2025 In Focus: From Harm to Healing
By Lyra Nightingale, Senior Legal Advisor
Every survivor of torture has the right to reparation—a recognition that the harm they have suffered must, as far as possible, be repaired. Reparation can take many forms: compensation, rehabilitation, public apologies, or guarantees that such abuses will never happen again. At its heart, it is about restoring the dignity of those who have endured the unimaginable.
For REDRESS, this right is not just a principle on paper; it is a commitment. Through litigation and advocacy, we work to turn legal victories into real change. This year, the European Court of Human Rights awarded €110,000 in compensation to survivors in two REDRESS cases from Turkey and Lithuania, recognising the suffering endured by victims of torture.
In London, the Chilean Government offered a public apology to the family of the late Leopoldo García Lucero, tortured under the Pinochet regime and exiled to the UK half a century ago. His family finally heard what every survivor deserves to hear: “We are sorry.”
But justice often takes a long time. Even when courts order reparations, survivors can wait years for them to be delivered. That is why REDRESS works side by side with national partners to make reparation real. In Kenya, we joined forces with partners and survivors, using advocacy and legal action, to secure historic reparation payments to four survivors of the 2007 post-election violence after a 13-year legal battle. We also promoted the implementation of reparation decisions for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nepal.
In parallel, REDRESS continues to champion innovative approaches to reparation, including the use of Magnitsky sanctions to hold perpetrators of torture accountable. These have been applied in cases involving attacks on protesters in Georgia, corruption in Angola, and human rights violations in Iran and Sudan.
We have also challenged the financial impunity of high-profile perpetrators by seeking to repurpose frozen or confiscated assets for victims. In 2024 alone, UK authorities collected around £50 million partly related to breaches of Russia sanctions. REDRESS has urged that these funds, and the £2.5 billion frozen from the sale of Chelsea FC, be used to support survivors of human rights violations in Ukraine.
Photo: © CVWN