With an objective to build the capacity of doctors to better document torture, particularly interviewing torture survivors, Advocacy Forum (AF), in collaboration with REDRESS and Nepal Judicial Academy (NJA), organized a three-day training (7-10 January 2011) on Istanbul Protocol. Training also aimed to enhance knowledge on the consequences of torture from a medical, psychological and evidentiary perspective.
Participated by altogether 58 stakeholders including doctors, judges, police personnel, public prosecutors, defense lawyers and human rights defenders, the training was the fourth of its kind organized by AF based on the experience that may claims for torture compensation fail because of the poor medical documentation.
The training also forms a part of AF’s wider campaign to establish accountability in the cases of torture. AF believes that swift access to medical professionals for all detainees could ensure greater clarity in cases where a detainee or relatives claim torture or ill-treatment and police claim injuries were sustained prior to arrest.
AF has noted a significant improvement in standards of medico-legal documentation by doctors who had participated in the earlier training.
