From rehabilitation to prevention: The need to move one step further

In the 30 years in which Torture has been the flagship publication on organised violence and torture the world no longer can be oblivious to the prevalence or consequences of torture. The existence of documented torture provides the hardest indicator of the absence of human rights in any given country, but does this demonstration still evoke the same sense of shock or same as it did thirty years ago? This is an important question to address currently with so much evidence suggesting that democracy worldwide may be in decline and that authoritarianism is on the increase. This article looks briefly at the current situation, the role of the antitorture movement and the Torture journal

From rehabilitation to prevention: The need to move one step further

In the 30 years in which Torture has been the flagship publication on organised violence and torture the world no longer can be oblivious to the prevalence or consequences of torture. The existence of documented torture provides the hardest indicator of the absence of human rights in any given country, but does this demonstration still evoke the same sense of shock or same as it did thirty years ago? This is an important question to address currently with so much evidence suggesting that democracy worldwide may be in decline and that authoritarianism is on the increase. This article looks briefly at the current situation, the role of the antitorture movement and the Torture journal.</jats:p

The psychosocial effects of organized violence and torture : a pilot study comparing survivors and their neighbours in Zimbabwe

Studies of survivors of organized violence and torture are uncommon in the African setting. Studies of the psychosocial effects of organized violence and torture are even less common. A Zimbabwean study comparing survivors of organized violence and torture with their neighbours was carried out in one previously war-affected area of Zimbabwe. The findings indicated that survivors were more economically and socially deprived than their neighbours in many key areas, especially the areas of employment, income, food security and housing. In addition, survivors showed indications of lower self-esteem and belief that they could change their situation. Seen in the context of the increasing realpoverty in Zimbabwe, the findings suggest that survivors of organized violence and torture represent a disabled group that may require targeted assistance by the State in order to overcome the social adversity they experience. The findings also indicate the need to assess more carefully the psychosocial as well as the medical consequences of organized violence and torture, especially in a region where epidemic levels of violence have been experienced in recent decades