Doctors warn EU red tape is threatening aid to torture victims

Date: 11/09/1997

By Mark Turner

TORTURE victims in Europe and beyond risk losing their only avenue of treatment due to excessive European Commission bureaucracy, leading doctors are warning.

Inge Genefke, of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in Denmark, says EU administrative delays are hampering the work of medical centres which rehabilitate victims of state-sponsored torture.

“We are now facing delays of up to nine months, and cannot use the funds retroactively. These centres simply cannot work like this. It is a very serious situation,” said Genefke.

The IRCT, which grew out of a Danish-based rehabilitation and research centre, coordinates 144 units in 76 countries and is one of the world's major actors in the field.

Due to the relative newness of torture rehabilitation as a science, and the reluctance of people and governments to face up to the problem, the international community has been slow to give groups such as the IRCT sufficient financial support.

The EU, after a long campaign in the European Parliament, now provides 6 million ecu a year for torture rehabilitation - almost half the total global support for such work. But the sum falls far short of the 20-30 million ecu which Genefke believes is the minimum amount needed to help victims.

The effects of torture include shattered personal and family lives, guilt, shame and often a total inability to function again in normal society. As a result, torture victims need constant treatment over a long period of time, which allows them to build up a trusting relationship with their doctors.

The Commission's funding mechanisms, however, are based around fixed period contracts, aimed at one-off projects. Under normal circumstances, delays in funding are inconvenient but not drastic, as a project merely starts a bit later.

In the case of torture rehabilitation centres, nine-month periods without pay mean that doctors leave, treatments are suspended and patients' lives are disrupted.

Genefke claims that a rehabilitation centre in Athens almost had to close down altogether and was only saved by 11th hour funding from a private donor.

The IRCT also feels that Commission administrators are not equipped to make decisions about funding medical work.

“I am sure they are wonderful administrators, but they are not doctors. Our small-scale centres will die if they have to run by the same rules as large economic projects,” said Genefke.

Commission officials privately admit the extent of the problem, but say that tough new budgetary procedures are making life extremely difficult.

As the institution's budget arm and individual services embark on a new period of financial rigour, backlogs are growing and projects are taking longer to assess. “We realise the difficulties the delays are causing, but there is little we can do,” said one official involved in funding.