Formation | December 1992 |
---|---|
Legal status | Charitable organisation |
Purpose | Seeking reparations for torture survivors |
Headquarters | London and The Hague |
Region served | UK and International |
Official language | English (also Arabic, French, Spanish, German) |
Director | Rupert Skilbeck |
Affiliations | Victims' Rights Working Group (VRWG) |
Budget | £800,000 |
Staff | 12 |
Volunteers | 4 |
Website | redress |
Redress, or The Redress Trust, is a human rights organisation based in London, England, that helps survivors of torture to obtain justice and reparation, in the form of compensation, rehabilitation, official acknowledgement of the wrong and formal apologies. In addition Redress seek accountability for those who have been tortured.
Redress provides legal and related support in obtaining legal reparations, promote survivors' rights in international and regional courts and tribunals and promotes survivors’ rights in national policy and practice contexts in the United Kingdom.
In 2008 Redress was addressing torture and related crimes in more than 50 countries in all regions or the world and having over 50 active case files relating to more than 957 survivors. [1]
Redress was founded in 1992 by Keith Carmichael, a British torture survivor who sought justice for how he had been treated while a prisoner in Saudi Arabia from November 1981 until March 1984. After his release, Carmichael found that while the existing non-governmental organisations advocated for the release of prisoners, provided medical attention, and operated safe havens, none existed to seek reparations under international law. Redress was founded to fill that gap. [2]
Redress is supported by the United Nations, the European Commission, Oxfam, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, UK Department for International Development DFID, Bromley Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Oak Foundation, City Parochial Foundation.
Freedom from Torture is a British registered charity that provides therapeutic care for survivors of torture who seek protection in the UK. Since it was established in 1985, more than 57,000 survivors of torture have been referred to the organisation for help and it is one of the world’s largest torture treatment centres.
The World Organisation Against Torture is the world's largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary and extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and other forms of violence. With more than 200 affiliated organisations in its SOS-Torture Network, the OMCT aims at accompanying, reinforcing and protecting anti-torture organisations in particular in erosive environments and provides a comprehensive system of support and protection for human rights defenders around the world. The global network consists of local, national and regional organisations, which share the goal of eradicating torture and fostering respect of human rights for all.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New York City, with offices in Boston, Washington, D.C., as well as Nairobi. It was established in 1986 to use the unique skills and credibility of health professionals to advocate for persecuted health workers, prevent torture, document mass atrocities, and hold those who violate human rights accountable.
Justice is a human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is the British section of the International Commission of Jurists, the international human rights organisation of lawyers devoted to the legal protection of human rights worldwide. Members of Justice are predominantly barristers and solicitors, judges, legal academics, and law students.
Reprieve is a nonprofit organization of international lawyers and investigators whose stated goal is to "fight for the victims of extreme human rights abuses with legal action and public education". Their main focus is on the death penalty, indefinite detention without trial, extraordinary rendition and extrajudicial killing. The founding Reprieve organization is in the UK, and there are also organizations in the United States, Australia and the Netherlands, with additional supporters and volunteers worldwide.
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government, in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. Truth commissions are, under various names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest, civil war, or dictatorship marked by human rights abuses. In both their truth-seeking and reconciling functions, truth commissions have political implications: they "constantly make choices when they define such basic objectives as truth, reconciliation, justice, memory, reparation, and recognition, and decide how these objectives should be met and whose needs should be served".
The One World Trust is a charitable organization that promotes education and research into changes required in global governance to achieve the eradication of poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and war. It develops recommendations on practical ways to make powerful organisations more accountable to the people they affect now and in the future, and how the rule of law can be applied to all.
The Acid Survivors Foundation is a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation dedicated to raising awareness and preventing acid attacks and providing survivors with medical and legal aid.
Transitional justice is a process which responds to human rights violations through judicial redress, political reforms and cultural healing efforts in a region or country, and other measures in order to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuse. Transitional justice consists of judicial and non-judicial measures implemented in order to redress legacies of human rights abuses. Such mechanisms "include criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations programs, and various kinds of institutional reforms" as well as memorials, apologies, and various art forms. Transitional justice is instituted at a point of political transition classically from war to positive peace, or more broadly from violence and repression to societal stability and it is informed by a society's desire to rebuild social trust, reestablish what is right from what is wrong, repair a fractured justice system, and build a democratic system of governance. Given different contexts and implementation the ability to achieve these outcomes varies. The core value of transitional justice is the very notion of justice—which does not necessarily mean criminal justice. This notion and the political transformation, such as regime change or transition from conflict are thus linked to a more peaceful, certain, and democratic future.
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) is an independent, international health professional organization that promotes and supports the rehabilitation of torture victims and works for the prevention of torture worldwide. Based in Denmark, the IRCT is the umbrella organization for over 160 independent torture rehabilitation organizations in 76 countries that treat and assist torture survivors and their families. They advocate for holistic rehabilitation for all victims of torture, which can include access to justice, reparations, and medical, psychological, and psycho-social counseling. The IRCT does this through strengthening the capacity of their membership, enabling an improved policy environment for torture victims, and generating and share knowledge on issues related to the rehabilitation of torture victims. Professionals at the IRCT rehabilitation centers and programs provide treatment for an estimated 100,000 survivors of torture every year. Victims receive multidisciplinary support including medical and psychological care and legal aid. The aim of the rehabilitation process is to empower torture survivors to resume as full a life as possible. In 1988, IRCT, along with founder Inge Genefke, was given the Right Livelihood Award "for helping those whose lives have been shattered by torture to regain their health and personality."
The United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is an international observance held annually on 26 June to speak out against the crime of torture and to honor and support victims and survivors throughout the world. The first 26 June events were launched in 1998.
The following article focuses on the movement to obtain redress for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and significant court cases that have shaped civil and human rights for Japanese Americans and other minorities. These cases have been the cause and/or catalyst to many changes in United States law. But mainly, they have resulted in adjusting the perception of Asian immigrants in the eyes of the American government.
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an independent, non-partisan and nonprofit international non-governmental organisation which works towards the practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth.
The Religious Sisters of Charity or Irish Sisters of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded by Mary Aikenhead in Ireland on 15 January 1815. Its motto is Caritas Christi urget nos.
Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) is a UK-based international non-profit organization founded in 2002. It is a registered charity under English law. ASTI works to promote and protect the survivors of acid and burn violence, with the aim of ending acid violence globally. In addition to public education and awareness campaigns, ASTI has worked with and sustains organizations in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda.
Reparations are broadly understood as compensation given for an abuse or injury. The colloquial meaning of reparations has changed substantively over the last century. In the early 1900s, reparations were interstate exchanges that were punitive mechanisms determined by treaty and paid by the surrendering side of a conflict, such as the World War I reparations paid by Germany and its allies. Reparations are now understood as not only war damages but also compensation and other measures provided to victims of severe human rights violations by the parties responsible. The right of the victim of an injury to receive reparations and the duty of the part responsible to provide them has been secured by the United Nations.
The Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists, also known as ICJ Kenya, is a Kenyan non-governmental organisation, a National Section of the International Commission of Jurists. It is composed of lawyers and works to promote human rights and the rule of law.
The Human Rights Foundation of Aotearoa New Zealand is a non-governmental organisation in New Zealand, which seeks "to promote and defend human rights through research based education and advocacy."
Justice for Iran (JFI) is a London-based non-governmental human rights organization. The stated objective of the organization is to "address and eradicate the practice of human rights abuses and impunity that empowers officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran to perpetrate widespread human rights violations against Iranian citizens, and to hold them accountable for their actions."