People who have the capacity and motivation to contribute to the meaningful development of their societies. There exists a terrible tolerance of torture. More than one third of the UN Member States practice torture, including some that have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. Half the world's population lives in countries where torture is systematically practiced as a means of asserting and maintaining power. This is unacceptable.
Torture is used to silence the voice of dissent.
Repressive regimes target those members of their societies who dare to present an alternate point of view to that of the ruling elite. People are tortured because of what they believe, what they say or do, or of who they represent. It disables not only the survivors and their families, but in many cases whole communities. I recently returned from Zimbabwe as part of an IRCT delegation to investigate and document cases of organised violence and torture. We visited Zimbabwe at the request of the Amani Trust, a rehabilitation centre based in Harare which is providing treatment to victims of the recent Government-sponsored violence.