Today is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Today is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Today non-governmental organizations commemorated the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. As well as in Georgia, this day was commemorated in eighty other countries in various ways. Demonstrations in Tbilisi started late in the evening on June 25th and finished in front of the former building of the Ministry of Security.

The Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre, The Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) and The Egalitarian Institute  – are the names of the organizations who organized the silent candlelit vigil on Shardeni Street. On the 26th of June the rally in support of victims of torture continued in Vera Park, where posters against torture and weapons of torture were displayed. Later the protest again changed location and ended in front of the former building of the Ministry of Security.

According to organizers of the rally, the number of victims of torture is increasing in Georgia. Ucha Nanuashvili stated: “The number of incidents of torture and inhuman treatment has increased in Georgia. The jails and police departments are closed to most organizations and that is why monitoring them is almost impossible - although the number of incidents of torture has certainly increased. Torture and inhuman treatment mostly occurs in preliminary detention, prisons and among the IDPs from the Chechnyan, Abkhazian and South Ossetian wars.”

The main aim of the rally was to support the victims of torture. “We have victims of torture in Georgia and they need help. However, we do not have any legal programs aimed at defending them. We want the government and society to pay attention to this problem once again.”

Nato Zazashvili, a representative of The Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) stated: “We work with Chechen refugees tortured during the war. Those people are left alone, without any assistance from the state. They need special care. Our centre offers psychological and medical rehabilitation to those who have been tortured. Most governments try to hide such facts from the public. As for the weapons of torture, there are the so called ‘phones’ (with which the perpetrator hits the victim’s ears), electric shocks, plastic bags and so on. I also know from the refugees that the perpetrators quite often put victims in an iron box and hit them with iron rods.”

According to the first article of the UN Convention: “torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.”

A representative of The Egalitarian Institute, ’Lasha Chkhartishvili, accuses the Ministry of Interior of torture. “Unfortunately, the situation is worsening and the number of those tortured has increased after the revolution. Torture takes place mainly in pre-detention centers and in prisons. The main instigator of torture is the Ministry of Interior and a prime example of this is the murder of Sandro Girgvliani.”

Eka Gulua