Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (HRFT) 2020-2023

Obejctive 1 Strenthening mechanism for coping with trauma caused by torture and gross and serious human rights violations Increased access to those subjected to torture and ill- treatment; 781 torture survivors and their relatives accessed treatment and rehabilitation services in HRFT Centres. 34% were women. ii. 67 people accessed social support through, contributing to improved psychological well-being and socialization. HRFT also provided services to diverse groups, including 266 women, 16 non-binaries, 6 Queers, 41 children (16 girls, 24 boys, 1 non-specified), and 16 refugees, underscoring efforts to enhance accessibility. Due to the effort of HRFT for strengthening the accessibility of torture survivors and their relatives from groups with special needs, the number of applicants has significantly increased, compared to previous years. Objective 2 Strenthening the fight against impunit for torture and ill treatment In Turkiye where the political atmosphere posing significant challenges in terms of accountability, HRFT continued persistently documenting torture and producing medico-legal reports to keep the possibility open for accountability, if not currently but in the future. HRFT provided 175 medical reports in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol to torture survivors, enhancing the documentation of torture and ill-treatment for legal purposes. Ongoing investigations made it possible for legal support and alternative reports provided access to justice for torture survivors and contributed to increase accountability of torture and ill-treatment. These reports have also garnered recognition as credible evidence by international judicial bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), significantly contributing to the documentation of torture and ill-treatment. HRFT says that they have seen a level of improvement in the legal process for the crime of torture as result of HRFT's increasing efforts in providing its expertise to enable torture survivors having access to justice. HRFT translated the 2022 Edition of the Istanbul Protocol into Turkish and disseminated it free-of-charge in 2023 Objective 3 Strenthening civil, social and public actors and methods to fight against torture HRFT has formulated and began to implement a long-term comprehensive strategy to disseminate a culture of rights among the general public, in response to shrinking civic space in the recent years. Several activities for different target groups were conducted to promote a rights-based approach in every sphere of life. We employed social and mainstream media, trainings, and public events to reach out to these groups. What has the operation lead to and changed It has made a change for the torture victims who get treatment from HRFT's center. Turkiye is a difficult environment for HR organisations to work within, the development is not going in the right direction. The more important it is that HR organisations continue to work for increased HR in the country and for a stop of torture and increased legal rights. It is difficult to see concrete impacts on a large scale, but by raising awareness to international organisations and local organisations of the current situation the impact will hopefully increase in the coming years.

1)Strengthening mechanism for coping with trauma caused by torture and gross and serious human rights violations 2)Strengthening the fight against impunity for torture and ill treatment 3)Strengthening civil, social and public actors and methods to fight against torture