Vice-Chairperson of INGO “Committee Against Torture” Olga Sadovskaya has taken part in the Geneva Forum organized by the OMCT. The Forum has opened today and will close this evening.
(Photo: ОМСТ)
Reports and discussions of the first day highlighted the issues of effective investigation of tortures, effective legal remedies for torture victims, compensation of moral damage, etc. Besides, yesterday there was an election as a result of which Olga Sadovskaya has become member of the OMCT General Assembly.
On the second day of the Forum the CAT representative will deliver a report entitled “Legal instruments of fighting impunity for tortures” and speak about the experience of INGO “Committee Against Torture” in this sphere. She will also dwell on the Joint Mobile Groups method which can be used for investigation of human rights violations in dangerous regions, as exemplified by the Group consisting of representatives of Russian human rights NGOs which has been working in Chechnya since November 2009.
You may remember that the Group was formed to collect accurate and verified information about human rights violations in the Chechen Republic. Moreover, the Group aims at disclosing the reasons for ineffective investigation into tortures and abductions by law enforcers in Chechnya. The fact that such investigations are ineffective is routinely established by the ECtHR in its judgments.
“The World Organization Against Torture is one of the largest organizations working in the sphere of torture prevention around the world. Our Committee has years of successful experience of cooperation with OMCT, in the first place, in the context of urgent protection measures for torture victims at risk. Lives of several our victims have been virtually saved by the OMCT “Urgent Assistance” programme, since right after applying to the OMCT we had a chance to evacuate victims to different regions, thus ensuring required security, – Olga Sadovskaya said.