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	Torture is a man-made disaster by UN human rights office (OHCHR)   “Torture is a man-made disaster,” says Felicitas Treue. “Wherever it takes place it is an emergency situation and a direct attack against the victim, against their family and their community.”   Treue is the co-founder of Colectivo Contra la Tortura y la Impunidad, a Mexican organization that provides support for torture victims and their families. She made her statement during a public meeting on the issue of redress to victims of torture organized by the UN Fund for Victims of Torture in Geneva. The meeting brought together practitioners and experts in the medical, psychological, legal and social rehabilitation of torture victims to exchange knowledge and best practices.   Since 1981, the Fund has financed rehabilitation centres providing assistance to close to one million torture victims. The aim is to assist victims and their families in rebuilding their lives and seeking redress for the human rights violations they have suffered.   “But is enough being done to fight against torture and impunity?” asked Suzanne Jabbour, director of Restart Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture in Lebanon. That answer, she said, is no.   “If you feel embarrassed about the answer, and you still doubt how fundamental this should be, please, allow today to be the day, of renewed commitment,” Jabbour said.   The consequences of inaction in dealing with torture is the creation of a generation of young people who believe that pain and suffering are usual, said Peter Kiama, executive director of the Independent Medico Legal Unit based in Kenya. Poverty is the new face of torture, with poor young people being recruited into groups that routinely use the practice, he said.   “What this means is that youth grow up believing pain is normal and then these people come back and inflict pain on us, and we are surprised,” he said. “This is the time to increase support for the fight against torture and ill treatment so that we stop normalizing pain as.. part of growing up in our society.”   According to a recent report from Amnesty International, 141 countries have committed torture and ill-treatment to their citizens, said Lin Piwowarczyk, a psychiatrist at the Boston Medical Center in the United States. An estimated 30 percent of the current population of refugees worldwide have experienced some form of torture, and agencies have to learn how to deal with this increasing challenge, she said.   Piwowarczky related the story of a patient called Mary. When Mary came to the centre, it was clear she was suffering from the after effects of torture-related trauma. She made no eye contact. She cried much of the time and hardly spoke. She was 27 weeks pregnant from the multiple rapes she had to endure at the hands of the military in her home country, Piwowarczky said.   However, through intense therapy Mary has begun to heal. During one therapy session, Mary took the hands of the therapist and gave her a deep blue wooden necklace. Before she escaped her country, Mary’s mother gave her the necklace with instructions: “Someday you will find someone who will protect you. Give this to them.”   “I hand this necklace to each of you symbolically,” she said, holding up the necklace to the audience. “The question I have for each of you here today, who are in the position to have great impact, is, will you?”   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/TortureFundMeeting.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/SRTorture/Pages/SRTortureIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CAT/Pages/CATIndex.aspx Visit the related web page
	U.N. torture watchdog questions China over crackdown on rights activists, lawyers by AFP, Thomson Reuters Foundation, agencies   April 2016   China imposes controversial controls on foreign NGOs. (AFP)   China''s legislature passed a controversial law Thursday imposing new restrictions on foreign non-governmental organisations. The new law was approved almost unanimously by a committee of the National People''s Congress (NPC)   The law gives police wide-ranging powers over overseas charities and bans them from recruiting members or raising funds in the country.   The law, which comes into force in January, gives police the right to approve the registration of all foreign NGOs, according to a text distributed by the NPC. Police will revoke the registration of any organisation which "damages national interests" or "threatens society''s interests," it said.   Any groups committing actions deemed "separatist" or "subverting of state organs" will also be banned, as will those which "spread rumours".   The law comes as President Xi Jinping oversees a crackdown on civil society, which has seen scores of lawyers, academics and activists detained and dozens jailed.   Several have been imprisoned on charges of "subverting state power," or "separatism," for what their advocates say is merely expressing opinions critical of Government policies.   Overseas NGOs will have to hand annual work plans and financing details to a Chinese government agency, and will be forbidden from recruiting "members" in mainland China, barring special permission from the State Council, China''s cabinet. They will also be banned from fundraising in mainland China.   China in January arrested and deported a Swedish human rights activist who had trained Chinese lawyers, and foreign NGO staff working on legal issues report an increasingly restricted environment.   A number of foreign diplomats have previously written to China''s government to express fears over the law.   "We are also deeply concerned about the provisions in the draft Law on Foreign NGO Management," Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, the European Union ambassador to China, wrote in a letter earlier this year seen by AFP.   "Unless the law undergoes serious revision, it is likely to hinder people to people contacts, academic exchanges and commercial activities, all crucial elements of our bilateral relationship," he added.   Rights groups decried the law''s passage. "The authorities – particularly the police – will have virtually unchecked powers to target NGOs, restrict their activities, and ultimately stifle civil society," said William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International.   "The law presents a very real threat to the legitimate work of independent NGOs and should be immediately revoked."   At least 1,000 foreign NGOs are thought to operate in China, including development charities such as Save the Children, advocacy groups including Greenpeace, chambers of commerce and university centres.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=19921&LangID=E http://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/28/china-new-law-escalates-repression-groups http://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/29/g20-countries-need-stand-xi-jinpings-crackdown-civil-society http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/04/chinascrap-foreign-ngo-law-aimed-at-choking-civil-society/   Jan. 2016   U.N. rights experts have pressed senior Chinese officials about persistent allegations that torture is rife in their police stations and prisons, especially of political prisoners, and about deaths in custody.   China said it was working to combat torture but that it had not been eliminated.   The United Nations Committee against Torture"s examination of Beijing"s record, the first since 2008, came after what the group Human Rights in China says has been "a year of massive crackdowns on rights activists and lawyers" on the mainland.   Chinese government officials told the 10 independent experts that their country was working to eliminate torture. But conceded that there was "still a long and arduous path ahead before elimination of torture".   Committee member George Tugushi raised various issues, including the use of "rigid chairs, electric shocks and weightened leg cuffs" on detainees. Sleep deprivation remains lawful and mental torture is not explicitly banned.   "We have received reports that torture is particularly pervasive in black jails," Tugushi said, referring to facilities outside the official prison system.   "Please explain the deaths that have occurred in Chinese detention facilities because people were unable to obtain (medical) treatment on time, based on a number of reports the committee has received," Tugushi said.   Other committee members asked how many Chinese law enforcement officials had been prosecuted for torture, whether victims had access to medical care or compensation, and why so many detainees were held in solitary confinement.   They questioned why China was sending back North Korean refugees to face torture, sexual violence and "forced abortions or infanticide" in their homeland.   The experts suggested China establish an independent monitoring body to investigate torture and questioned the treatment of LGBT people in prison clinics, including alleged electric shocks.   Felice Gaer, an American expert, said the committee had allegations that seven Chinese activists planning to attend the Geneva review had been threatened and some were detained on charges of "endangering national security".   "How is working with the committee a threat to national security?," she asked.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cat/pages/catindex.aspx http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1002&Lang=en http://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/06/china-free-38-detained-lawyers-activists   26 November 2015   North Korea: “Nothing has changed” – UN expert says two years after key human rights report   The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Marzuki Darusman, today warned that nothing has changed in the country since the UN Commission of Inquiry on DPRK presented its landmark report to the UN Human Rights Council two years ago.   “Regrettably, the human rights situation in the DPRK has not improved, and crimes against humanity documented by the Commission of Inquiry appear to continue,” he said at the end of his last official mission to the neighbouring Republic of Korea (ROK).   “It is time to take stock of what has been done in the last two years and to move forward to pursue accountability for the crimes outlined in the report,” said the expert, who will present his last report to the Human Rights Council in March 2016 before his mandate ends.   Mr. Darusman, who has been serving as the Special Rapporteur since 2010, was also a member of the Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the DPRK. Since his appointment, the human rights expert has made several requests to visit DPRK. However, access has so far not been granted.   “During this last mission, I discussed issues related to transitional justice with stakeholders in the ROK,” he said. “These discussions need to be further developed to adapt transitional justice process that suit the unique situation of the Korean peninsula, and also to ensure that there is accountability, as required under international law.”   The Special Rapporteur noted that, in the various meetings he held in Seoul, his attention was repeatedly drawn to the increasing difficulties faced by individuals from the DPRK as they cross the border to reach the ROK.   “In this regard, I am disappointed to learn that Russia signed an extradition treaty with the DPRK last week,” the expert stressed. “Despite Russia’s assurance that this treaty will not be used to return anybody at risk of persecution, I am deeply concerned that it could de facto facilitate forced repatriation of DPRK asylum seekers. This may put the returnees at risk of serious violations, including torture.”   In late October this year, the reunion of families separated by the Korean War took place after a one and a half year gap. “I had the opportunity to meet with a member of these families, who shared his experience - his hopes connected with the reunion, and also the disappointment it brought,” Mr. Darusman said. “He, and many others who have been separated from their family members are now elderly, and the issue requires urgent and practical solutions that are shaped with the participation of all affected family members.”   “One cannot imagine psychological suffering of these families that there would be only one meeting in their lives.” The independent expert stressed that “the separation of families is not only a humanitarian issue, but should be recognized as a human rights violation in and of itself, as it continues to affect families in the two Koreas at multiple levels.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16807&LangID=E http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/coidprk/pages/commissioninquiryonhrindprk.aspx#sthash.EuLUhr37.dpuf Visit the related web page
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