights? The question goes to the very heart of human rights protection. In considering violence and torture in the context of socio-economic inequality and poverty, the study forcefully shows that human rights cannot be addressed separately or in categories of civil and political or economic, social and cultural rights. The empirical research contained in the study provides examples of the type of analysis needed to illustrate the very real way in which the enjoyment of one right depends on the fulfilment of other rights, showing how different forms of rights deprivation combine and reinforce each other, making persons who are socially and economically marginalized particularly vulnerable to violence.” […]

In addition, Ms. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, in a statement to the IX International Symposium on Torture: Providing Reparation and Treatment, Preventing Impunity, in Berlin, 9 December 2006, stated:
"In September 2006, the World Organisation Against Torture published a study on the root causes of torture. It provided more than ample evidence of the close link between discrimination of the poor and violations of human dignity such as torture : the causes of torture do not only include violence and war but also poverty and social inequality - and addressing these causes is at the core of what we do in our development cooperation."

Based on the results of the Interdisciplinary Study and the conclusions and recommendations of the International Conference, OMCT developed the project “Preventing torture and other forms of violence by acting on their economic, social and cultural root causes”. This website/library provides more information on this project.

ESCR Activities

  • Working with NGOs to reinforce their capacity for action
  • Bringing about change through action files and other forms of intervention
  • Using United Nations Treaty Bodies to bring about change: Submitting alternative reports
  • Working with the European Union
  • Building a framework of understanding through advocacy

ESCR Project

  • OMCT’s project: Preventing torture and other forms of violence by acting on their economic, social and cultural root causes
  • OMCT Scientific Council: Economic, Social and Cultural Root Causes of Torture

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