Today, on 30 August 2007 the INGO Committee Against Torture celebrates its seventh birthday. The last year was very fruitful. The Committee received the status of an interregional organization what will provide for an expansion of the area of work and assistance to a greater number of people. Members of the Committee actively worked in the sphere of legal enlightenment of law enforcement officers, provided legal protection to victims of unlawful actions of dishonest policemen and prosecution officials. Lawyers of the Committee represented the interests of victims in courts of different instances – from district courts to the European Court. Experts of INGO CAT are going to continue their work on providing victims of unlawful actions of law enforcement officers with assistance in the future. We will not stop granting legal and medical aid to victims of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. We will continue public investigations into human rights violations and we won’t leave victims unprotected before courts. The Committee Against Torture throughout the seven years of its work has been a publicly open organization as a matter of principle and will continue to be such in the future: we will continue informing society about our activities, abuses on the part of law enforcement officers, and how an ordinary person can protect his or her rights and lawful interests.
Experts of the Committee will continue to stand guard over human rights, standards of European law and provisions of the Russian Constitution.