مركز النديم لتأهيل ضحايا العنف والتعذيب

Year of publication: 2007

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This booklet is the third report produced by El Nadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of victims of Violence and torture. It includes all center activities between 2003 and 2006.

Our ambition has always been to produce an annual report. However, we were not successful in doing so in view of the rapid development of events, the pressure of daily work and the difficulty for a staff member to work full time or the collection of the annual material, its classification, and editing to be produced as a booklet. He tried to fill this gap through the production of smaller booklets that address one or the other aspect of our work. We produced a book on
women in detention centers, another on the role of physicians in preventing torture and documenting its effects, a third one documenting the massacre committed against Sudanese refugees by the Egyptian police in December 2005, a another on torture in Sudan and a fifth booklet carrying the testimonies of the citizens of Arish, which Egyptian security authorities turned into a big detention center.

All of those publications carry the testimonies of the Nadim staff and its activities whether inside or outside the center, reaching out to victims of police violence, whether individual or collective.
The present report includes all center activities related to torture and collective state violence during the years 2003-2006. Although those years have witnessed the beginning of a political stir demanding democracy and justice, they have also, or may be because of that, witnessed an escalation of two forms of oppressive policies and police violations, some of which we document in this report.

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Prevention
Through Documentation

Workshop
organized
by El Nadim and IRCT

Ain
Sokhna - Egypt

23-26
November 2007

The workshop "Prevention through Documentation" mainstreaming the use of the Istanbul protocol was organized in collaboration between El Nadim center and IRCT in the city of Ain Sokhna - Egypt in the period between the 23^rd and 26^th of November 2007. the workshop was preceded by a three months preparation period which was coordinated by Dr. Ragia El Gerzawy, physician at El Nadim center in cooperation of a national training team consisting of Dr. Shawki El Akabawi, Professor of Psychiatry and former chairperson of the neuropsychiatric department at Al Azhar university, Dr. Hisham Farag, Director of Forensic medicine in Kafr El Sheikh governorate, Mr. Mahmoud Qandik, independent lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Ahmed Seif human rights activist and lawyer and founder of Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Dr. Mona Hamed and Dr. Aida Seif El Dawla from Nadim center. The workshop was joined by an international training team consistent of Ms. Hulya Uspinar, lawyer and activist form Turkey and member of the team who developed the Istanbul protocol and Dr. Rusudan, Professor of Forensic medicine and ice Dean of the university of Georgia. Representing IRCT was Ms. Susanne Kjer.

Identification
cards and preliminary assessment of participants

Originally published in TORTURE Volume 17 November 2007

by Basma M. Abdel Aziz, M.Psych., M.Neur.

Abstract

This article is concerned with the increasing prevalence of torture in Egypt. Torture is a widespread problem in Egypt, being practiced in the majority of police stations and state security places. It has become a routine practice and is seen daily on a systematic basis. The number of people who are subjected every month to torture is unimaginable. In addition, there are deaths that occur as a result of the torture. However, the Egyptian govern- ment does not give clear answers about the issue. Everyone could be exposed to torture, and for different, illogic reasons. The case of Bany Mazar is a horribly clarifying one. The unclear political situation and the absence of democracy play the main role in the highly increasing rate of torture in Egypt.

In the face of the spreading phenomenon of systematic torture in Egypt. The  Nadim Centre in collaboration with the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) organized a training course for doctors and lawyers on the medical documentation of the effects of torture and ways to reparation in the light of domestic and international law. This was done under the criteria of the Istanbul Protocol. The training session was held from 22nd till the 26th November.

This training addressed the definition of the Istanbul Protocol and the value of its application. The sitiuation of torture in Egypt and ways of litigation available in Egypt, it also addressed international standards for the definition of torture and its prohibition and responsibilities of states towards the international conventions prohibiting torture.

In the medical side the international and national standards of ethical and legal responsibility of medical professionals towards detainee's right to physical and mental health were discussed. Toghether with training on how to write a detailed medical report on the physical injuries and the psychological effects of torture in accordance with the guidelines of the Istanbul Protocol.

The participants highlighted the disparity between the effective documenation methods needed to protect the right of victims of torture and what happens in real life. Both in the medical or legal aspect.  Furthermore, participants recommended that the experience shared during the workshop to be dessiminated for both health professionals and lawyers, along with training courses to accommodate larger numbers participants from those fields.