RCT Annual Report 2010

Årsberetning 2008Rehabiliterings- og Forskningscentret for Torturofre

RCT10Annual Report 2010Rehabilitation and Research Centre For Torture Victims

” Humanity needs organizations like RCT that decade after decade carry out risky, uphill, and often unrecognized work towards a world free from torture. I am glad that RCT continues to sharpen its tools in the campaign against torture. I am proud to be Patron of RCT and value enormously its contribution in helping all of us become more human, compassionate and caring.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu. Patron of RCT as of 2010

Annual report 2010

Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT)

Borgergade 13P.O. Box 2107DK-1014 Copenhagen KPhone: +45 33 76 06 00Fax: +45 33 76 05 10e-mail: [email protected]

SE-No. 69 73 51 18Giro BG Bank No. 1199-0007383940Danske Bank No. 3001 4310821209

EditorsAnders BernhoftHeidi Koch TokleBengt H. Sjölund (editor-in-chief)

Graphic designEckardt ApS

ProductionSangill Grafisk

ISBN: 978-87-90878-32-0ISSN: 1396-2418

Printed in Denmark 2011

CONTENTS

Consolidating RCT’s role as a knowledge centre 1

RCT is a pioneer in the production of knowledge about torture 2

Rehabilitation of Iraqi torture survivors in Jordan 4

Both body and soul need healing in Sierra Leone 6

Pain research qualifies the rehabilitation 7

The whole world is our target group 8

Analyses of legal systems make it difficult to explain away torture 9

RCT builds expertise in prison inspection 10

New knowledge can prevent torture and violence 12

Research is an important part of capacity building 14

Research in constant development at RCT 16

Freedom from poverty and freedom from torture 18

2010 in retrospect 20

RCT Publications 2010 22

Donations and pledges of support 2010 24

Annual accounts 25

Printed on Cyklus Offset

WWW.RCT.ORG 1

Based on its policy adopted in 2004, RCT has gradually evolved its role as a leading knowledge centre in the field of prevention of torture and organised violence (TOV) as well as regarding rehabilitation of survivors of TOV. Thus, our Research Depart-ment now publishes more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and books per year and many of the collected documents on TOV in our Documentation Centre can be accessed via the web. We have compiled a Field Manual on Rehabilitation, now appearing in its second edition. It is based on evidence components and, where such are not available, on international consensus. Some of the world’s first epidemiological studies on the exposure to TOV in well-defined populations of several countries have re-cently been published by RCT researchers to give an evidence-based picture, more precise than previous existing anecdotal reports. Data from these studies can be used as baselines before interventions are introduced. Happily enough, these achieve-ments have been duly appreciated in the midterm evaluation of our policy, organised by the RCT Board and carried out by external experts in 2010.

In the research in TOV there is a great need to better understand the mechanisms behind the phenomena we observe and describe. Why do persons turn into perpetrators? What social patterns are liable to produce violence? What happens in the nervous system when a person is tortured? What are the consequences of be-ing exposed to unbearable stress? When new knowledge about such mechanisms is generated, it must be explained and dissemi-nated to a wide audience. Furthermore, it forms the best basis for designing effective interventions, both regarding prevention and rehabilitation. Therefore, it is very important that the RCT research encompasses mechanism elements. Another important

and very relevant element is the evaluation of the impact of interventions, both with respect to methodology and design of effect studies. How to develop and maintain a translational ca-pacity to transform scientific results into working principles in the field is very much related to this broad approach.

As to the implementation of interventions, we are presently carrying out both rehabilitation projects, notably with partners in the Middle East, India and Africa, and prevention projects on state as well as on community levels with partners in Central America, the Middle East and Asia. Here, RCT is developing methodology to assess the impact of these interventions as a top priority. In general, the combination of research and prac-tice in the same organisation shows its strengths by creating relevant research projects and thereby, hopefully, relevant an-swers to field generated questions, always with a special focus on interventions. However, by no means can we stand alone – cooperation with scientific and practice partners, not only in Denmark, but also internationally, is a prerequisite for success.

Shortly, after more than six years of managing RCT with a knowledge perspective, I will be leaving office to return to the university setting. I wish the organisation and its highly moti-vated and very skilful coworkers all the best for the future, and especially I wish for them to continuously be able to contribute to the overriding goal of RCT – a world free from torture!

Professor Bengt H. Sjölund, Director General*, RCT

* 1 May 2011 Karin Verland replaced professor Bengt H. Sjölund as Director General of RCT

Consolidating RCT’s role as a knowledge centre

RCT ANNUAL REPORT 20102

REHABILITATION AND RESEARCH CENTRE FOR TORTURE VICTIMS

RCT was founded in 1982, thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Danish physician Inge Genefke. The term pioneering effort can also rightly be used to describe RCT’s research within the mandate of a world without torture and organised violence, or TOV as it is called in internal RCT terminology. When RCT started systematising its research half a decade ago, research was carried out in the field on a global basis, but the research was not as ex-tensive, systematic or carried out under the same circumstances.

– TOV is not very popular when it comes to research at uni-versities and think tanks. If that were the case, we could just gather the already existing research. The research environment needed to be created from scratch and RCT itself had to produce researchers within TOV. There was no multitude of research-ers waiting in line from which RCT could just pick and choose. Therefore, RCT has focused on training a number of PhDs. Fortunately, RCT has a special structure by virtue of its rehabili-tation in Denmark and its programmes abroad which allows it to gather practice and knowledge, says Laurids Lauridsen, Chairman of RCT’s Scientific Board.

In many ways the research at RCT is similar to the research car-ried out at the universities, yet the research of RCT differs by having a strategic focus on TOV.

- Research into e.g. falanga torture, i.e. beating the soles of the feet, and epidemiological studies of the prevalence of torture are underresearched fields. Apart from the odd researcher, nothing as systematic as at RCT exists, he says.

And it is important that RCT carries out its own research, Laurids Lauridsen points out.

- Research does make a difference. If you do not carry out re-search yourself, other researchers are not likely to be willing to share their research. RCT needs to have research to gain access to research, Laurids Lauridsen says.

HighqualityinresearchToday a wide range of research is carried out at a high level within the anthropological, sociological, psychological and medi-cal disciplines. It has been very important to RCT that the quality of the research is at the highest level.

- The research is at the same level as at the universities. RCT has moved from making grey reports to producing scientific publica-tions which are valued highly by peers in the scientific environ-ment, Laurids Lauridsen explains.

This evaluation is the most important measure of control when it comes to RCT’s research. When an RCT researcher has written an article, it is submitted anonymously to two or three anonymous peer reviewers. They evaluate the article and place it in one of four categories: accepted, accepted with minor modifications, ac-cepted with extensive modifications or not accepted.

A clear sign that RCT’s research has become internationally rec-ognised is that RCT publishes in internationally highly estimated scientific journals and publications via internationally recognised publishers today.

The challenge for RCT is that RCT carries out a lot of interdisci-plinary research, while the leading and established journals often have an exclusively mono-disciplinary focus. So far, however, RCT’s researchers have succeeded in being accepted for publica-

Anders Bernhoft, Communication Officer

RCT is a pioneer in the production of knowledge about tortureIn the past five years, RCT has established a research environment and

produced researchers within torture and organised violence. Now we

need to focus on the users of the research.

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tion in both mono-disciplinary journals as well as in journals with a more interdisciplinary focus.

TheScientificBoardensuresqualityinresearchThe Scientific Board, of which Laurids Lauridsen is chairman, also plays an important role by vouching for the quality of RCT’s research.

- It is characteristic of the Scientific Board that we help ensure quality. We do not control every little detail before the projects are launched, but we do have a methodical discussion with the researchers afterwards or half-way through the project, Laurids Lauridsen explains.

It is also a function of the Scientific Board to make sure that the research at RCT is relevant to RCT’s vision of a world without torture and organised violence.

- Relevance can be discussed in many ways. You need to ask: Research of relevance to whom? A broad definition of relevance is important to the Scientific Board. This means that the research must also be relevant outside the walls of RCT, Laurids Lauridsen says and continues:

- We are very conscious of the fact that our research must be relevant and this is an issue to which RCT will devote much more attention in the future. The research must be relevant to the institutions with whom RCT works. It must be relevant in terms of measuring the effect of the rehabilitation so as to obtain syn-ergy between practice and research. The research must also be relevant in relation to advocacy and to those who use RCT as a knowledge centre. Therefore, the Documentation Centre is also very relevant because it functions as a disseminator of knowl-edge, Laurids Lauridsen says.

RCT’S RESEARCH

The research at RCT is organised in three different research clusters: rehabilitation, prevention, populations and communities.

The rehabilitation cluster carries out research into pTOV-related physical and psychological symptoms

(impairments) and the treatment of suchpeffect (on activity and participation) of well-defined

rehabilitation programmes

The research of the prevention cluster coverspdevelopment of methods to understand state and

non-state networks and institutions employing TOV, including the trends within TOV

pstudies, evaluations and identification of methods and forms of intervention

The research of the population & community cluster covers

ppopulation studies focusing on traumatisation of vulnerable groups

pdescription and analysis of the consequences of TOV for individuals, communities and institutions in different contexts and interventions introduced in this regard

THE SCIENTIFIC BOARD

The Scientific Board consists of a chairman and five persons appointed by the Board of RCT. The members are appointed for three years at a time, and replacement takes place regularly. Reappointment is possible once. The Board is interdisciplinary with members from the health, social and humanitarian sciences to reflect RCT’s research areas. The members are normally associate professors as a minimum, employed at universities, institutes and departments of public research or similar research institutes.



Physiotherapist Hanne F. Nielsen has just returned from Jordan where she has been supervising colleagues from the Jordanian partner organisation the Institute for Family Health (IFH) which provides advice to displaced Iraqi families. Since 2009 RCT has supported IFH by implementing an interdisciplinary rehabilita-tion model for the work with Iraqi torture survivors.

- Working with adults was a new experience for the physi-otherapists at the centre. They had previously primarily worked with children with cerebral paralysis. Therefore, we had to start by asking questions about their experience and expectations. The next step was to provide in-depth information about torture and its consequences, Hanne F. Nielsen says.

Like many other health centres, IFH used to work multi-discipli-narily with several professionals gathered under the same roof with one delegating physician. Now the treatments are carefully coordinated at team meetings.

- The training provided i.a. included role playing to illustrate how to conduct an interdisciplinary team meeting. How do you prepare

Rehabilitation of Iraqi torture survivors in JordanRCT supports the establishment of a new trauma centre working in

accordance with the interdisciplinary biopsychosocial model.

THE INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL

The pain experienced by torture survivors is a complex problem with psychological, physical as well as social aspects and can consequently not be handled by just one professional.

The rehabilitation is based on client meetings, where the psychologist, physiotherapist, physician and social worker regularly establish goals together with the client. As opposed to the multi-disciplinary approach, the work is not performed in parallel, but coordinated carefully at team meetings. Everybody speaks with one voice and supports what is important right now, e.g. sleep. The psychologist examines how the family works in order to make room for sleeping. The physician provides knowledge about the importance of sleep and determines whether medication is needed. The social worker tackles financial problems that may reduce anxiety. The physiotherapist helps the patient plan the training of daily activities and teaches body-consciousness and relaxation.

The biopsychosocial model follows the interdisciplinary way of thinking behind the World Health Organisation’s international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF). The classification has been developed across languages, countries and professional groups.

Heidi Koch Tokle, Web Editor/Science Writer

” The work with torture survivors is

demanding and it takes a strong person

to handle being confronted with the

cruelty of the human race every day

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for a team meeting when you are to introduce a client, for instance? What themes do you discuss at the meeting? How much and how little do you need to coordinate? And how do you ensure that the meetings are effective, Hanne F. Nielsen asks and continues: - When we coordinate carefully, we ensure that we do not inad-vertently work against each other.

If the psychologist is coaching a patient to be able to ride on a bus by himself and, for instance, ask for a seat, we cannot have the physiotherapist asking the client not to push himself too far in such a situation. This will never happen in the interdisciplinary work, Hanne F. Nielsen says.

In the second phase the RCT team supervises several treatments provided by IFH and proposes minor changes. As a final and im-portant theme, Hanne F. Nielsen has introduced the question of how to take care of oneself as a person and as a treatment pro-vider. The work with torture survivors is demanding and it takes a strong person to handle being confronted with the cruelty of the human race every day.

JORDAN’S FIRST REHABILITATION CENTRE FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE AND ORGANISED VIOLENCE

According to the UN Refugee Agency (the UNHRC) the Jordanian government estimates that close to half a million Iraqis are residing illegally in Jordan. Of these, only 31,000 Iraqis are registered as refugees by the UNHCR. The Institute for Family Health (IFH) is a family health centre in Amman, founded by the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF). The IFH houses Jordan’s first rehabilitation centre for victims of torture and organised violence. Since 2009 the centre has screened 2,431 Iraqi refugees for torture in collaboration with the EU, UNHCR, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Out of this group, 169 persons had been exposed to torture, 69 of whom are now undergoing rehabilitation. The IFH offers the clients various forms of rehabilitation such as medication, physiotherapy, individual as well as group therapy. Now also outreach activities such as home visits and information campaigns have been added to the many initiatives. The initiatives receive support from i.a. RCT, UNHCR, the EU and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).RCT, UNHCR, EU og FNs Børnefond (UNICEF).

(Photos Anders Bernhoft/RCT)



Both body and soul need healing in Sierra LeoneEven though the need for physical

rehabilitation is huge among torture

survivors in Sierra Leone, unfortunately

the possibilities of getting help are slim.

With support from RCT, the partner organisation Community Association for Psychosocial Services (CAPS) has, as one of the few organisations in the country, chosen to bring into focus the mental health of the population following a brutal civil war that has left the population with deep scars on body and soul. Together with colleagues from RCT, physiotherapist Hanne F. Nielsen has studied the need for physical rehabilitation among the torture survivors who come to CAPS for psychotherapeutic treatment.

- The study shows that 70-80 per cent of the torture survivors have chronic pain. Many experience pain and physical problems because they have been beaten, amputated, raped or forced to carry inhuman loads on their heads, Hanne F. Nielsen explains.

Nationally there are only five physiotherapists, one ergotherapist and approx. 18 assistants and they are all primarily attached to the hospitals. Therefore, RCT and CAPS have now taken the initi-ative in establishing a system where CAPS can refer torture sur-vivors for rehabilitation at local hospitals. The capacity is small and far from everyone is able to get to a hospital. Therefore, massive support will be needed if the extensive need for physical rehabilitation is to be met.

RCT has trained CAPS’ psychosocial treatment providers in how to use simple exercises to reduce e.g. tension, stress, insomnia and anxiety. The hope is this way to enable CAPS to take a step towards a more interdisciplinary treatment, even though it is far from being sufficient.


Hanne F. Nielsen conducting training of psychosocial project staff in Sierra Leone (Photo Peter Polatin/RCT)

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Now RCT, as some of the first in pain research, can document that torture leads to neural damage. This is new knowledge that can improve the biopsychosocial model and practice.

Throughout the 19 years physiotherapist Karen Prip worked with clients at RCT, she noticed that some seemed to have more physical problems than others. Persons who had been exposed to falanga torture have experienced having their legs tied down and having the soles of their feet beaten again and again. In 2010 Karen Prip submitted her PhD at RCT in collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark. Among other things, it explains how people who have been exposed to falanga torture show clear clinical signs of nerve lesions of the soles of their feet without the existence of any visual signs.

- With a high degree of certainty we can now say that victims of falanga torture have chronic pain and sensory disturbances. There are changes in the peripheral nervous system, which we are now able to document via our research, Karen Prip says.

Karen Prip’s research shows that the nervous system has been overtaxed and this may entail various sequelae such as e.g. un-pleasant tactile sensations.

- The pain may occur spontaneously without any kind of outer stimulus. Even though a person may be sitting still, he may sud-denly feel something that burns or bites or experience “shooting” pains. The pain usually comes in connection with ordinary physi-cal activities such as walking, and it may spread to other places on the body, Karen Prip explains.

FromresearchtorehabilitationThe research results supplement the biopsychosocial model and the experience-based knowledge on which RCT’s health profes-sionals already base their work.

- We can now target the rehabilitation more precisely by under-taking a more systematic neurological examination, e.g. of the sensitivity of the skin to pressure, touch, hot and cold stimuli. The documentation enables us to explain to clients and authori-ties, if required, that the pain is chronic and that, unfortunately, the pain condition cannot be expected to be cured. We help the patients cognitively to deal with this situation. Many people are afraid that the pain will get worse and that they will become more disabled in time. We can help tell them that this is not the case and at the same time we can help them reduce the pain in everyday life, Karen Prip says and continues:

- One of the things we do is help adapt the clients’ expectations to their own abilities. If one day a client has energy and only lit-tle pain, it is important not to overdo things. On the other hand, moderate physical activity is incredibly important when it comes to strengthening the physical as well as mental health and well-being. The level of pain will often also depend on whether the client is able to structure his everyday life, gets enough sleep and has his level of anxiety reduced, she says.

Karen Prip continues her research and hopes that in time she will be able to provide more information about nerve damage after torture, about how pain affects the active life of the patients and how the rehabilitation can contribute to a positive development.


Pain research qualifies the rehabilitationNow RCT, as some of the first in pain

research, can document that torture leads

to neural damage. This is new knowledge

that can improve the biopsychosocial model

and practice.

” Many people are afraid that the

pain will get worse and that they will

become more disabled in time. We can

help tell them that this is not the case

and at the same time we can help them

reduce the pain in everyday life



Unique. That is the word used by the head of RCT’s Documentation Centre and Library to describe the collection of material available to the public at RCT’s premises in Borgergade in inner Copenhagen.

- Our collection, which this year topped 30,000 items, provides the best and most comprehensive overview of the literature about torture and organised violence (TOV). Nowhere else in the world can you find such an exhaustive collection of books, reports, scientific and popular articles. Most of the collection is registered in the database of the Documentation Centre. Anyone who has Internet access can use the database. It is RCT’s avowed ambition to be the preferred source of knowledge about torture. In this connec-tion the Documentation Centre plays a major part, Sven-Erik Baun Christensen says and quotes Inge Genefke, the founder of RCT: ”In order to do this work, we need to know what we know.”

- We need to give everyone in the world working against torture – particularly those working in countries where the access to literature and information is limited – the possibility of getting an overview of what we know.

ExtensiveelectroniccollectionAnd the Documentation Centre, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2012, really does have a lot to offer.

- Our strength is our focus on interdisciplinary material. In so far as torture is concerned, it is our objective to cover all aspects, be they legal, psychological, medical or social. So instead of search-ing a number of different databases, some of which charge a fee for searches, you can find it all and free of charge in our data-base, Sven-Erik Baun Christensen says.

The Documentation Centre also tries to make sure that a large share of the many news stories published on the Internet every day is saved for posterity in a physical archive.

- Every day we comb the Internet for news about torture and retrieve important stories to ensure that they are not lost, which is often the case with articles that are only published electroni-cally, Sven-Erik Baun Christensen explains.

Unfortunately not all material in the database of the Documentation Centre is available free of charge over the Internet. Approximately one third of all articles and reports published in the past four-five years is only available in full-text versions via links in the base.

SubjectretrievalIf you need help from professional researchers to retrieve litera-ture and information, one of the very popular services offered by Sven-Erik Baun Christensen and his two colleagues is subject retrieval.

- We receive enquiries from many places in the world. We get questions from researchers, students, journalists and authors. And if you are able to visit the Documentation Centre, you are welcome to do your work at the library. For instance, the American researcher Darius Rejali stayed there some weeks while he was working on his highly acclaimed mammoth book on tor-ture “Torture and Democracy”. Darius Rejali noted that he found material at the Documentation Centre which he had no idea even existed, Sven-Erik Baun Christensen says.


The whole world is our target groupRCT’s Documentation Centre and Library has the world’s largest collection of documents on

torture. With users from more than one hundred countries all over the world, the Documentation

Centre is well on its way to achieving its target of becoming the world’s preferred source of

knowledge about torture.

The Documentation Centre is open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Wednesday from 12 noon to 4:00 p.m.

You can find the Documentation Centre at the Internet at: http://www.reindex.org/RCT/rss/Portal.php

If you want to send an enquiry, please do so to this address: [email protected]

” - We need to give everyone in the

world working against torture [...] the

possibility of getting an overview of

what we know

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An important weapon against states that use torture against their citizens is analyses of the country’s legal system. Everything from the applicable law over trials to the distribu-tion of power between the authorities of the society is exam-ined. This often dangerous work, which involves a review of local trials, can be used to put international pressure on the regimes that violate human rights and ultimately prevent tor-ture and inhuman treatment.

- The analysis is a thorough and exhaustive review of the legal system of the country in question. This way we try to identify why torture occurs, where it occurs and for what reasons. This becomes important documentation, which it is difficult for the states to explain away. The analyses are rock solid evidence that torture is widespread, says Dorrit Rée Akselbo, legal consultant at RCT.

The analyses are highly useable for RCT’s partner organisations, which can use them locally in their advocacy work to prevent torture.

- No country wants to be exposed in the press with claims or in this case concrete evidence of torture, as this may have serious consequences for the country, Dorrit Rée Akselbo explains. Sri Lanka felt the consequences of the advocacy work when the EU withdrew GSP+ benefits from Sri Lanka, meaning that the country lost its right to export goods to the EU at reduced customs duties. In 2008 the EU imported Sri Lankan goods for EUR 1.28 million.

ImpunityandlackofresourcesMost recently RCT carried out an analysis in Sri Lanka. It shows that torture is very widespread among the legal enforcement authorities. There are fundamental problems associated with the distribution of the power, thus leading to interference from

above and political judgments. Generally, due process protec-tion is rarely ensured. This means that the defendant does not get an attorney, does not receive information about the rea-son for the arrest and is not brought before a judge within 24 hours. All this happens despite the fact that the legislation and the framework are in place.

- One of the things we look into is what they do to prevent tor-ture and what they do to prosecute torturers. As is the case in most states that use torture, there are no independent authori-ties to prosecute the torturers and there is generally impunity for torture. Finally, it is important to stress the fact that torture is also connected with a lack of resources in these countries, Dorrit Rée Akselbo explains.

DifficultanddangerousworkThe analysis is carried out by local lawyers with legal and finan-cial assistance from RCT. The local lawyers have the best knowl-edge about the legal system and have easier access to relevant information. But this also involves some challenges.

- First, it may be very difficult to find lawyers who have the competencies to make the analyses. They must be able to ana-lyse and communicate information that is normally not acces-sible to the public. In Sri Lanka where we have made such an analysis there is no public administration legislation, and con-sequently no general access for the population to the decisions made by the courts of law. Second, we know from the human rights work that doing such work is often at the risk of one’s life, Dorrit Rée Akselbo says.

RCT is currently carrying out similar analyses in Jordan and has just launched another study in India.

Analyses of legal systems make it difficult to explain away torture



Carrying out independent inspections of places of detention is nothing new. But the way the inspections are approached is new. In 2010 RCT, which is part of the National Prevention Mechanism under the Ombudsman, worked to define the role of the physician in the independent inspections. From taking a clinical approach where the physician participates to examine the prisoners who may have been exposed to violence, the physician in Denmark must take a public health approach to the inspections. This means that from being kind of a watchdog who examines whether the prisoners have been exposed to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the physician’s role is now to introduce preventive measures before problems develop.

- While the other inspection teams in the world, such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), so to say stir up a little dust in the corners, the National Prevention Mechanism aims to intervene in processes, mechanisms and behaviour patterns that may develop into a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture. In general terms, RCT contributes a systematisation of all the elements of the physician’s work from the moment the prisoner arrives and until the day he leaves the place again, says Jens Modvig, consultant physician and one of RCT’s representatives in the NPM in Denmark.

MorenewinitiativesSome of the elements included in Jens Modvig’s work with the NPM are known from the CPT as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO). Other initiatives are brand-new and de-veloped based on prison inspections in Denmark and in RCT’s partner countries.

- The importance of the medical examination of the prisoner upon arrival at the prison has been stressed for years. The exami-nation can show whether the prisoner has been exposed to vio-lence etc. at the police station and can serve as documentation in cases of violence etc. in prisons and similar institutions. But it is not general practice that e.g. the prisons get an overview of the state of health of all the prisoners. Such an overview can help prevent the spreading of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. In Denmark such a development can be prevented by handing out new syringes, condoms and lubricant like they do in many other countries, even in certain Central Asian countries, Jens Modvig points out and continues:

- Another new element is the conditions surrounding access to a physician and other health professionals. The staff may behave in a way that leads to degrading treatment if a prisoner is repeat-


RCT builds expertise in prison inspectionThe clinical approach must be supplemented with the public health

approach when RCT’s physicians, as part of the Danish National

Prevention Mechanism (NPM), inspect places of detention.



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edly requested to write notes to the staff to be permitted to see a physician, or if the prisoner is requested to state the reason for wanting to see a physician to the staff. Therefore, the existence of clear procedures for access to health professionals is very im-portant, Jens Modvig explains.

ThephysicianmustbeindependentoftheprisonmanagementIn addition to the very concrete issues, RCT also works to ensure control of the more general issues within health initiatives in

detentions, prisons and similar institutions. Right now the trend in European countries is for the health service in local and state prisons to be part of the public health system.

- We focus on the physician’s employment to ensure that the physician is not at risk of ending up in a loyalty conflict between the patient and the prison management. As things are now, the physician is employed by the prison management. This may be inappropriate, as the physician may feel loyalty to the system rather than to the patients, Jens Modvig explains.

RCTwantstobeintheleadThe objective is for RCT’s especially developed approach to make RCT the leading organisation in independent monitoring of places of detention. RCT is working on a manual for the medical part of this work. This manual is expected to be ready sometime during 2011.

- When the manual is ready, we would like to use it in other countries as well where we are already now involved in monitor-ing teams such as e.g. Kosovo, Jordan or Sierra Leone. The man-ual can also be used elsewhere in the world to prevent torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

THE NATIONAL PREVENTION MECHANISM (NPM)

On 19 May 2004 the Danish Parliament decided to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture, also called OPCAT. OPCAT imposes an obligation on the ratifying states to establish an independent system that carries out regular inspection of local and state prisons, detentions and psychiatric and social institutions. The purpose of the NPM is to ensure an effective prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

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New knowledge can prevent torture and violenceIn 2010 RCT concluded two public health studies in Guatemala and the Philippines.

The studies promise very well for the fight against torture and organised violence.


Quilt in memory of the disappeared and murdered from Chimaltenango, Guatemala. (Photo Dawn Paley: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkflip/2444033776/)

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The greatest threat against families in Guatemala is violence. At least that is the opinion of 59 per cent of the Guatemalans. The figure is surprising because 60 per cent of the respondents are poor, i.e. they live on less than USD 2 a day, and 20 per cent live on less than USD 1 a day, which is classified as extreme poverty according to the Human Poverty Index developed by the UN. Half of the respondents also feel that the government’s efforts to combat violence are inadequate.

The figures are from one of RCT’s public health studies whose purpose it is to identify the prevalence of violence, risk factors and possible preventive measures that may help stop violence and instead create a more peaceful society.

- Hopefully, we can limit the organised violence by making this kind of public health studies. Based on the prevalence of the violence, the studies identify where the problems arise, the kinds of violence and how the respondents believe the violence can be prevented. The results of the study are translated into concrete action plans to combat violence. If e.g. the violence occurs on a street without lights, it may be a good idea to put up street lights. But in some ar-eas, you may also want to establish a local police station, says Jens Modvig, consultant physician and Programme Manager with RCT.

HondurasandJordanarenextSo far studies have been made in the Philippines, Kosovo, Bangladesh, South Africa, Guatemala and Albania. In 2011 RCT will continue its public health studies and the studies already carried out will be followed up upon by studies in Jordan and Honduras. In Jordan’s capital Amman and Zarqa RCT and the partnerorganisation IFH (Institute for Family Health) are plan-ning to carry out a questionnaire study with 3,500 respondents. This corresponds to one out of every 1,000 inhabitants of the city, which has a total population of 3.5 million.

- In Jordan we focus on the three most prominent groups in soci-ety: the Iraqis, Jordanians and Palestinians. We carry out 21 focus group interviews, consisting of young people, old people, men and women distributed on the various ethnic groups. The focus groups will provide knowledge about the scope of the violence, the con-sequences of the violence and how to prevent violence. Based on the results recorded in the focus groups, we will draw up question-naires that can form the basis for the big, quantitative population study with 3,500 respondents, Jens Modvig says and continues:

- The very high number of respondents will help reduce the statistical uncertainty of the study so as to obtain increased cer-tainty of results.

In Guatemala RCT and ODHAG (Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala) we have interviewed 1,200 fami-lyes in five out of 17 regions, which turned out not to be quite enough. Therefore, we have chosen to expand the studies in the other countries, Jens Modvig says.

In Honduras RCT and CPTRT (Centre for the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Their Relatives) focuses

on two different poor and violent city districts with a total of 37,000 inhabitants. The target is to carry out a study among 500 persons in each district, which will give a very high participation compared with the total population, i.e. one in every 37. The studies will be carried out in Nueva Suyapa and Villa Nueva in the capital of Tegucigalpa.

CooperationwithpartnersreducesmarginoferrorThe big public health studies are always carried out in coopera-tion with a local partner organisation.

Among other things, the partner organisation is selected based on its credibility and confidence enjoyed in the population.

- It is important that the partner organisation enjoys extreme con-fidence in the local community as we would not be able to carry out the studies otherwise. We also take great pains to reduce the margin of error in the study by contacting leaders in the commu-nity directly and having them vouch for the study. Typically the organisations, most often NGOs, we work with have been on the population’s side in conflicts. This helps increase confidence in the survey and thereby reduce the margin of error, Jens Modvig says.

He believes that there have been cases of underreporting vio-lence, while overreporting does not occur as frequently.

- Overreporting can be exposed by there being too few details about the episode and by it being dismissed by other respond-ents. Underreporting, for instance, occurs in families where the father may refrain from mentioning certain episodes, but where we then get the information from the young people of the household, Jens Modvig explains and points out that the re-spondents do not know the replies of the other family members for the sake of their own safety.

- This kind of information is highly sensitive, so we have the safety of the respondents at heart. For instance, we are very care-ful with how we address very sensitive subjects that may retrau-matise the respondents. Therefore, the interviewers have i.a. been trained to handle such situations. They have learned to spot symp-toms of post-traumatic stress and know when to refer respondents to professionals with our partner organisations, Jens Modvig says.

Knowledge sharing is important to the futureTraining of the local partner organisation is the other important dimension of the work with the public health studies.

- If one day we cannot be present in the country in question any longer, it is an advantage if the local organisation can carry on the work. We have concrete proof that this kind of capac-ity building works. In Guatemala the authorities have asked our partner ODHAG, to expand the studies, Jens Modvig says.

An impact analysis is carried out to examine the effects of the studies in Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan and the other countries in the long run to assess whether the violence has actually been reduced as a consequence of the preventive measures taken.



Heavy, solid wooden doors slide open and a white four wheeler emerges from the gate. The car moves through the hectic early-morning traffic of Guatemala City. In it is a group of researchers with three Guatemalans from the organisation ODHAG (Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala) and one researcher from RCT. Together they have prepared a question-naire, which they will use to identify the prevalence of violence in Guatemala. They are on their way to the eastern municipality Chiquimula to test whether the questionnaire is comprehensible to the respondents. The municipality borders on El Salvador and Honduras and is notorious for being one of the most violent ones in Guatemala.

CooperationprovidesabreedinggroundforbetterresearchandinterventionDuring recent years RCT has cooperated with the organisations ODHAG and ECAP (Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción Psicosocial) on several research projects which produce knowl-edge and at the same time enhance the analytical capacity of the organisations.

When cooperation is begun on a project, RCT becomes an active, professional contributor and works together with the partner organisations. Sampling strategies, database management, statis-

tical data analysis, ethnographic interview, rapid rural appraisal, validation of questionnaires and domain analysis are all exam-ples of methods that are used, refined and institutionalised. It is RCT’s experience that idea sharing and sparring enhance the quality of the research carried out by RCT as well as the partners. Organisational learning leads to changes and better intervention and research in the fight against torture and organised violence. Therefore, it is essential that also local NGOs are able to build, maintain and change their methods and knowledge regularly. FromresearchtosustainabilityThe development of the professional competencies of the part-ner organisations through research is also important to their future survival. By establishing a research-based approach, the organisations are given a platform from which local and regional networks can be developed. This also means more possibilities of establishing contact to new donors and partners. The joint research project of ECAP and RCT has, for instance, led to ECAP increasing its collaboration on teaching with universities in Guatemala, and the organisation is participating in more interna-tional academic networks now as well. For ODHAG the enhanced research profile has meant that the Guatemalan prison directorate has ordered research from ODHAG regarding health conditions and drug abuse in prisons.

Research is an important part of capacity building RCT launches research projects and at the same time supports partner

organisations in building analytical capacity.

Henrik Rønsbo, Senior Researcher

(Photo Henrik Rønsbo/RCT.)

” By establishing a research-based

approach, the organisations are given a

platform from which local and regional

networks can be developed. This also

means more possibilities of establishing

contact to new donors and partners

15WWW.RCT.ORG

BacktoChiquimulaThe four researchers in the car approach Chiquimula, the eastern part of Guatemala.Here the Indian population is barely visible. Centuries of cultural and economic pressure from the Hispanic Latino or non-native population – first from the violent land owners and most recently from drug traffickers and human traf-fickers – have produced a landscape where indigenous communi-ties and languages have almost disappeared. In their own tragic way these circumstances make the region ideal for testing the questionnaire. Suddenly the four wheeler is stopped by exten-sive road work. On the platform body of the car ahead are men armed with pistols tucked into the back of their pants; in their hands they hold shotguns and some have semi-automatic rifles. Not the most useful farm tools in an area where the crops are Indian corn and beans.

Research-basedpreventionofviolenceFor two weeks the research team tested the questionnaire in Chiquimula. Subsequently, the tested version was used in 1,300 household interviews carried out by ODHAG in five departments. Among other things, data were gathered on the identity of the family members who had been victims of violence, about char-acteristics of the perpetrators and about the scene of the crime. Questions were also asked about what had been done afterwards.

Was the assault reported to the police? Did they seek help in the health system? Or did they seek help from local healers and au-thorities instead?

As also mentioned in the article on page 13, the public health study shows that the occurrence of violence is high and that reporting to authorities rarely takes place. Young men run the greatest risk of being a victim of violence, and also living on more than USD 2 a day increases the risk of violence. Generally the authorities and the population regard violence as a big prob-lem, and confidence in the ability of the police and the authori-ties to solve this problem is not very high.

Today the results of field work such as the work carried out in Chiquimula form the basis for ODHAG’s work in five of Guatemala’s departments. Here they work with the development of local initiatives to prevent violence and help the victims of violence. On a national level the civil community and experts also try to increase focus on preventing violence in other ways than through the use of force. On a regional level ODHAG is trying to expand its cooperation with like-minded research and intervention-oriented organisations through the Central American Network for Prevention of Violence whose establish-ment RCT supports.

Researchers validating interviews in Chiquimula, Guatemala. (Photo Henrik Rønsbo/RCT)


Research in constant development at RCTAgain in 2010 the Research Department expanded its work, and several new projects have been

launched or planned for launch at the beginning of 2011. The Department continues to have an

extensive scientific production (see RCT publications 2010) and approx. one third of the researchers

in the Department are employed via external funds from the research councils or private foundations.

Edith Montgomery, Director, Research Department

THE YEAR IN RESEARCH

RehabilitationIn 2010 the studies of the consequences of falanga torture (beating of the soles of the feet) were completed and the results are now being published. An important conclusion to be drawn from the studies is that while all the victims of torture examined suffered from severe activity limitations, those who had been exposed to falanga torture had more severe activity limitations compared with those who had been exposed to torture of other body parts.

The work of identifying the mechanisms behind chronic pain in torture survivors continues and more specific interventions have been tested in pilot studies, e.g. the effect on muscular soreness of pain relieving stimulation treatment and receptor blocking drugs.

The work of identifying relevant indicators for rehabilitation processes continued in 2010, i.a. by means of a large database at the Umeå University with 20,000 patients who have undergone pain rehabilitation. A number of method studies were carried out, e.g. of Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). Moreover, a qualitative interview study was carried out of the expectations of torture victims with regard to participation in a rehabilitation programme.

An impact study of the interdisciplinary rehabilitation offer in the Rehabilitation Department is planned for launch in 2011. Furthermore, we have worked with the possibility of early iden-tification of torture victims, which in the long run can be expect-ed to enhance the effectiveness of the rehabilitation work.

The RCT Field Manual on Rehabilitation has been revised and a new version is being completed with a view to publication in 2011.

PopulationsandcommunitiesThe work with children and young people has primarily fo-cused on publishing the results of a follow-up study of young refugees from the Middle East and on analysing the results of

various studies of refugee children carried out at RCT over the past 20 years.

The method development project Crime Preventionin TraumatisedRefugee Families has continued with full external financing. Conductors of meetings have been trained in the six participating municipalities, and network meetings are held un-der the supervision of RCT. The National Board of Social Services has recommended the method in a campaign. The report from the pilot project Towards a Concerted Effort is frequently requested and is the basis for and often quoted in the text book for coun-sellors in the Youth Sanction.

The purpose of analysing victims of torture and organised vio-lence (TOV) and development processes in South is to be able to understand the interaction between the everyday lives of the victims and the political, financial and social programmes surrounding them. Two independent PhD projects under the programme were completed and defended in 2010. One of them was at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen: Lotte Buch: “Uncanny Affect. Relations, Enduring Absence and the Ordinary in Families of Detainees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. The other at Departament de Psicología Social, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: ”Walter Paniagua: La victimidad: Una aproximación desde el proceso de resarcimiento en la region lxhil del noroccidente de Guatemala”. An international conference was held to conclude the pro-gramme.

A book about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan was published and the work of collecting data from Danish soldiers after completed missions in the Balkans has continued. A book on this subject will be published in 2011. The project reflects reactions in young people who are subjected to extreme experiences.

An epidemiological study of torture and political violence in Kosovo has been completed. The study showed that 31 per cent of the studied households had one or more members who had

17WWW.RCT.ORG

REHABILITATION

Mechanisms and Symptom Therapy after Torture and Organised Violence

pMechanisms for Chronic Muscular PainpFalanga Torture, Disability, Pain Mechanisms

and Behavioural ConsequencespStimulation Treatment for Chronic PainpPhysiotherapy for Chronic PainpMechanisms for Chronic Stress and Higher

Brain Functions, Particularly Sensitisation after Torture and Organised Violence

Effects of Rehabilitation Programmes on Activity and Participation after Torture and Organised Violence

pMonitoring Instruments for Rehabilitation Processes

pAssessment of Pain and its ConsequencespField Manual on Rehabilitation (ongoing

revision)pControlled Trials of Rehabilitation Program-

mes for Torture Victims

POPULATION AND COMMUNITIES

Refugee Families

pPsychosocial Stress Factors in Refugee Men-tal Health - Family Perspectives

pHealth and Wellbeing of Refugee Children in the Nordic Countries

pChildren’s Voices - Asylum Seeking Children’s Human Rights

pCrime Prevention among Traumatised Re-fugee Families: Implementation of Network Meetings in Danish Municipalities

pPrisons and Refugee Families: Youth Crime and Traumatised Refugee Families and their Meeting with the System of Justice and Social Authorities

Violence and Rehabilitation in Local Communities

pInfluence of Violence on Social and Gender Identity in Latin America

pAn Epidemiological Study of Public Violence and Access to Justice in Guatemala

pEpidemiological Study of Torture and Political Violence in Conflict Settings

pLiterature Review of Psychosocial InterventionspSymbolic Reparations for Victims of Human

Rights ViolationspLiving in Limbo? An Ethnographic Study of

Institutions, Interventions and Poor Black Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa

pLong-Term Consequences from Extreme Emo-tional Strain

pDanish War Sailors - The War Sailor Syndrome pThe Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers

after Returning from War Zones in the Bal-kans and Iraq

PREVENTION

Institutions that Practise Torture and Human Rights Abuse

pPreventing Torture and Organised Violence: A Study of Detention and Violence in Sierra Leone

pReforming State Violence in Transitional Societies

pState and Non-State Violence: Policing, Vigi-lantism and Gangs in Rural and Urban South Africa

pAsymmetric Armed Conflict - the Profound Transformation of Global Conflict and Violen-ce on the Military Institution and its Soldiers

Networks that Practise Torture and Organised Violence

pThe Violent Organisation of Political YouthpYouth Mobilisation in Urban Manila: Electo-

ral Politics, Crime and Authority in Bagong Silang

pMungiki: Between Violent Youth Politics and Traditionalist Sect - An Anthropological Study of Urban Politics and Violence in Nairobi, Kenya

pMobilisation and Social Navigation in Student Politics at Dhaka University, Bangladesh

pPolitical Activism in the Context of Nepal’s Democratic Transition: Mobilisation, Hope and Survival Among Youth in Kathmandu

RESEARCH PROJECTS 2010

been a victim of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, while 7 per cent of the studied popula-tion of almost 7,000 persons had been submitted to torture.

PreventionThe work with prison studies focused on writing articles, field work and networks in 2010, including a study regarding the Karama project, an RCT facilitated intervention. The research network The Global Prisons Research Network has been further developed and consolidated, and a new research programme has been prepared to start in 2011.

During the work with state and non-state police networks, a PhD thesis was completed and defended at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen: Helene Risør: ”Violent Closures and New Openings. Civil Insecurity, Citizens and the State in El Alto, Bolivia”. A number of lectures were given on police, gangs, terror and other violent groups to the police and public authorities. Finally, a bid was submitted for a contract from the Ministry of Integration regarding antiradicalisation and the contract was won. It is the first time RCT’s Research Department has submitted a bid for such a contract.

The research programme Violent Organisation of Political Youth (VOPY), which comprises three PhD projects, is approaching the end. Several promising cooperative relations were formed in 2010.

DocumentationRCT’s Documentation Centre and Library supports RCT’s objec-tive of obtaining a position as a central institution within the production, collection, structuring and communication of knowl-edge about TOV, internationally as well as in Denmark.

An important part of the communication work of the Documentation Centre takes place via www.rct.org where users can i.a. search our documents and obtain access to an important and consistently growing amount of full-text online documents. Finally, users can also subscribe to a personal news service.

The media section is still being established, and rapidly so, and the collection of electronic resources was increased in 2010, both in the form of DVD films and links to external film material on the Internet. The sub-database of these resources has conse-quently become a useful resource for internal and external users alike, when they need film material on torture.


RCT is pleased with the Minister’s unambiguous rejection of torture and with the fact that he keeps up with the proud Danish tradition as a pioneer country in the area. On the threshold of 2011 we are, unfortunately, not quite as hopeful. Not everyone in this world shares the Minister’s and RCT’s attitude. We have, much to our regret, registered a shift in the attitude towards torture over the past ten years – even in Denmark. The shift may be due to the fact that torture does not occur in Denmark – according to the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak and that, con-sequently, we forget what torture is and what it does to us. At the same time, still more of us are led to believe that torture is ok as long as it is used by the ’good guys’ in the service of a higher cause.

Torture has many faces and is expressed in numerous ways with various purposes. When RCT started at the Copenhagen University Hospital in 1982, the torture survivors came from military dictatorships in South America. They were usually highly educated members of an opposition of which the regime wanted to rid itself for political-ideological reasons. Torture was used as a

narrow political means of suppressing people they did not agree with. This is still the case in many countries. In those countries torture needs not be particularly widespread, but the fear of torture is big enough to keep people from asking their political leaders critical questions. Unfortunately, there is also a number of countries where torture is an everyday practice.

TortureasaninstitutionalisedpracticeIn these countries torture is routinely used and is the most im-portant element in police investigations. That is the way it is in the world’s two most populous countries, China and India. Despite the fact that torture was outlawed in 1996, the Chinese government felt compelled to outlaw the use of evidence ob-tained through torture in 2010. Recently, the organisation Human Rights Watch wrote the following in the report Promises Unfulfilled: An Assessment of China’s National Human Rights Action Plan: torture in China is owing to lacking political will to reform an antiquated legal system. There are examples of people sentenced and executed based on confessions obtained through the use of torture. And even though torture is not legal in India, it is frequently used according to an EU-financed Indian study. Particularly, the poor marginalised people, i.e. the poor Dalits (outcastes), are victims of torture.

Both countries have taken measures to prevent torture, but many people regard these measures as an attempt to wash their hands vis-à-vis other countries rather than as a sign of a sincere wish for necessary, fundamental changes. For instance, China has drawn up an action plan for human rights which the country does not live up to according to Human Rights Watch. India is passing a long awaited anti-torture law which does, however, not at all satisfy the requirements of the UN Convention against

Freedom from poverty and freedom from torture – reflections on 2010The Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Søren Pind, also calls himself

”Minister of Freedom”, a name he assumed in connection with the launch of

Denmark’s current development strategy Freedom from Poverty Freedom to Change.

In his speech at RCT’s international partnership workshop in November 2010, he

emphasised that the soubriquet also covers freedom from torture!

Jan Ole Haagensen, PhD, Director, International Department

DET INTERNATIONALE ARBEJDE

Minister for Development Cooperation, Søren Pind, visited RCT’s partnership workshop in November. (Photo Anders Bernhoft/RCT)

19WWW.RCT.ORG

Torture, which India has not ratified either. It seems that the acceptance of torture as a necessity is widespread from top to bottom in India – even among Indian judges who were supposed to guarantee a fair trial.

ChangesunderwayintheMiddleEastThe most recent democratic development in several Arab coun-tries, such as Egypt and Tunisia, gives us high hopes for a future free from torture in those countries as well.

Uprising is smouldering in all the Arab countries, including Jordan, where RCT has been working for the past four years. Here the reform process launched by the country may be over-taken by the political development in the region. But the situa-tion is different from country to country in the Middle East and North Africa. We hope that the development in the region will also offer a way out of the deadlock conflict for the Palestinians and Israelis so they can enjoy democracy, freedom and equal op-portunities as well. However, there are no real bright spots here yet, and the Israeli authorities still refuse to allow RCT’s health professionals into Gaza at the time of writing.

MeasuringresultsRCT works hard to produce results of our efforts. It comes natural to us because we keep trying to get better at our work, i.a. by developing tools that show how we can best and least expensively obtain the most effective and sustainable results. This is a chal-lenge in our field as well, where statistics on the prevalence of torture are often not available. RCT is trying to make good this lack of information. In addition, we take great pains to find inter-national experts who can evaluate our and our partners’ work. The experts must challenge and inspire us so we keep getting better.

Consequently, RCT was the subject of major, external evaluations in the Philippines, Jordan and Gaza; the outcome showed consid-erable results of our efforts and promises well for the future work.

IdentificationofgoodpartnerslimitsabuseWe acknowledge the fact that flexibility is important in our field since the political situation keeps changing, thus leading to the arising of some opportunities while others disappear. We con-stantly need to adapt in order to be able to make the best of the scarce resources that are available to us. Finding reliable and com-mitted partners is the most important part of our work if we want to achieve good results. At the same time it also helps prevent abuse. RCT will not tolerate abuse, and neither will our partners. They know that in case of abuse, the regimes may use it in their own examinations of the organisations and close them. Therefore, our partners are very careful and sometimes make higher demands than would be usual. We have built a system which on the one hand helps our partners to establish some good administrative sys-tems and on the other hand works as a measure of quality control.

During the past ten years, we have only had two cases of abuse or poor management of funds. One was from an organisation in Bangladesh where the management used the money for their own benefit. The management was requested to repay the mon-ey themselves and all cooperative relations stopped immediately. Last year we carried out another investigation which showed that a local project coordinator had lost some vouchers for pro-ject activities carried out. That meant a loss which RCT and the local partner had to cover. We try to limit abuse and cheating to make our resources stretch as far as possible. Because there must be no doubt that RCT wants as much freedom from torture for our money as possible!

After the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia ousted the dictatorial rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the anger spread to Egypt where opponents of Hosni Mubarak gathered at the Tahrir Square in Cairo. (Photo Zeinab Mohamed/Kodak Agfa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96884693@N00/5433442038/)


Throughout year 2010, the work of the Rehabilitation Department continued to focus on the interdisciplinary treatment and rehabili-tation of victims of torture and organised violence (TOV). In 2010 RCT was approved by the National Board of Health as a highly specialised centre for treatment of traumatised refugees with par-ticularly complicated medical histories. This further defined our access criteria for rehabilitation, meaning that we focus our efforts on clients who require an interdisciplinary approach.

As a consequence, the Rehabilitation Department went through a management restructuring. Last summer we engaged a deputy manager with special managerial qualifications, a nurse with a master’s degree in public management. As from October 2010 we engaged a new consultant physician with a combination of com-petencies within management, development and research and specialist training in psychiatry, who consequently matches the requirements of our specialisation plan.

In 2009 an extra grant enabled us to cut our waiting-list, which was, however, unchanged in 2010, due to referral of more clients in 2010. The Department has a total of four teams – two indi-vidual, one family team and one group team. The average period of treatment of approx. one year reflects the very complex medi-cal histories the Department works with. We will try to reduce the rehabilitation period to ten effective months of treatment in 2011.

Clients were primarily referred via an assessment based on a special referral form. This means that after a first assessment

many months after referral, clients are often assessed as being better amenable to other treatments that are not of an interdis-ciplinary nature. We try to reduce this waiting time by making preliminary assessments which involve the physical presence of the client and where we define the need for treatment and the possibility of rehabilitation.

Grouprehabilitation

In connection with RCT’s reorganisation of rehabilitation of-fers in 2006, it was decided to introduce group rehabilitation to strengthen the interdisciplinary approach. In addition to utilis-ing the positive effects of group-based intervention, this form of rehabilitation also fulfils a wish for enhanced efficiency.

From 2006 to 2010 there was a total of 11 group processes, five involving Arabic-speaking men, three involving Farsi-speaking men, one involving Bosnian men, one involving Arabic-speaking women and finally a pain school for Arabic-speaking women.

The clients must have sufficient psychological and social resourc-es to be included in group treatment, which requires openness to other clients with regard to one’s problems. In addition, a physi-cal level of function that does not prevent one from participating in the longer group sessions is required. It is also necessary for the client to be sufficiently motivated, and for their cognitive/intellectual resources to be sufficient for the client to be able to benefit from the therapeutic process. A special problem of trau-

2010 in retrospect

REHABILITERING

” The clients have been very positive

to the treatments. They have felt a sense

of community where they are not alone

and where they can learn from each

other and can gradually also talk about

their problems

Gordon Wildschiødtz, Director, Rehabilitation Department

21WWW.RCT.ORG

matised refugees is the fear that personal information disclosed during the rehabilitation is leaked.

Similarly, there are special problems associated with group treatment regarding certain ethnic groups, political views and religious affiliations. This is not only vis-à-vis the other clients, but also vis-à-vis interpreters.

The group treatment may be based on the group dynamic or the psychoeducative method. In some groups we combine the two methods so that the groups work in a group dynamic way once a week for two hours, and work with psychoeducation on another day. A primary therapist and a co-therapist are in charge of the rehabilitation. The psychodynamic approach is used only by a psychologist. Otherwise, both psychologists, physiotherapists, social workers and physicians have been primary therapists, and there is usually always a co-therapist as well. Each session lasts two hours and five to eight clients participate in each group.

The actual contents of the psychoeducative part usually include an introduction to provide an understanding of the migration process-es and the situations experienced as a traumatised refugee. This way an alliance is formed between the individual group members and with the therapists. Even though the offer is psychoeducative, the processes will always include group dynamic elements as well.

The pain school has been particularly extensive and detailed as it is our experience that this is what helps our severely traumatised

clients best. In addition, we have psychoeducation in anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, including particularly nightmares, cognitive problems and affect management.

The physiotherapeutic intervention in the group had the purpose of increasing body-consciousness, improve body control, limit fear of movement, change the perception of pain and pain threshold in order thus to limit the feeling of fatigue and depression.

The clients have been very positive to the treatments. They have felt a sense of community where they are not alone and where they can learn from each other and can gradually also talk about their problems. They tell us that they are gradually able to see other’s problems and this way form part of the actual therapeutic process for each other.

The experience of the team is that it is possible, but demanding, to establish group treatment, and that supervision is important. The treatment providers can primarily concentrate on the psych-oeducative group treatment, but have kept an eye on the group dynamic aspects regularly as well. They do, however, require special supervision and further training. Therapists and clients alike find it meaningful and they all experience the synergy achieved in the treatment by involving several clients at once. The group treatment is logistically demanding and we do not believe that the group treatment is sufficient treatment of the severely traumatised clients. We have generally always supple-mented the group processes with individual treatment.


22

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES

Afana A-H, Pedersen D, Rønsbo H, Kirmayer LJ: Endurance is to be shown at the first blow: social representations and reactions to traumatic experi-ences in the Gaza Strip. Traumatology, 2010, 16 (4): 73-84.

Bandeira M, Higson-Smith C, Bantjes M, Polatin P: The land of milk and honey: a portrait of refu-gee torture survivors presenting for treatment in a South African trauma centre. Torture: Quarterly Journal on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Prevention of Torture, 2010, 20 (2): 92-103.

Brogårdh C, Johansson FW, Nygren F, Sjölund BH: Mode of hand training determines cortical reorgan-isation: a randomized controlled study in healthy adults. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2010, 42 (8): 789-794.

Carlsson JM, Olsen DR, Kastrup M, Mortensen EL: Late mental health changes in tortured refugees in multidisciplinary treatment. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2010, 198 (11): 824-828.

Elsass P, Carlsson J, Husum K: Spiritualitet som coping hos tibetanske torturoverlevere. Ugeskrift for Læger, 2010, 172 (2): 137-140.

Jefferson AM: Prison spaces in Nigeria and Hon-duras: examining proximal and distant social rela-tions. Prison Service Journal, 2010, (187): 34-39.

Jefferson AM: Traversing sites of confinement: post-prison survival in Sierra Leone. Theoretical Criminology, 2010, 14 (4): 387-406.

Jensen S: The security and development nexus in Cape Town: war on gangs, counter-insurgency and citizenship. Security Dialogue, 2010, 41 (1): 77-97.

Jepsen B, Lomborg K, Engberg M: GPs and invol-untary admission: a qualitative study. British Jour-nal of General Practice, 2010, 60 (577): 604-606.

Kimari W, Rasmussen J: “Setting the agenda for our leaders from under a tree”: the People’s Parlia-ment in Nairobi. Nokoko, 2010, 1 (Fall): 131-159.

Kjaerulf F, Barahona R: Preventing violence and reinforcing human security: a rights-based frame-work for top-down and bottom-up action. Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica, 2010, 27 (5): 382-395.

Montgomery E: Trauma and resilience in young refugees: a 9-year follow-up study. Development and Psychopathology, 2010, 22 (2): 477-489.

Nyberg VE, Novo M, Sjölund BH: Do multidimen-sional Pain Inventory Scale score changes indicate risk of receiving sick leave benefits 1 year after a pain rehabilitation programme? Disability and Reha-bilitation, 2010, November 26 [Epub ahead of print].

Nyberg VE, Sanne H, Sjölund BH: Swedish quality registry for pain rehabilitation: purpose, design, implementation and characteristics of referred patients. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2010, October 8 [Epub ahead of print].

Persson AL, Lloyd-Pugh M, Sahlström J: Trained long-term TENS users with chronic non-malignant pain. A retrospective questionnaire study of TENS usage and patients’ experiences. Physical Therapy Reviews, 2010, 15 (4): 294-301.

Polatin PB, Modvig J, Rytter T: Helping to stop doctors becoming complicit in torture (Analysis). BMJ, 2010, 340 (7745): 512-513.

Prip K, Persson AL, Sjölund BH: Self-reported activity in tortured refugees with long-term se-quelae including pain and the impact of foot pain from falanga: a cross-sectional study. Disability and Rehabilitation, 2010, [Epub ahead of print]: 10 p.

Rasmussen J: Mungiki as youth movement: revo-lution, gender and generational politics in Nairobi, Kenya. Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 2010, 18 (3): 301-319.

Rasmussen J: Outwitting the professor of politics?: Mungiki narratives of political deception and their role in Kenyan politics. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2010, 4 (3): 435-449.

Wang S-J, Pacolli S, Rushiti F, Rexhaj B, Modvig J: Survivors of war in the Northern Kosovo (II): base-line clinical and functional assessment and lasting effects on the health of a vulnerable population. Conflict and Health, 2010, 4:16: 13 p.

Wang S-J, Salihu M, Rushiti F, Bala L, Modvig J: Survivors of the war in the Northern Kosovo: violence exposure, risk factors and public health effects of an ethnic conflict. Conflict and Health, 2010, 4:11: 16 p.

EDITED/PEER-REVIEWED BOOKS, REPORTS AND BOOK CHAPTERS

Birkeland SA: Krigens ansigt: danske soldater i Afghanistan. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2010.

Buch L: Derivative presence: loss and lives in limbo in the West Bank. In: Bille M, Hastrup F, Sørensen TF (eds.): An anthropology of absence: materi-alizations of transcendence and loss. New York: Springer, 2010: 83-97.

Jensen S: Treason and contested moralities in a coloured township, Cape Town. In: Thiranagama S, Kelly T (eds.): Traitors: suspicion, intimacy, and the ethics of state-building. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010: 150-168.

Jessen T, Montgomery E: Reception of asylum seeking and refugee children in the Nordic coun-tries: the Danish report. [S.l.]: Nordic Network for Research on Refugee Children; Copenhagen: Reha-bilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT), 2010.

Montgomery E: Rehabilitering af torturoverlevere med PTSD. In: Eplov LF, Korsbek L, Petersen L, Olander M (eds.): Psykiatrisk & psykosocial rehabi-litering: en recoveryorienteret tilgang. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 2010: 161-168.

Persson AL: Sjukgymnastiska behandlingsmetoder. In: Werner M, Leden I (eds.): Smärta och smärtbe-handling. Stockholm: Liber, 2010: 472-481.

OTHER BOOKS, REPORTS AND BOOK CHAPTERS

Rasmussen J: ”The city is our forest!”: the affec-tive urban politics of the Mungiki movement in Nairobi, Kenya. (Africa Programme Report, No. 6). Stockholm: Swedish National Defence College, 2010.

PH.D. THESES

Buch L: Uncanny affect: the ordinary, relations and enduring absence in families of detainees in the Oc-cupied Palestinian Territory. Ph.D. thesis, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Social Sciences, Depart-ment of Anthropology, 2010.

Risør H: Violent closures and new openings: civil insecurity, citizens and state in El Alto, Bolivia. Ph.D. thesis, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, 2010.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND PAPERS

Agger I: Local approaches to healing of trauma: symbolic reparations for victims of human rights violations in Cambodia and India. 21st Annual Inter-national Trauma Conference: Psychological trauma: neuroscience, attachment, and therapeutic interven-tions, 2010, May 19-22, Boston, U.S.

Engberg M: Participation in involuntary admissions I. 19th WONCA World Conference of Family Doctors, 2010, May 19-23, Cancun, Mexico.

Engberg M: Participation in involuntary admissions II. 19th WONCA World Conference of Family Doctors, 2010, May 19-23, Cancun, Mexico.

Engberg M: Torture survivors in general practice. 19th WONCA World Conference of Family Doctors, 2010, May 19-23, Cancun, Mexico.

Haagensen JO: Prevention of Torture and CIDTP in places where people are deprived of their Liberty: RCT - Experiences with NPM. Regional Roundtable on National Preventive Mechanism under OPCAT, Implementation Challenges and the Role of NHRIs, 2010, October 20-21, Crikvenica, Croatia.

Jakobsen SF: What does it take to survive armed conflict?: rules of conduct and perceptions of vio-lence among victims in Colombia. Workshop: The Be-havioural and Cultural Foundations and Consequenc-es of Violence, 2010, June 7-8, Lisbon, Portugal.

Montgomery E: Follow-up studies of refugee chil-dren - state of the art. Seminar: Nordic Network for Research on Refugee Children, 2010, June 3-4, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Persson AL, Alkstrand K: Individualized multimodal group rehabilitation of patients with stressrelated pain disorders. Abstract. 3rd International Confer-ence for Physiotherapy in Psychiatry and Mental Health ICPPMH, 2010, February 3-5, Lund, Sweden.

Persson AL, Klahr A: Teamwork rehabilitation for torture victims at RCT in Copenhagen. Workshop. 3rd International Conference for Physiotherapy in Psychiatry and Mental Health ICPPMH, 2010, Febru-ary 3-5, Lund, Sweden.

Prip K, Persson AL: Self-reported versus observed disability in torture victims with chronic pain using the Disability Rating Index. Abstract. International Associ-ation for the study of pain (IASP) 13th world congress, 2010, August 29-September 2, Montreal, Canada.

Prip K, Persson AL: Self-reported versus observed disability in torture victims with chronic pain us-ing the Disability Rating Index. Abstract. Svenskt Smärtforum, (IASP chapter annual meeting), 2010, October 12-15, Umeå, Sweden.

RCT PUBLICATIONS 2010


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Rønsbo H: Sovereignty, bio-power and the white knight: the codification of power in indigenous narratives from Western El Salvador. International Research Seminar: Sovereignty, Territory and Emerging Geopolitics. Danish Institute for Inter-national Studies, 2010, May 3-4, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Rønsbo H, Paniagua W: The Ethics of Team-Based Research in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies. 11th EASA Biennial Conference, 2010, August 24-27, Maynooth, Ireland.

Sjölund BH, Andersson M: Patient’s experience of parenteral Ketamine injections in chronic non-malignant pain. 17th PRM European Congress / XXXVIII SIMFER National Congress, May 23-27, 2010, Venice, Italy. Abstract: European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 2010, 46 (2) (Suppl. 1): S216.

Wang S-J S: Injury and pain among a war-affected population in Mitrovicë District of Kosovo (I): prevalence and risk factors. 138th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, 2010, Novem-ber 6-10, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

Wang S-J S: Injury and pain among a war-affected population in Mitrovicë District of Kosovo (II): functional assessment of victims. 138th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, 2010, November 6-10, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

Wang S-J S: Prevalence and correlates of injury and pain associated with collective exposure to violence at the Albanian-Serbian frontier ten years after the Kosovo war: abstract. Global Response 2010 – Violent Conflict and Health, 2010, January 22-25, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Wang S-J S: Survivors of the war in the North-ern Kosovo: violence exposure, risk factors and public health effects of an ethnic con-flict. 3rd European Public Health conference, 2010, November 10-13, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Wang S-J S: Survivors of the ethnic conflict in Northern Kosovo (I): violence exposures, risk fac-tors of victimization and long-term health effects. Conflict, peace and integration: 23rd Annual confer-ence of the German Peace Psychology Association, 2010, June 16-18, Bielefeld, Germany.

Wang S-J S: Survivors of the ethnic conflict in Northern Kosovo (II): history of traumatic experi-ence and baseline clinical and functional assess-ment. Conflict, peace and integration: 23rd Annual conference of the German Peace Psychology Asso-ciation, 2010, June 16-18, Bielefeld, Germany.

ARTICLES IN PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS AND SPECIALIST MAGAZINES (NON PEER-REVIEWED)

Engström G: Teamarbete nyckeln till framgångsrik rehabilitering [Interview with Anette Klahr]. Fysi-oterapi, 2010, 10: 24-25.

Gottlieb G, Montgomery E, Seibæk GB: Rungende tavshed om stramninger. Psykolog Nyt, 2010, 64 (12): 28-29.

Hornhaver B: Tortur, der virker [Interview with Karen Prip]. Ny Viden, 2010, no. 7: 5-6.

Jefferson AM: [Book review]: Human rights in Af-rican prisons, edited by J. Sarkin. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008. Journal of Modern African Studies, 2010, 48 (4): 671-672.

Jørgensen PS, Leth I, Montgomery E: Børnekon-ventionen: børn svøbt i ord. Psykolog Nyt, 2010, 64 (22): 16-21.

Magnussen T: Danmark frasorterer de svageste blandt kvoteflygtninge. visAvis, 2010, no. 3: 64-65.

Magnussen T: Den Europæiske Menneskeret-tighedsdomstol stiller danske tvangsudvisninger til Grækenland i bero. Menneskeret & Vrang: Den Dan-ske Helsinkikomites Nyhedsblad, 2010, 10 (3): 5-8.

Magnussen T: Et uretfærdigt og menneskefjendsk finanslovsforslag. Nyhedsbrev, SOS mod Racisme, 2010, 103: 12.

Magnussen T: Mindeord: Jo Eirik Asvall. Ugeskrift for Læger, 2010, 172 (9): 722.

Rønsbo H: Krig og etik i antropologien (Debate). Corpus: gratis magasin for studerende på CSS, 2010, 3: 5.

FEATURE ARTICLES AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO PRINTED NEWS MEDIA

Aagaard-Poulsen DO: Afghanistan overtager den onde tvilling (Opinion). Information [daily newspa-per], 2010, January 29.

Clapp R: Når torturbødler går fri, undermineres demokratiet (Opinion). Information [daily newspa-per], 2010, December 10.

Jørgensen PS, Leth I, Montgomery E: Børnekon-ventionen lever en skyggetilværelse (Feature article). Kristeligt Dagblad [daily newspaper], 2010, Novem-ber 20.

Magnussen T: Bush bør retsforfølges for at accept-ere brugen af tortur (Debate). Politiken [daily news-paper], 2010, November 12 (section 2): 7.

Magnussen T: Danmark kan give menneskeret-tighederne et markant løft (Feature article). Kristeligt Dagblad [daily newspaper], 2010, December 10: 21.

Magnussen T: Går vi ind for hemmelige fængsler? (Opinion). Information [daily newspaper], 2010, October 11 (section 1): 18.

Magnussen T: Honduranske aktivister håber på støtte udefra. Kristeligt Dagblad [daily newspaper], 2010, January 11: 3.

Magnussen T: Husk nu at kæmpe kampen mod tortur, Lene Espersen (Debate). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, June 13 (section 2): 13.

Magnussen T: Hvad luftrummet skjuler: CIA fan-getransporter (Opinion). Berlingske Tidende [daily newspaper], 2010, January 14 [section 2]: 16.

Magnussen T: Indisk tortur-garanti holder ikke (Comment). Berlingske Tidende [daily newspaper], 2010, October 25 (section 2): 11.

Magnussen T: International retsorden på spil i dag (Analysis). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, Febru-ary 5 (section 2): 8.

Magnussen T: Israel skal hæve blokaden af Gaza (Opinion). Berlingske Tidende [daily newspaper], 2010, June 3 (section 2): 12.

Magnussen T: Kampen mod tortur nedprioriteres (Feature article). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, July 9 (section 2): 7-8.

Magnussen T: Luk nu Guantanamo og retsforfølg Bush (Debate). Arbejderen [daily newspaper], 2010, January 13: 9.

Magnussen T: Mindeord [Jo Eirik Asvall]. Berlingske Tidende [daily newspaper], 2010, February 19: 14.

Magnussen T: Mindeord [Jo Eirik Asvall]. Kristeligt Dagblad [daily newspaper], 2010, February 18 (sec-tion 1): 10.

Magnussen T: Obama bør retsforfølge torturans-varlige (Feature article). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, January 11 (section 2): 7-8.

Magnussen T: Obama underminerer FN-konvention (Opinion). Information [daily newspaper], 2010, January 19: 19.

Magnussen T: Ophæv blokaden af Gaza og støt Goldstone-rapporten (Feature article). Kristeligt Dagblad [daily newspaper], 2010, January 18: 9.

Magnussen T: Regeringsgebyr på menneskeret-tigheder (Debate). Berlingske Tidende [daily news-paper], 2010, August 29 (Magasin Søndag): 28.

Magnussen T: Retfærdighed og realpolitik (Feature article). Jyllands-Posten [daily newspaper], 2010, March 18 (section 2): 22.

Magnussen T: Torturhæleri (Debate). Jyllands-Posten, 2010, July 15.

Magnussen T: Torturofre har ikke brug for pisk (Debate). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, January 29 (section 2): 9.

Magnussen T: Torturofre i klemme i den nye udlændingeaftale (Debate). Politiken [daily newspa-per], 2010, March 17 (section 2): 9.

Magnussen T: Vi skal tage Amnestys kritik af Danmark meget alvorligt (Debate). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, May 31 (section 2): 7.

Midtgaard B, Magnussen T: Torturofre skal rehabili-teres og integreres – ikke isoleres (Debate). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, February 17 (section 2): 6.

Montgomery E, Magnussen T: Skader både børn og integration (Letter). Berlingske Tidende [daily newspaper], 2010, October 4 (section 2): 10.

Olsen ER: Man kan blive tvangsbehandlet af læger i Danmark (Feature article). Information [daily news-paper], 2010, March 24.

Olsen ER, Nielsen H: RCT’s torturbehandling under-kendes (Feature article). Politiken [daily newspaper], 2010, May 11 (section 2): 7-8.

Rønsbo H: Gestapo udliciterede også torturen til lokale (Opinion). Information [daily newspaper], 2010, October 29 (section 1): 20. Wendt E, Wamsler L: Fattigdommens efternavn er tortur (Feature article). Kristeligt Dagblad [daily newspaper], 2010, May 14.



24

DONATIONS AND PLEDGES OF SUPPORT 2010

RCT has gratefully received the following donations and funding from Danish foundations andendowments (where no purpose is specified, the amount has been donated to general work).

Fabrikant Mads Clausens FondDKK 9,000

Aase og Ejnar Danielsens FondDKK 100,000 DKK

Læge Sofus Carl Emil Friis og hustru Olga Doris Friis’ LegatPledge of DKK 50,000 for the PhD research project Falanga Torture, Disability, Pain Mechanisms and Behavioural Consequences

FLS Industries A/S GavefondDKK 15,000

Tømmerhandler Johannes Fogs FondDKK 20,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

ForsvarschefenDKK 15,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Georg og Johanne Harders LegatDKK 2,000

Ferd. og Ellen Hindsgauls Almennyttige FondDKK 25,000 for leisure activities for children of families undergoing treatment at RCT

Ernst og Vibeke Husmans Fond/Frantz Hoffmanns MindelegatDKK 20,000 for the hosting of network meeting in Copenhagen, 19-21 May, 2010, in the European Network for Rehabilitation Centres for Torture Survivors

Generalkonsul Einar Høyvalds Fond DKK 65,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Kammeraternes HjælpefondDKK 5,000 for the research project Sænket af tyskerne. Danske krigssejlere 1939-45

Kunstrådets BibliotekspuljeDKK 100,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Statens Kunstråd/Kunststyrelsen, LitteraturudvalgetDKK 150,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens FondDKK 40,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Novo Nordisk FondenDKK 50,000 for research in 2010 and DKK 85,000 for research in 2011

Det Obelske FamiliefondDKK 25,000

Det Obelske FamiliefondDKK 25,000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Bodil Pedersen FondenDKK 15,000

Susi og Peter Robinsohns FondDKK 10,000

Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) GavefondDKK 30,000

Erik og Martha Scheibels LegatDKK 2,000

Chr. Sørensens MindefondDKK 30.000 for the research project The Face of War - Stories of Danish Soldiers after Returning from War Zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Research contribution Global Prisons Research NetworkDKK 7,500

TESTAMENTARY GIFTS

Estate after Alfred Kjærgaard JensenDKK 37,140

Estate after Marianne HammerDKK 50,000

MiscellaneousChristianshavns KFUMDKK 5,500

Dansk SygeplejerådDKK 10,000

Lærerstandens BrandforsikringDKK 7,500

Contributions from private individualsDKK 168,835

Although much of RCT’s national and international activity in 2010 was funded by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of the criteria for the receipt of public funding is that other RCT activities must be privately funded. The donations listed above have, therefore, been invaluable to the work of the RCT. The Centre would like to express its gratitude for both the financial support and all the other support it has received in 2010.

It is of great importance to our clients, the torture victims, that the RCT enjoys the financial support of the Danish people.


Annual accounts, RCT January 1 – December 31, 2010

Income Amounts in 1,000 DKK

The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Framework Agreement 48,000

Additional expenditures, Framework Agreement 143

Rehabilitation 18,705

Individual projects in the South 6,617

Contributions, others 5,015

Pools revenue 239

Other income 2,086

Total Income 80,805

Expenditures Amounts in 1,000 DKK

RCT’s policy and organisational development 814

Rehabilitation 19,009

Prevention and advocacy 2,913

Information and communication 2,770

Research and documentation 20,671

TOV and development projects in the South 33,613

Planning and support 2,534

Total expenditures 82,324

Total income 80,805

Total expenditures 82,324

Result operations -1,519

Income financing 618

Result financing 798

Net result of the year -901

Project expenditure in 2010 Amounts in 1,000 DKK

Expenditure , individual projects

Rehabilitation, Jordan 3,418

KARAMA, Jordan 2,919

EU-financed project, Sri Lanka, Asia 280

6,617

Projects in the South, within the framework agreement with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

ARCT, Albania 368

KRCT, Kosovo 178

CSVR, South Africa 2,039

Zimbabwean TOV survivors, South Africa 1,346

CAPS, Sierra Leone 1,969

Others West Africa 651

CPTRT, Honduras 2,649

ODHAG, Guatemala 2,585

GCMHP, Gaza 2,264

Human Rights, Sri Lanka 151

AHRC, Hong Kong/Sri Lanka 1,230

BALAY, Philippines 1,683

OPCAT, Asia 102

PVCHR, India 541

India, other 187

TPO, Cambodia 90

18,033

Total expenditure 24,650

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ANNUAL ACCOUNTS

Total expenditures distributed among Focal Areas Project expenditures distributed among Geographical Areas

Latin Amerika: 5,234

Middle East: 8,601

Asia: 4,264

Eastern Europe: 546

Africa: 6,005

23.09%

3.54%

3.36%

25.11%

40.83%

3.08% 0.99%

Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT)

Borgergade 13P.O. Box 2107DK-1014 Copenhagen KPhone: +45 33 76 06 00Fax: +45 33 76 05 10e-mail: [email protected]

Documents

RCT Annual Report 2010