Delegation notes $1.5 million donation
By Alexander Besant
Special to The Daily Star
Thursday, June 26, 2008

BEIRUT: The European Commission (EC) reiterated its commitment to the prevention of torture in Lebanon at a news conference Wednesday. "We regret that there are still reports of torture taking place in Lebanon even though Lebanon is a signatory of the UN Convention Against Torture," Kruijs Voorberge, head of the Dutch delegation, said. "Lebanon should respect its obligations under the convention."
The news conference was set to coincide with Thursday's International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, an annual event created by the UN in 1997 to reemphasize the illegality of torture.
The EC reaffirmed its efforts in aiding local non-governmental organizations (NGO) and pressuring the Lebanese government to establish measures to combat the use of torture.
All parties attending the conference agreed that "Lebanon lacks the judicial tools in which to adequately prevent the use of torture."
According to officials, the EC has already spent 1 million euros ($1.55 million) on three projects with local NGOs to combat torture and to rehabilitate victims in Lebanon.
Furthermore, under the European Neighborhood Policy, Lebanon is required to ratify the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture, to ameliorate the conditions of its detention centers and to fulfill its international obligations regarding torture, they added.
The three local NGOs financed by the EC thanked the body for its support and further emphasized the need to strengthen Lebanon's prohibition of torture and support its victims.

Mohammad Safa, a representative for the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, a Lebanese NGO, said of the first year of a European-funded project: "1,122 victims of torture and their families benefited from the project. This project was a primary compensation for the years of negligence [victims and their families] have faced."
The Restart Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture undertook a similar mission in its first year of the project, providing free rehabilitation services to victims, aiding in social reintegration, capacity building of other rehabilitation providers and creating a database for incidents of torture in Lebanon.
Local NGO ALEF, also a part of the EC's strategy to combat torture, has dedicated itself to building awareness and to lobbying the government to uphold its international obligations under the UN convention.
In a separate press conference to be held Thursday, ALEF will present a report on the use of torture in Lebanon which suggests that torture still remains widespread in the country.
Both the NGOs and the EC also made clear during the conference that the use of torture could not be reduced to a cultural particularity but was rather a scourge on all human societies.
"How many times have we heard that certain forms of oppression are integral to a society?" asked Patrick Laurent, the EC ambassador to Lebanon. "Allow me to restate that there is no inherent tradition in any society which can justify terror, torture, or the harsh treatment of a person."