34/17 United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture - Report of the Secretary-General

GE.16-21813(E)



Human Rights Council Thirty-fourth session

27 February-24 March 2017

Agenda item 2

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the

High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture

Report of the Secretary-General

Summary

The present report, which complements the report of the Secretary-General on the

activities of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture submitted to the

General Assembly at its seventy-first session (A/71/289), provides information on the

activities of the Fund and describes in particular the recommendations for grants adopted

by the Board of Trustees of the Fund at its forty-fourth session, held in Geneva from 3 to 7

October 2016.

United Nations A/HRC/34/17

I. Introduction

A. Submission of the report

1. The present report was prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 70/146

and complements the report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the United Nations

Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (A/71/289). It contains updated information on the

activities of the Fund, in particular the recommendations adopted by the Board of Trustees

of the Fund at its forty-fourth session, held in Geneva from 3 to 7 October 2016.

B. Mandate of the Fund

2. The Fund receives voluntary contributions from Governments, non-governmental

organizations and individuals. In accordance with the mandate of the Fund outlined in

General Assembly resolution 36/151 and the practices established by the Board of Trustees

since 1982, the Fund provides grants to established channels of assistance, including non-

governmental organizations, associations of victims and of family members of victims,

private and public hospitals, legal clinics and public interest law firms that submit project

proposals aimed at the provision of medical, psychological, social, financial, legal,

humanitarian or other forms of direct assistance to victims of torture and members of their

families.

C. Administration of the Fund and composition of the Board of Trustees

3. The Secretary-General administers the Fund through the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with the advice of a Board of

Trustees composed of five members acting in their personal capacity and appointed by the

Secretary-General with due regard to equitable geographical distribution and in

consultation with their Governments. The Board is currently composed of Maria Cristina

Nunes de Mendonça (Portugal), Morad el-Shazly (Egypt), Anastasia Pinto (India), Mikolaj

Pietrzak (Poland) and Gaby Oré Aguilar (Peru).

II. Management of grants

A. Admissibility criteria

4. Project admissibility criteria are outlined in the guidelines of the Fund. The

guidelines require a project proposal to be presented by an established channel of

assistance, including non-governmental organizations, associations of victims and of family

members of victims, private and public hospitals, legal clinics and public interest law firms.

The beneficiaries must be victims of torture and/or their family members. Priority is given

to projects providing direct assistance to torture victims, which may consist of medical or

psychological assistance, help with social or financial reintegration as well as various forms

of legal assistance for victims or members of their families, including assistance in seeking

redress or applying for asylum. As a general rule, projects are supported on a yearly basis

for a maximum of 10 years, subject to a satisfactory evaluation of the project and

availability of funds.

5. Subject to availability of funds, the Fund may also support projects seeking to

organize training or capacity-building activities for health-care professionals or other

service providers, with priority given to applicant organizations that have an ongoing direct

assistance project supported by the Fund. These projects may take the form of trainings,

workshops, seminars and conferences and peer-to-peer staff exchanges. They are to be

conducted primarily for the benefit of the professional staff of the applicant organization.

Grant requests for projects involving investigation, research, studies, publications or other

similar activities are not admissible.

6. Outside of the regular grants cycle and subject to availability of funds, the Fund can

also provide emergency assistance to project proposals submitted through the emergency

intersessional procedure, outlined in the guidelines for the Fund. Emergency grants may be

awarded in exceptional circumstances such as a sudden increase in the number of victims of

torture to be assisted owing to a humanitarian crisis, including armed conflict, war or

natural disaster, subject to availability of funds. Emergency grants may also be awarded

when such crisis results in a grave situation that makes it impossible for an organization to

continue to provide assistance to beneficiaries (e.g., destruction of premises or offices), for

the purpose of enabling the organization to resume its activities.

B. Monitoring and evaluation of grants

7. As a rule, pre-screening visits to projects are undertaken before a grant is awarded to

a new project proposal. Regular monitoring visits to ongoing projects for which the

renewed support of the Fund is being sought are also conducted to assess the

implementation and impact of the projects funded. An internal guide on conducting visits to

projects that have been funded, or are to be funded, was developed in 2013 by the

secretariat of the Fund to enhance verification methodology and ensure coherence in the

evaluation process. In 2016, a total of 57 projects were visited, including by the secretariat

of the Fund, OHCHR field presences and members of the Board.

III. Financial situation of the Fund

8. The Board, in close coordination with the secretariat of the Fund and the Donors and

External Relations Section of OHCHR, seeks to secure yearly a more satisfactory level of

contributions from donors, which is needed to respond to the current realities of victims of

torture and their family members worldwide. An average income of $12 million would be

necessary to respond adequately to the requests for assistance received by the Fund from

rehabilitation centres and redress programmes worldwide. Over the last three years, the

Fund has managed to secure an average yearly income of $9 million.

9. The table below shows the contributions and pledges received in 2016 as of the time

of writing. Regrettably, the prospects for attaining the level of income achieved in recent

years are not as positive as they were at the time of writing. As at the forty-fourth session of

the Board, at which grants were recommended for 2017, the Fund had a net total of

$8,306,949 available for activities, including grants, to be implemented in the course of

2017.

Contributions and pledges received from 1 January to 5 December 2016

Donor

Amount

(United States dollars) Date of receipt

Contributions

Andorra 11 099 29 July 2016

Argentina 15 000 1 March 2016

Austria 21 231 1 December 2016

Canada 44 148 17 February 2016

Chile 5 000 6 May 2016

Denmark 447 890 16 March 2016

France 22 676 31 May 2016

Germany 445 931

207 609

7 June 2016

21 November 2016

Holy See 2 000 17 October 2016

India 25 000 15 January 2016

Ireland 39 459 19 April 2016

Kuwait 10 000 23 February 2016

Liechtenstein 25 075 8 March 2016

Luxembourg 16 760 23 August 2016

Norway 95 270 20 June 2016

Peru 1 470 3 August 2016

Saudi Arabia 75 000 3 June 2016

United Arab Emirates 10 000 25 February 2016

United States of America 5 696 312 24 October 2016

Total contributions 7 216 930

Pledges

Mexico 10 000 24 May 2016

Switzerland 202 840 10 November 2016

United States of America 6 550 000 21 September 2016

Total pledges 6 762 840

IV. Forty-fourth session of the Board of Trustees

10. The forty-fourth session of the Board was held in Geneva from 3 to 7 October 2016.

The Board examined applications for funding and made recommendations on grants to be

awarded to beneficiary organizations for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2017.

11. The amount available for distribution to projects was calculated after deducting

programme support costs, the operating cash reserve and the expenditure for non-grant

activities from the total amount of contributions received since the forty-second session of

the Board, held in October 2015.

12. At the forty-fourth session, the Board, with the assistance of the secretariat,

reviewed a total of 220 admissible project applications aimed at providing direct assistance

to victims of torture and their families, as well as — to a lesser extent — training and

capacity-building in the field of rehabilitation, amounting to a total request of $15,303,910.

13. In line with the grant-making procedure set out at its forty-third session (see

A/71/289, paragraphs 6-8), the Board accepted a total of 173 projects to be implemented in

75 countries for a total amount of $7,117,500. Of those projects, 166 are for the delivery of

direct assistance services to victims of torture and 7 are for strengthening the delivery

capacity of such services (training and capacity-building). With the vital financial

assistance of the Fund, it is expected that more than 45,000 victims and their families will

have access to rehabilitation in all regions of the world in the course of 2017.

14. All project proposals were reviewed on a competitive basis, taking into account the

merit and documented needs of each proposal and its complementarity with other

initiatives, as well as the number of years of continuous support by the Fund to the same

project.

15. The Board also recommended setting aside an additional $500,000 to respond to

emergency assistance requests that may be received in 2017 through the intersessional

procedure of the Fund.

16. Through its enhanced emergency procedure, in 2016 the Fund was able to provide

rapid financial support in the amount of $150,900 for the relief of victims of torture in the

context of unfolding crisis. Emergency grants were awarded to provide vital rehabilitation

services in Nigeria, South Sudan, Thailand and the State of Palestine.

17. In the face of these emergency requests, the Board remained concerned about the

upsurge in the use of torture, in particular in the context of violent extremism and

unprecedented levels of forced displacement and migration worldwide, and recalled that

States had the obligation under international law to provide redress and rehabilitation to

victims of torture. The Board was also concerned at situations of reprisals against a number

of the Fund’s grantees who were attempting to provide rehabilitation to victims of torture

and assist them in their path to obtain redress for the violations they had endured.

18. The Board also recommended giving special attention to project proposals focusing

on: (a) early identification of victims of torture and their access to medical, legal, social and

psychological services; (b) innovative strategic litigation initiatives; (c) victims of torture in

territories controlled by non-State actors; (d) rehabilitation for women and children who

were victims of torture; and (e) initiatives operating in contexts of restricted civil society

space. Moreover, for the 2017 call for applications, the Board identified as priorities

countries in the Middle East and North Africa; countries that were members of the Group of

Latin American and Caribbean States (in particular Brazil); and countries in Central Asia.

19. During the forty-fourth session, the Board held a joint session with the Chair of the

Committee against Torture, Jens Modvig, and the Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention

of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Malcolm

Evans. The newly appointed Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and

degrading treatment or punishment could not attend owing to other commitments. The

meeting was another step towards consolidating a cohesive United Nations anti-torture

front in the face of the persistence of torture and ill-treatment, one of the main elements in

the mission statement of the Fund adopted in 2014. Agreement was reached on holding

joint thematic meetings on a yearly basis, inviting the Fund to the annual meeting of the

Committee and the Subcommittee and exploring the possibility of extending an invitation

to the Fund to participate in the interactive dialogue of the anti-torture mechanisms at the

General Assembly. The Fund was acknowledged as the one mechanism available to make

the right to rehabilitation and redress for victims a reality.

20. The Board also met with the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations

Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Nevena Vučković-Šahović. The

two humanitarian funds are managed by a joint secretariat team at OHCHR. During the

comprehensive exchange issues of common interest were discussed, in particular the

challenges in implementing a sustainable victim-centred approach. The Trustees agreed to

joint efforts to bring greater visibility to these unique victim-centred mandates. The

Trustees also expressed appreciation for the managerial improvements put in place since

the creation of a join secretariat team in 2012, while recommending that its staffing level be

restored to the level of 2014 (before the staffing cuts introduced by OHCHR to face its

budget shortfall in 2014).

21. In line with its objective to make the Fund a platform for knowledge-sharing and

expertise in the field of rehabilitation and redress for victims, the Board recommended that

the secretariat organize a thematic workshop on torture and migration at its forty-fifth

session, to be held in April 2017, to which selected experts and practitioners would be

invited to present their research and experience. The findings of the last expert workshop,

on redress and rehabilitation of child and adolescent victims of torture and the

intergenerational transmission of trauma, are contained in document A/71/289.

V. Making a contribution

22. Governments, non-governmental organizations and other public and private entities

are encouraged to contribute to the Fund. It is important to note that only specifically

earmarked contributions are attributed to the Fund. For more information on how to

contribute and details about the Fund, donors are requested to contact the secretariat of the

United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland; e-mail:

unvfvt@ohchr.org; telephone: +41 22 917 9376; fax: +41 22 917 9017.

VI. Conclusions and recommendations

23. The contexts and crises in which torture takes place have become more

complex in recent years, resulting in an increasing number of victims, including

children and adolescents. The need for redress and rehabilitation has become more

pressing than ever.

24. The Board is concerned at the rampant use of torture, as well as at a growing

and shocking narrative favouring, condoning, and even inciting the use of torture. The

Board is also preoccupied at situations of reprisals against a number of the Fund’s

grantees. The Board continues to pursue close coordination with the other United

Nations mechanisms against torture, firmly convinced that a strengthened United

Nations anti-torture front is necessary to work effectively towards the full eradication

of torture.

25. As the Secretary-General recalled in his statement of 26 June 2016 on the

occasion of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the

United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture is often a lifeline and a last

resort when States neglect their obligation to prevent torture and fail to provide

victims with effective and prompt redress, including appropriate forms of

rehabilitation.

26. Notwithstanding a slight decrease in the income of the Fund secured for 2017,

the Board has recommended the funding of more than 170 projects in 75 countries

across the world in 2017. It has also set aside funding for emergency applications, to

be received through the intersessional emergency procedure of the Fund, in order to

respond rapidly to new and emergency requests for assistance, in particular in the

context of unfolding humanitarian crises.

27. The Board also holds the view that in the light of the increasing challenges

described in the present report, there is a need to facilitate knowledge-sharing among

rehabilitation practitioners. The Fund serves as a platform for sharing expertise in

this field by holding annual thematic workshops. The next such workshop will be on

the subject of torture and migration, and will be held in Geneva in April 2017.

28. The Secretary-General appeals to Member States and other stakeholders to

contribute to the Fund, noting that contributing to the Fund is a concrete

manifestation of the commitment of States to the elimination of torture, in line with

the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment

or Punishment, in particular its article 14. The Fund would need to receive $12 million

(against the present annual income of almost $9 million) on a yearly basis to respond

adequately to the high demands for assistance.