«Human Rights Defenders» web portal now features the section of one more human rights organization – «The Committee Against Torture»
«Human Rights Defenders» project authors:
The Committee Against Torture has been working since 2000. It involves lawyers, journalists, medical doctors and people of other professions who stand for real prohibition of torture in Russia. It means that any official, representing the state authority and performing in the official status, who failed to prevent random violence, shall be adequately punished in accordance with the law, and torture victims shall receive a just compensation from the state. The Committee Against Torture renders legal and medical assistance to victims of torture.
Igor Kalyapin, head of CAT: «When we established the organization the term «torture» provoked a rather strange reaction. People were asking: «Against what? Against torture? Are we living in the Middle Ages or what?» But we answered, — «They beat people up in the militia». And people answered, — «Well, they beat up, but not torture!». The term “torture” caused a surprise and demanded explanation. And no-one ever expressed surprise at the fact that the police can beat up and the attitude was appropriate: «Well, beating is just a beating, not crippling, thank goodness!».
48% of citizens of Russia are afraid to be subjected to torture in case if they find themselves in custody, these are the results of the poll made in 2014 by GlobeScan at the commission of human rights organization Amnesty International.
21.3% of the respondents gave a positive answer to the question: «Can you ever remember the cases of the police officers applying violence to you which you would define as illegal?» in the poll by the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Committee Against Torture. It means that every fifth Russian citizen has been subjected to torture.
http://hragents.org/org/kpp/ – see the video chronicle of work, read the interview with the members of the Committee Against Torture (CAT).
http://hragents.org/#menu/persons – Olga Sadovskaya, Dmitry Utoukin and Igor Kalyapin are telling about their personal choice of specifying on the subject of torture and illegal violence by the officials.
http://hragents.org/time/tl-kpp/#period – milestone events, figures and dates.
Web site of the project www.hragents.org