Survivors of Torture Rewrite the Rules 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   May 2026   States must act to protect Civilians in Armed Conflict   Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict is a Responsibility that Member States and the UN Security Council Must Uphold. Statement by Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC):   "As the Protection of Civilians Week unfolds in New York, we strongly condemn and raise the alarm about the growing and blatant violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law meant to protect civilians in armed conflict.   Across conflicts, civilians, including children, are killed, injured, and displaced at an alarming scale. Sexual violence is used as a tactic of war, overwhelmingly affecting women and girls and devastating lives. Homes, schools, places of worship, hospitals, including maternal wards, are destroyed or damaged, as are civilian infrastructure and assets, such as water systems, transport network, markets, food production. Essential services are collapsing. Forced displacement is accelerating.   Conflict-induced hunger and famine are spreading, often driven by unlawful siege tactics, starvation, and the arbitrary denial of humanitarian access. This is happening despite the existence of clear obligations under International Humanitarian Law and the framework reaffirmed by UN Security Council resolution 2417 (2018), which condemns the deliberate starvation of civilians and the use of hunger as method of warfare.   And a decade after the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2286 (2016) that demands the protection of the wounded, sick, and medical personnel, violence, attacks and threats against healthcare workers and facilities continue with impunity. More than 10,000 incidents against health care facilities and workers have been verified to date.   Aid workers are also under attack and killed in unprecedented numbers. More than 1,000 humanitarian colleagues have been killed over the past three years. Many others are arbitrarily detained. Often the first to respond, staff from national and local organisations and community initiatives pay an unacceptably high toll. Many women-led-organisations addressing lifesaving protection and gender-based violence are being attacked.   From Gaza to El Fasher, and from Kharkiv to Beirut, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is devastating civilian lives. At the same time, new technologies, including drones and artificial intelligence, are reshaping warfare and expanding the battlefield.   Wars have rules that apply to all parties to conflict. The problem is not a lack of law. The problem is the failure to uphold them consistently, the erosion of accountability and inaction, even in the face of atrocities.   Protecting civilians is a legal obligation and a moral imperative. For the sake of our shared humanity, rules that protect civilians must be upheld.   http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-iasc-protecting-civilians-armed-conflict-responsibility-member-states-and-un http://www.unocha.org/news/un-heads-condemn-failure-protect-civilians-growing-threats-their-security   20 May 2026   Briefing to the UN Security Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict - by Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division for OCHA, on behalf of Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:   "One civilian was killed approximately every 14 minutes in 2025. These are only the deaths that the United Nations could document across 20 armed conflicts. We know the real toll is far higher in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sudan, in Ukraine, in the occupied Palestinian territory and beyond.   I saw some of this devastation myself over the past year during my visits to countries affected by war.   Civilians, including children, are killed in their homes, in markets, at work, at school, on roads, and while fleeing for safety. All too often, they are not collateral damage. They are the target.   Explosive weapons continue to tear through towns and cities, destroying not only lives but the systems that sustain them such as power grids, water networks, schools, and hospitals.   Health care is under attack. Ten years after this Council adopted Resolution 2286 on the protection of health care in armed conflict, the situation has only gotten worse.   In 2025, the United Nations recorded more than 1,350 attacks on medical care across 18 conflicts. Hospitals and ambulances were hit. Medical personnel were killed, detained, intimidated, or criminalized simply for doing their jobs.   Conflict‑driven hunger has deepened. 147 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2025, driven largely by armed conflict. Two famines were confirmed – not because food was unavailable, but because of the way parties conducted hostilities, used siege tactics, and denied humanitarian access. Food has become a weapon of war.   Sexual violence remains widespread. The United Nations reported over 9,300 cases last year – the overwhelming majority women and girls – many of whom will struggle to get the basic assistance they need. We know that number unfortunately is much higher.   Children are abducted and recruited to fight. Too many are injured and killed – a direct result of the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas. Information and Communication Technology, including social media, is used to abduct, to extort, and recruit children.   Journalists are targeted. According to UNESCO (the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 186 journalists were killed while covering wars and conflict zones between 2022 and 2025 – a 67 per cent increase compared to the period 2018-2021.   Persons with disabilities are left behind when bombs fall and warnings fail.   Last month, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, briefed this Council on attacks against humanitarian workers. Since then, eight more colleagues were confirmed killed in 2025. Already in 2026, 144 humanitarian workers have been reported killed, injured, abducted or detained as they try to serve those in need.   New technologies are intensifying these risks. Armed drones and artificial intelligence are accelerating the pace and reach of violence, often in densely populated areas. The use of drones increased by 4,000 per cent from 2020 to 2024 across conflicts. The impact is not only physical. The impact is psychological – constant fear, constant disruption. The consequences for children are alarming.   None of this is inevitable. These patterns are the result of choices. The choice by parties of conflict to ignore their obligations to protect civilians, and, too often, to target them.   The choice by some to adopt increasingly permissive interpretations of international humanitarian law, hollowing out the very rules designed to protect civilians during war. The choice to subordinate the protection of civilians to claims of military necessity or exceptional threat. The choice to let impunity prevail.   The choice to harness technology to increase lethality, sow devastation, and spread misinformation, instead of using it to better protect civilians.   And the choice to attack the United Nations Charter, humanitarian norms, and the tools built over decades – that extraordinary scaffolding meant to protect people from and during war.   My message to this Council and to the United Nations membership is simple: there is another path. Other choices are possible. They must be made. They must be made because protecting civilians, ensuring respect for the law, and ending impunity is not only a legal and moral obligation.   It is also in Member States’ shared interest. In a world where conflicts are rising and rearmament is accelerating, unrestrained force and unapologetic brutality do not make anyone safer. They put everyone at risk.   Those who believe war will never reach them, their families, or their people are living in a dangerous illusion. War does not respect borders. It does not respect privileges.   So, the law exists. The tools exist. What is needed now is the resolve, the leadership, the courage, and the moral clarity to hold the line and to push it forward.   Protecting civilians requires more than expressions of concern. Protecting civilians requires genuine commitment that translates into concrete action. To uphold the United Nations Charter and prevent disagreements from escalating into armed conflict.   To ensure respect for international humanitarian law, without exceptions, without selectivity, regardless of who the parties are. No reinterpretation. No exceptionalism. No double standards.   To avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and call out those who raze entire cities to the ground. To stop the transfer of weapons when there is a clear risk they will be used against civilians. To safeguard medical care, humanitarian personnel and journalists; not stigmatize them, not criminalize them.   To keep human control over the use of force. To steer AI and technology toward greater, not lesser, protection of civilians. To help victims seek justice. And to end impunity.   Protecting civilians in armed conflict is not charity. It is the minimum that humanity and civilization require. It is central to peace and security.   It is a responsibility of this Council and of every Member State that signed the United Nations Charter. And it is what many people around the world expect the Member States of the United Nations to do. It cannot be outsourced, it cannot be postponed, it cannot be diluted. It is the choice we have to make, now.   http://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-tells-security-council-protecting-civilians-cannot-be-outsourced-postponed-or-diluted http://www.unocha.org/news/over-1000-aid-workers-killed-often-hands-member-states-un-relief-chief-demands-action http://www.icrc.org/en/statement/icrc-president-un-security-council-open-debate-protection-civilians-armed-conflict 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 http://globalprotectioncluster.org/publications/2474/communication-materials/advocacy-note/poc-advocacy-note-civilian-protection-2026 http://civiliansinconflict.org/press-releases/joint-civil-society-statement-ahead-of-the-2026-open-debate-on-the-protection-of-civilians-in-armed-conflict/   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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