OSCE Mission calls for adequate resources to help rehabilitate torture victims

PRISTINA, 26 June 2006 - The Acting Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Jens Modvig, marked the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture today by calling for rehabilitation resources to be made available to torture victims and their families.

"It is crucial to ensure that rehabilitation resources, including medical, psychological and legal components, are made available all the time because the aim of torture is to break down the victim's personality," Modvig said.

"Side by side, the international community and stakeholders in Kosovo need to continue addressing torture, the former by providing assistance and the latter by making adequate human and financial resources available."

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo today participated in a conference organized in Prishtine/Pristina by the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims in order to mark this day.

"The right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is a right that cannot be subject to any limitation, anywhere, under any condition," said Katia Chirizzi, Deputy Director of the Mission's Department of Human Rights and Rule of Law.

In 1997, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 26 June as the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. On that day 10 years earlier the Convention against Torture came into force.