OMCT and CACIT launch appeal to participate in a new SOS torture working group on “Migration and Torture”
PRESS RELEASE 12 September 2019
Geneva (OMCT), Lomé (CACIT): The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and the Collectif des Associations Contre l’Impunité au Togo (CACIT) open a call for participation for members of the OMCT SOS-Torture Network and strategic potential partners to join its working group "Migration and Torture". This new regional initiative will bring a much-needed protection perspective from torture across the migration routes from and within Africa through innovative and collective research and advocacy.
The tragic images of African migrants fleeing torture and other violence, corruption, poverty and marginalization, have changed the world during the last.
“We need to recognize that torture is everywhere on the migration routes. Torture is a root cause for people leaving their countries, torture is pervasive on the migration routes, and the support and treatment need of torture survivors are key to both migration and integration policies when they reach safety”, said Gerald Staberock, Secretary General of the OMCT.
The international community has proven largely unwilling or incapable to establish minimum protection for those on the move. It is therefore time for civil society to think together, conduct more detailed research, and make common recommendations that reach beyond the humanitarian consequences of forced displacement and improve real protection of migrants against torture and ill-treatment. Otherwise, they will never be safe, anywhere – not at home, not on the road, not in their destinations. This simply cannot be tolerated.
Many important aspects of torture and ill-treatment experienced by people on the move in, across, and at the gates of Africa have remained particularly under-explored and under-researched. The dimension of this phenomenon calls into question the effectiveness of existing migration laws and policies on the continent to protect migrants against torture. The phenomenon and its human cost remain underestimated and are reduced to a few statistics and viral images on social networks or episodic broadcasts by the mainstream media.
"Within the SOS-Torture Network in Africa and also in Europe we need to use our knowledge of and unique access to migrants, to analyze first-hand information in order to set out authoritative research and recommendations for a protection agenda. We hope that our joint work can build stronger alliances and coalitions to inform policy makers at the national, regional and international level," said Ghislain Nyaku, Executive Director of CACIT.
The CACIT is a
network of 14 non-political and non-profit associations and NGOs in Togo. Its mission is to contribute to the
improvement of the human rights situation by offering legal, psycho-medical,
social and training assistance services in order to meet the needs of the
rights holders.
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