Survivors of Torture Rewrite the Rules Banning It by Alice Edwards UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment   May 2026   There is no shortage of cases of torture in the headlines. The details are grim, as always: Abuse behind closed doors, lives irrevocably altered, justice pursued years — sometimes decades — too late. Across today’s crises, from Ukraine to Sudan, Myanmar to Gaza, allegations of torture and ill treatment are especially graphic.   But once a legal case closes or the news cycle moves on, another story begins. It is quieter and less visible: What happens to those who survive torture.   As the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, I have met survivors from all walks of life and from across the world — in rehabilitation centers, refugee communities and legal clinics — who carry its effects long after the physical wounds have healed.   What they have told me is that after they survive torture, they must confront a second struggle: To be believed, to gain access to care, to navigate complex institutions and to obtain legal recognition. Survivors spoke about the stigma, economic struggles and the breakdown of relationships.   International law is rightly proud of the absolute prohibition of torture. It is one of the clearest, most universally accepted norms we have: there are no justifications, no exceptions, no circumstances under which it is permitted. The right to rehabilitation and reparation is also well established in international human rights law.   Yet while the world has banned torture, survivors are often neglected or sidelined. A new charter written by people who have experienced this most violent of crimes sets out their demands to the world to help them recover.   Countries are obliged not only to prevent torture, but also to ensure that victims receive redress, including the means for as full a recovery as possible. Yet there is a profound gap between the prohibition against torture and being truly free from its torment.   Too often, torture is treated as an event — something that happens in a prison cell, an interrogation room or a conflict zone — and ends when the abuse stops. That is far from survivors’ realities.   People tortured as children may still bear the shame as adults. Individuals with permanent disabilities caused by torture must navigate this constant reminder and double burden.   Shireen Khudeeda, a Yazidi child survivor of sexual enslavement by the terrorist group Daesh and a human rights defender, spoke to me about how her suffering continues while members of her community taken by the terrorists remain unaccounted for. Ten years later, around 2,600 Yazidi and other victims have not been found.   A former Bahraini politician, Jawad Fairooz, described how after enduring 45 days of beatings, torture and solitary confinement, he was stripped of his nationality while visiting Britain, a secondary punishment that has long-lasting effects on his life to this day.   Another survivor, Donatien Ndabigeze, narrowly escaped an execution attempt that killed his wife and cousin and that was perpetrated by Burundian soldiers at his home in Bujumbura. He told me that waiting for justice can be “unbearable.”   Which seems to be the goal of some governments, hoping that through delays and unreasonable procedural formalities, survivors and their legal claims will go away.   Similar stories of the profound impact of torture have been shared with me, and I have met hundreds of survivors during my mandate. Over the past three years, I convened regional hearings — in Bogota, Nairobi and Kathmandu — which brought together 42 survivors from 36 different nationalities. A further 120 survivor-led organizations as well as individuals wrote to my mandate about how survivor care and consultation could be improved.   From these conversations, the first global Charter of Rights for Victims and Survivors of Torture and other cruelty was born, which I presented to the 61st session of the Human Rights Council in March.   The Charter sets out a practical framework, a kind of bill of rights, for what justice and recovery should look like from survivors’ perspectives. The Charter insists on access to specialized healthcare; long-term psychological support; legal recognition; financial stability; human-centered justice; truth-telling and reconciliation. Above all, they are demanding to participate in decisions that affect their lives.   At the heart of the Charter is a clear, consistent position: Survivors are calling for meaningful involvement in designing laws, policies, humanitarian programs and rehabilitation services not as an afterthought but as equal partners.   Involvement would include formalizing their role in national and international efforts, ensuring diverse voices are represented, including women and other marginalized survivors, and providing direct funding to survivor-led organizations, so they can engage effectively.   The UN has built a powerful legal and moral consensus against torture. The Survivors’ Charter is the missing piece in the global campaign to end torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It represents an historic shift, from law written about survivors, to norms shaped by them.   Resounding support was expressed for the Charter by countries speaking at the Human Rights Council in March, alongside supportive statements from the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and civil society organizations.   My ambition is that this document will become an internationally endorsed standard, complementary to the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on right to a remedy and reparation for atrocity crimes.   For survivors, this step is not abstract. It is about whether they can sleep at night. Whether they can work. Whether their societies can heal. And whether they can regain the lives they had hoped to lead.   The question now is which countries and international organizations are prepared not only to condemn torture but also to stand with — and learn from — those who have survived it.   * Alice Edwards is grateful to the International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of Torture and the World Organization Against Torture, as well as local organizations that hosted survivor hearings: the Corporación Centro de Atención Psicosocial (Psychosocial Care Center) of Colombia, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit and the Mwatikho Torture Survivors Foundation of Kenya and the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal (TPO Nepal).   http://passblue.com/2026/05/05/survivors-of-torture-rewrite-the-rules-banning-it/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/new-survivors-charter-sets-out-global-blueprint-justice-after-torture http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/torture/sr/charter-victims-survivors-en.pdf http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6142-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading-treatment-or
	Killing humanitarians is part of a broader attack on international humanitarian law by OCHA, Inter-Agency Standing Committee, UNICEF   11 April 2026   End impunity for violations of the rules of war - Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee   "We are alarmed by the sustained violations of the rules of war and international humanitarian law.   In just the last month across the Middle East, thousands of civilians have been killed and injured. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, many multiple times. The numbers continue to rise and essential services are increasingly difficult to access.   Health workers, hospitals and ambulances have been targeted. Schools have been struck. Civilian infrastructure – including bridges, residential buildings, houses, water facilities and power plants – has been destroyed.   This leaves us especially concerned about women and children and others with specific needs. Global supply chains are also impacted, with food and fuel prices on the rise.   Our humanitarian colleagues have been caught up in the hostilities. Aid workers have been killed or injured in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in Iran and in Lebanon in alarming numbers, national staff and local organizations, working courageously on the humanitarian front lines every day.   We strongly condemn all attacks on civilians, including humanitarian and health workers, as well as civilian objects. We demand that all parties – whether Member States of the United Nations or armed groups – respect their legal obligation to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel, and civilian infrastructure.   All violations must be met with accountability. Even wars have rules, and these rules must be respected".   http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-end-impunity-violations-rules-war-0 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee http://www.icrc.org/en/statement/icrc-ifrc-world-red-cross-red-crescent-day-call-uphold-protections-civilians-medical-personnel-humanitarian-workers-communities-depend-on   New York, 8 April 2026   Statement to the United Nations Security Council by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, pursuant to resolution 2730 (2024) on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and the protection of United Nations and associated personnel:   "In 2025, at least 326 humanitarians were recorded as killed across 21 countries, bringing the total number of humanitarians killed in three years to over 1,010.   We recognise, grieve and honour each of our 326 colleagues, and commit the work ahead to their memory.   Of those over 1,000 deaths, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   That number – over 1,000 – compares to 377 recorded as killed globally over the previous three years – so that’s almost tripling the death count.   This is not an accidental escalation – it is the collapse of protection.   These humanitarians were killed while distributing food, water, medicine, shelter. They died in clearly marked convoys and on missions coordinated directly with authorities.   And, too often, they were killed by Member States of the United Nations.   Humanitarians know we face risks. It is the nature of our work, the places in which we operate.   These deaths are not because we are reckless with our lives. They are because parties to the conflict are reckless with our lives.   So, on behalf of over a thousand dead humanitarians and their families, we ask: why?   Is it because the world no longer believes in Security Council resolution 2730, in which you spoke with such moral urgency about ending violence against humanitarians?   Is it because international humanitarian law, forged by a generation of wiser political leaders for just such a time as this, is no longer convenient?   Is it because it is more important to protect those designing, selling, supplying and firing lethal weapons – including drones, cyber tools, artificial intelligence – than protecting us?   Is it because those killing us feel no cost for their actions? How many were prosecuted? How many of their leaders resigned? On how many investigations did the UN Security Council insist? Were you ever selective in your outrage?   Or is it because Member States see these numbers as collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Or worse, are we now seen as legitimate targets?   And perhaps the most chilling question: if these deaths were ‘preventable,’ why then were they not prevented?   Over 110 Member States have chosen to act together through the political declaration on the protection of humanitarians.   Yet across multiple crises, humanitarians are not just being killed. Our action is being restricted, penalized, delegitimized. We are told where not to go, whom not to help.   We are harassed or arrested for doing our job. And we are lied about – and those lies have these consequences.   And, of course, when humanitarians are harmed, aid often stops. Clinics close, food doesn’t arrive.   In Yemen, 73 UN and dozens of NGO personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthis. In Afghanistan and Yemen, women humanitarians are prevented from doing their jobs. In Gaza, Israel restricts UN agencies and international NGOs. In Myanmar, insecurity and access constraints cut off aid to over 100,000 people in a single month.   And in Ukraine, drone attacks have forced aid groups to pull back from frontline communities.   In all these cases, the results of the deaths of humanitarians is too often the death of hope for millions who rely on them.   These trends, alongside the collapse in funding for our lifesaving work, are a symptom of a lawless, bellicose, selfish and violent world. Killing humanitarians is part of the broader attack on the UN Charter and on international humanitarian law.   International humanitarian law was never, and is not now, an academic exercise. In honour of our colleagues killed, and in solidarity with those now risking their lives, we ask you to act with much greater conviction, consistency and courage.   I normally conclude with three asks of this Council. But it seems insulting to over one thousand colleagues killed to echo back to you the commitments of SCR 2730: protection, integrity, accountability.   We come here not to remind you of these commitments, but to challenge you to uphold them. Because if we cast aside these hard-won principles, then the integrity of this Council, and the laws we are here to protect, die with our colleagues".   http://www.unocha.org/news/over-1000-aid-workers-killed-often-hands-member-states-un-relief-chief-demands-action http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/04/1167267
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