As Baroness Amos, the UN under-secretary general and emergency relief co-ordinator arrives in Damascus, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) has warned that many torture survivors among the growing number of Syrians who have fled the country are in urgent need of rehabilitation.
International donor countries must increase their assistance to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. But, they must also ensure that the torture rehabilitation movement, including services operated by IRCT members in neighbouring Turkey and Lebanon, as well as in countries further afield who receive displaced Syrians, receive the necessary funding and support.
“The Syrian regime has shown little mercy in its treatment of its civilian population. It can therefore come as no surprise that there are thousands of traumatised survivors of brutality among those who have fled or are in the process of fleeing the country,” said Scott McAusland of the IRCT.
“While the violence continues in Syria and the international community remains divided on how to address it, there must be no delay in providing rehabilitative care to those survivors of torture in neighbouring countries, as is their right in international law,” added McAusland.
Media contact
Scott McAusland, IRCT
Tel: +45 29 37 50 10
Email: sma@irct.org
About the IRCT
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, founded in 1995, is an independent non-profit global organisation with a membership of 146 rehabilitation centres in over 70 countries.
The work of the IRCT is threefold:
- Rehabilitation of torture victims and their families
- Ensuring victims' access to justice
- Eradication of torture