Publications

This report was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in March 2013. It concludes that measures taken by Peru to prevent and combat torture have been inadequate. This includes the lack of a national registry of complaints for acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the lack of effective investigations, and the lack of prosecutions for torture. A number of factors contribute to this worrying trend such as the lack of protection for victims, and the lack of independence and impartiality of investigations into torture. As highlighted in this section, victims of torture in Peru have not received adequate reparation. This also applies to Peru’s administrative reparation programme which, among other issues, fails to take into account the individual circumstances of each victim’s case.

Women and girls victims of human rights violations continue to face numerous challenges in accessing justice. REDRESS and the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn for Africa (SIHA) recently made a submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to draw attention to the many barriers faced by women, including the impact of customary systems of law. The expert body on women’s human rights is drafting a general recommendation on the topic, and our submission will be considered as part of that process.

Torture often targets the vulnerable in society, and in many circumstances migrants fall under that category. REDRESS and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) have made a submission to the Committee on Migrant Workers on the rights of migrant workers and their families in irregular situations. The submission highlights the particular vulnerability of migrant workers to torture and ill-treatment, both at the hands of their employers and the state, and brings attention to states' obligations to provide redress to victims of torture and ill-treatment.  

A look back on REDRESS' 20-year history with a detailed timeline on key cases, special events and publications.

This discussion paper was submitted by IBUKA and it’s 15 member organisations, the Survivors Fund (SURF) and REDRESS to the government of Rwanda in October 2012 to help progress discussions on reparation (in particular in the form of rehabilitation,  restitution and compensation) for survivors of the Rwandan genocide survivor organisations and other stakeholders. It is based on a series of interviews carried out for five years with survivors, Rwandan government officials and representatives of national and international human rights organisations on the issue of reparation as well as workshops and seminars. It also examines reparation mechanisms established elsewhere in the aftermath of conflict and/or in response to systematic human rights abuses, focusing in particular on South Africa, Sierra Leone and Morocco.