Medici Contro la Tortura offers care and support to the victims of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment, no matter what their country of origin.
Torture is not just about extracting a confession; its goal is also to destroy the victim, to stifle a voice and a story. The plight of someone who has undergone torture and other inhuman, degrading treatment can be even worse when the physical traces of this violence are less visible. That is what torturers do: they build a wall of incomprehension between torture victims and the community in which they find themselves. Torture is all the more devastating when it cannot be conveyed to others, and the torturer’s most effective accomplice is silence. The silence that surrounds it, and above all, the silence forced on the victim. That is why treating victims of torture first and foremost means giving them back the power of expression. Reclaiming words, in order to tell their own story, is the only path back to the realm of humanity from which torturers have brutally expelled them.
That is the goal of MCT’s work: to give a voice back to those who have been persecuted for their ideas, for their identity (ethnic, national etc.), for their religious faith or social class, for their sexual orientation or gender identity, and to those who have been robbed of human dignity.
In keeping with its mission statement, Medici Contro la Tortura offers treatment to people whose bodies and minds bear the traces of the violence they suffered in their home countries, while on their journey (on which they often risked their lives), or once they reached Italy (which all too often does not offer the most basic standards of assistance). It takes responds to their primary needs, offering medical, psychological, and social assistance. It provides long-term, across-the-board support geared toward the rehabilitation of the most vulnerable victims. It networks with other associations specifically dedicated to refugee aid. It helps victims access healthcare and social services. It documents and denounces current practices of torture, which is systematically employed in many countries, even though every nation in the world now officially declares itself opposed to these forms of abuse.
