INTRODUCTION
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) has established in 1990, to provide physical and psychological treatment and rehabilitation to those who were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment, and to document human rights violations.
This service of HRFT aimed at providing solutions to physical, psychological and social problems of the torture victims is rendered with a multidisciplinary approach by tens and even hundreds of professional and voluntary teams from various specialization areas, primarily health care professionals.
The HRFT has always attached importance to improving the quality of the treatment and rehabilitation service ever since its establishment. With this aim, it has organized various training, research and other activities at the national and international levels and has functioned like a school in documenting the torture traces and treating the torture victims.
The pioneering role of the HRFT in the development of the Istanbul Protocol which is the only international reference guide for the effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishments, its adoption by the UN and afterwards its worldwide promotion and training activities, is the most concrete example for this.
Besides the treatment and rehabilitation service, the HRFT has provided voluntary legal support to the torture victims and their lawyers with the aim of prevention of torture. The HRFT has also developed an objective and reliable system for the documentation of grave/serious human rights violations, primarily of torture, and has accumulated a substantial amount of knowledge.
Many of the victims of torture and ill-treatment are also affected by the other elements of the sophisticated traumas. With the awareness that more than medicine will be needed for the most comprehensive treatment possible, the HRFT has been working
on the development of a better integrated and multi-disciplinary programme for also coping with the complex and social trauma problems since 2004.
The HRFT is continuing its works to provide treatment and rehabilitation services to torture victims in five treatment and rehabilitation centres in Adana, Ankara, Diyarbakır, İstanbul and İzmir. Since its establishment until the end of 2014, the HRFT served 15.178 torture victims and their relatives in five HRFT centres.
In the light of the information we gathered over the years, it has been predicted that approximately 350 torture victims and their relatives would apply to HRFT. However, we had 787 applicants in the year of 2013.
On the other hand, to be able to accept applicants from those provinces without a treatment and rehabilitation centre of HRFT, “Five Cities” project has continued in 2014, as it did since 1993. Within the scope of this project, the number of applicants in 2010 was 57; 118 in 2011; 143 in 2012; 150 in 2013 and 147 in 2014. Although 50 applications were predicted each year, there is an increase in the number of applicants over the last three years, which is mainly due to the condensed works of HRFT Diyarbakır centre in the nearby provinces.
Within the “Five Cities” project, there were 129 (95 in 2013) applications to Diyarbakır centre, 13 (42 in 2013) applications to Adana centre and 5 (13 in 2013) applications to Ankara centre. This situation reveals the necessity to improve the programmes in forthcoming periods for Diyarbakır and nearby cities where severe and grave human rights violations are intensely taking place in relation to the Kurdish issue.
Again, the programme of “Mobile Medical Team” which was initiated in 2008, has continued in 2014 for the regions without any HRFT centre where severe/grave torture and human rights violations are taking place.
With its limitations, we enhanced our psychosocial works which are being offered to Ezidi people who resides in Diyarbakır Fidanlık camp, Diyarbakır, Batman and Siirt.
Within the scope of “Treatment and Rehabilitation Project”, many educational (İstanbul Protocol trainings in Turkey and abroad; psychotherapy training; educational programs about tear inducing chemicals; training for gender based violence in the context of conflict, Eighth International Psychological Trauma Symposium, etc.) and scientific (“22 Years of Inclination of Torture in Turkey” and “An Identification Method for Torture Research: Study of Bone Scintigraphy” which both are projected to be completed by the end of 2014; publication of previously completed scientific works) works have been carried out in 2014.
Along with the treatment and rehabilitation workings, activities for the purpose of prevention of torture have been strengthened.
Within this framework, total of 107 alternative forensic medical report/epicrisis have been prepared in 2014. Also, some works have been done to actualize an operative National Prevention Mechanism which is a necessity according to the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) which
proposes an important potentiality in preventing the torture. Moreover, we have made provisions for the “Fourth Periodic Report about Turkey of the United Nations Committee against Torture” and “Alternative Report for the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review”.
Also within the scope of aforementioned “Torture and Rehabilitation Project”, we enhanced our collaborative works with fellow associates in Palestine and Israel in solidarity.
A five-year HRFT Strategic Plan and a working plan for the period of 2015-2019 was formed in order to enrich and develop our works.
In order to attain the final goal mentioned above, its mission is to contribute to the efforts of prevention of torture in all aspects of life and to help and support the torture victims in coping with the trauma and in reaching a state of complete physical, psychological and social well-being. In other words, it is to create an environment of “social reparation” for the individuals and communities whose dignity is trampled underfoot due to the severe human rights violations they have suffered.
Surely, all of these work, are the very products of devoted Founders’ Committee members, members of Executive Board and hundreds of mindful people from different professional fields and social groups who are working together for the same purpose across the country, primarily the medical staff, lawyers and defenders of human rights across the country
We are expressing our gratitude to everyone who have contributed and be on our side, and to all relevant institutions, mainly Human Rights Association and Turkish Medical Association who have supported us since the beginning.
Ankara, March 2015
Metin Bakkalcı
Coordinator of Treatment and Rehabilitation Centres, M.D.