Transcript Slide 1

RIGHT TO REHABILITATION
LEBANON – JUNE/2013
According to Article 1 of the 2008 Constitution,
”Ecuador is a constitutional State of rights and justice,
social, democratic, sovereign, independent, unitary,
intercultural, plurinational and secular.
Right to Rehabilitation
NUMBER OF
VICTIMS
COMPOSITION
RIGHT TO
REHABILITATION
GEOGRAPHICAL
DISTRIBUTION
AVAILABILITY OF
TREATMENT
TORTURE VICTIMS IN ECUADOR
CURRENT SITUATION
From 1984 to 2008, the Truth Commission registered 118 cases, from which many are
collective cases, with a total of 456 victims for six types of violations of human rights,
on which its work focused: 269 victims of illegal deprivation of liberty, 365 victims of
torture, 86 victims of sexual violence, 17 victims of enforced disappearance, 68 victims
of extrajudicial killing, and 26 victims of attempt on life.
POPULATION DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY 22.000 PERSONS
INCIDENCE OF TORTURE 50%
60% OF THE POPULATION DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY IS LOCATED IN
THE CITIES OF QUITO AND GUAYAQUIL
Ecuador is the country in South America with
the highest number of refugees. They are
approximately 250.000 but only 57.000 of
them have a refugee status. 98% are
Colombian refugees, from which some are
victims of torture, survivors of massacres and
survivors of extrajudicial killings.
60% of Colombian refugees are found in the
cities of Quito, Guayaquil and Santo Domingo
de los Tsáchilas.
Refugees registered in Ecuador until 2011
67% of Colombian refugees feel discriminated in public spaces
Recognised refugees per nationality, year 2013
DISAPPEARED
1.091 (January 2012-March 2013)
BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
Medical assistance to victims of torture have the
objective of diminishing and/or eliminate pain,
increase their functional level and diminish
physical sequels. Medical attention is permanent
because, on the top of symptoms caused by
torture, victims, while deprived of their liberty,
contract prison’s illnesses or the illnesses they
had before detention worsen as a consequence
of overcrowding and/or because of the low level
of natural defence due to depression.
PSYCHOLOGY
Individual therapy: it aims at promoting processes of
voidance and get past trauma, depression and anxiety;
processing the sorrow of loss of liberty, family
members and relatives that it involves, as well as
reform one’s life project.
Group therapy: it’s a space where victims have the
opportunity to share the traumatic experiences they
underwent with others. The groups are formed based
on common aspects, such as the impact of torture,
empathy and trust levels that allows them to express
thoughts and emotions freely.
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
• The objective of social assistance is to re-establish family
links through its location, and at the same time encourage
them to work together in order to restore their family and
social network as an active part of victims’ process of
recovery.
• Contribute to teach and strengthen rights that help victims
to avoid re-victimisation processes.
• Establish a coordination between public and private
institutions that bring social assistance in order to minimise
the effects of stigma and exclusion that causes shackles on
victims’ family members, obtain support in aspects of
health, education, work and criminal defence that
contribute to building a social space in which the victim will
reinsert when he/she recovers his/her liberty.
TREATMENT EVALUATION
• Level of pain
• Level of anxiety
• Level of depression
We find it difficult to use other types of scale
since they are not standardised to be used in
our country.
0.8 % OF VICTIMS ARE PROTECTED BY THE STATE
IN ECUADOR
EXISTING NGOs IN ECUADOR, PER PROVINCE
DOCUMENTATION CASES OF TORTURE
In PRIVA’s monitoring on torture, it was found that a lot of torture victims,
because of the seriousness of their injuries, are attended at the
emergency unit of public hospitals or are taken for assessment prior to
their admission into prison. It is necessary to point out that these
institutions do not have forensic experts and that they are, in general, last
year students. Moreover, a majority of universities have withdrawn the
subject of forensic expertise from their curriculum. These factors explain
why documentation lacks essential elements, as you can see from the
following torture case in Ecuador admitted by the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights in 2010. It states:
“On torture, Ecuador responds basing itself on the reports prepared by the
Superior Court of Guayaquil and affirms that there is no procedural record
of the constitution of the alleged treatments against Norberto Contreras.”
According to Ecuadorian defence presented by the State Attorney General,
the lacerations on extremities and genital organs, “would never be proven,
since the medical certificates did not specify their origin because they did
not have clear evidence in this respect”.
Constitution of the Republic of
Ecuador
Art. 89 The action of habeas corpus aims at recovering
one’s liberty, when he/she has been deprived of liberty
illegally, arbitrarily, or illegitimately, by an order from a
member of public authority or any other person, as
well as protecting the life and physical integrity of
persons deprived of their liberty…
In case any form of torture, inhuman or degrading
treatments occurs, the victim’s liberty will be
regulated, a holistic and specialised attention will be
provided and alternative measures to deprivation of
liberty set-up, when applicable…
PROJECT: HOLISTIC PENAL CODE
Art. 46 Full reparation.- Full reparation includes:
• Restoration of the violated right to its state prior to the commission
of the reprehensible act;
• Compensation of damages and prejudices;
• Rehabilitation through providing adapted services, such as medical
services, social or family support, psychological or psychiatric care;
and,
• Means of recognition, public apologies or publication of sentences
through different means than the ordinary ones.
Academia is invited to give a response to this
social reality, in congruence with the
development of science and technology,
validating tools and national and international
instruments that facilitate the universalization of
the technical language, the valuation of victims
and that generate health policies and indicators.
To
influence
undergraduate
university
curriculums, this proposal will strengthen public
policy and will encourage the creation of inter
and multi-disciplinary protocols and interinstitutions of attention and will improve the
short term capacity of national response.
One of the most relevant symptoms of our contemporary society is, without any doubt, the phenomenon of
violence. It increases every day, it spreads everywhere, it diversifies and, even without being implemented,
it is present like a shadow that threatens our daily existence (Silvia Ons).
BUILDING NATIONAL REHABILITATION
CAPACITY
COMPROMISES
After a process of sensitisation and awareness
raising on the issue, the representatives of the
universities committed to add forensic
medicine, forensic psychology – in which
internally recognised protocols such as the
Istanbul Protocol are included – into their
curriculum and to make these topics
compulsory in doctors’, psychologists’, and
lawyers’ training, as well as to increase their
working hours.
In 1998, the map of torture in Ecuador established that 70% of torture was committed
on persons deprived of liberty and that it occurred during the process of police
investigation.
LESSONS LEARNT
• PRIVA Foundation’s limited capacity in providing
services of holistic attention to victims of torture
has generated a necessity to establish strategic
alliances in order to develop the local capacity for
treatment that enables to expand the coverage.
• Health professionals’ sensitisation, awarenessraising, and training on the Istanbul Protocol and
on the rehabilitation of torture victims have
converted them into knowledge spreading agents
in terms of capacity to provide assistance to
victims and their families.
• Physical torture prevails on psychological torture
but, in general, there is a coextistence between
both. Physical torture prevails for persons
accused of crimes against property and
psychological torture for persons accused of
crimes against the law on narcotics and
psychotropic substances.
• The detainees with a low level of education, in
extreme poverty or critical poverty aged from 18
to 35 year-old are those against whom most
frecuentely torture is committed.
• There is a lack of knowledge and low awareness
on torture and pain (psychological and physical)
suffered by victims, due to the “culture of illtreatment”. Many victims consider the endured
punishment as “normal”. They do not demand
their rights be respected, neither do they ask for
assistance from doctors, psychologists and social
workers for their recovery.
• The Sentence Execution Code and its regulations
state: “any inmate, when entering the social
rehabilitation centre (prison), should be
physically and psychologically examined and a file
should be opened”. This requirement is not
fulfilled in practice.
• The establishment of a critical dialogue
between PRIVA and public and private State
institutions aims at making torture victims’
rehabilitation a part of public health policy in
Ecuador.
TREATMENT CAPACITY
In 1998, we have found that 68 NGOs were
carrying out volunteer prison work, from
which 2 only were providing services to
victims of torture in the city of Quito.
15 YEARS AFTER CONDUCTING THE
INVESTIGATION “MAP OF TORTURE IN
ECUADOR”, AND AFTER MAKING A
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS
ENCOUNTERED AND THE CURRENT SITUATION
IN THE COUNTRY, WE FIND THAT THIS STUDY
IS FULLY APPLICABLE.
IN ECUADOR, THE TUNGURAHUA VOLCANO IS IN ERUPTION
SINCE 1999. INHABITANTS OF SURROUNDING AREAS HAVE
LEARNT TO SURVIVE WITH THIS THREAT. SIMILARLY, OUR
ORGANISATIONS HAVE TO MODIFY THEIR STRATEGIES IN
ORDER TO MAKE THE HOLISTIC REHABILITATION OF
TORTURE VICTIMS A REALITY.
THANK YOU.