Engaging torture survivors in the global fight against torture

In front of the current ongoing debate on the need to actively engaging torture survivors in the global fight against torture, IRCT held a webinar at the request of IRCT member centres. The webinar examined torture survivor engagement in the rehabilitation process of rebuilding lives, seeking justice and torture prevention. Lived experience can be emancipating and also paralysing, but foremost, it is precious to combat what has been suffered in the first person (Henry, 2021). How to recognise that contribution and engage torture survivors in the global fight against torture? What role do survivors play in society? How to involve survivors in advocacy and policy-making processes? What are the existing power (in)balances at play? Who gets to decide whether a survivor should speak up or not? Acknowledging that it can prompt some organisational, therapeutic, and professional considerations, what are the limits? How do we ensure that the survivor's well-being is protected along the process? To what extend should survivors be engaged in our organisation's decision-making? Léonce Byimana, Feride Rushiti, Kolbassia Haoussou and Vasfije Karsniqi-Goodman walked us through these questions. The discussion was enhanced with inputs from other IRCT-members.