Dec. 4, Cochabamba (Bolivia) - The traumatic experience of torture triggers a deep, mostly inexpressible, questioning about the meaning of life.
Victims can find no words to describe what they endured. They feel that their lives have been wrecked to an extent so deep and far-reaching as to simply be unintelligible to others. Moreover, carried out behind closed doors, torture is invisible - ignored by science, justice and psychology. This silence is precisely what exacerbates the pain felt by torture victims.
“Considering the magnitude of the psychological effects on the victim, the fear it generates within society, and the traumas transmitted to the following generations, torture causes irreparable damage,” says Emma Bolshia Bravo. “That’s why prevention of torture is crucial.”
Torture in Bolivia - especially against union representatives, members of indigenous populations or of indigent communities, peasants, sex workers, and LGBTI individuals - has been practiced both during military dictatorships and under the democratically elected constitutional government, even recently. What is more, only about a quarter of the victims who denounced political violence and human rights violations committed under the authoritarian military regime from 1964 to 1982 have obtained justice through the reparation process that ended in 2012, Amnesty International reported.
Trained in psychology and curative education, Emma committed herself to fighting torture after learning that her father had died prematurely at the age of 50 because of the torture undergone as a revolutionary activist. Having, as a child, lived through the imprisonment of both her parents, Emma cannot avoid crying - to this day - when evoking those painful early memories.
She is now director of Instituto de Terapia e Investigacion sobre las secuelas de la tortura y la violencia estatal (ITEI), the only rehabilitation centre in Bolivia focused on the biopsychological consequences of torture both for individuals and society.
Some 14 years after its foundation, ITEI leads a coalition of nine anti-torture organizations, and has contributed to raising social awareness about the social and psychological effects of torture. ITEI’s work led to the Bolivian Government’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture in 2006.
Emma nonetheless feels frustrated when the complaints she files or the trials she manages to secure do not obtain the expected results. The problems victims have, or eventually develop over time after undergoing torture, both at home and within their community, are so overwhelming that she sometimes feels helpless. Combatting torture is a task that should be carried out by society at large to have any impact - not only by human rights and mental health organizations.
“Only massive action will be able to eradicate torture in our country,” says Emma, arguing it requires a large social, cultural battle to denounce and eradicate impunity and put an end to the general public’s ignorance and indifference to the issue.
Torture and the culture of silence and violence
“Torture generates submissiveness, silence and violence whereas a democratic society should be based on freedom of expression. The structural violence of the State and law-enforcement personnel trigger the replication of violence within society,” Emma explains.
This cycle of violence is apparent especially among underprivileged populations, isolated communities and among peasants, who, under-protected by the police, take the security of their neighbourhoods in their own hands, enforcing expedite justice on their own, according to the repressive model they themselves have endured. The only difference, in Emma’s view, is that the military or policemen who torture in perfect impunity under protection of the law, while common citizens are more likely be jailed for their crimes.
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OMCT wishes to thank the OAK Foundation, the European Union and the Republic and Canton of Geneva for their support. Its content is the sole responsibility of OMCT and should in no way be interpreted as reflecting the view(s) of the supporting institutions.



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