Annual Report 2023
07

Seeking justice

Tunisia

After a seven-year legal battle, SANAD, OMCT’s direct assistance programme for victims of torture and ill-treatment in Tunisia – which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023 – achieved a significant milestone in Jamel Ouerghi's pursuit of justice and reparation. In 2016, Jamel suffered brutal torture at the hands of the police, resulting in severe head injuries that left him in a coma for nearly four months. Despite multiple surgeries, he continues to endure severe disabilities, with his physical impairment assessed at over 80%. In December 2023, the judiciary upheld the prison sentences of his tormentors and granted him financial compensation.

Nicaragua

In April 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ruled in favour of four defenders from the indigenous territory of Mayangna Sauni As in Nicaragua, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by authorities after enduring physical, psychological, and sexual torture in prison. This decision followed a request for precautionary measures filed by the Center for Legal Assistance to Indigenous Peoples (CALPI) in collaboration with the OMCT and other partners in a joint effort to safeguard the rights and personal integrity of indigenous peoples in the Mayangna Sauni As territory.

Mexico

The government of Mexico issued a rare public apology in May 2023 to Damián Gallardo Martínez, an indigenous human rights defender who had been arbitrarily detained and tortured. This apology came after legal action by Consorcio Oaxaca, a member of the SOS-Torture Network, supported by the OMCT. In response to a 2022 ruling by the UN Committee against Torture, which recognised Gallardo Martínez as a torture victim and demanded full redress, including a public apology, Mexico complied.

Cameroon

Eight months after his release from prison, blogger and whistleblower Sébastien Ebala filed a complaint with the UN Committee against Torture, supported by the OMCT, alleging torture during his detention in Cameroon. It's the second complaint OMCT filed against Cameroon in two years. The prior one, in 2022, involved the SOS-Torture Litigators’ Group in Africa and the NGO Mandela Center International (MCI), which faced threats and intimidation.

Russia

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in September that Russia had subjected a gay man, Maksim Grigoryecich Lapunov, to targeted violence, including arbitrary arrest in Chechnya, incommunicado detention, and torture, based solely on his sexual orientation. The OMCT submitted a third-party intervention in this case, denouncing the government’s blatant failure to investigate torture against LGBTIAQ+ persons in Chechnya, including during the so-called “anti-gay purge” in 2017.

Nepal

Advocacy Forum Nepal (AF), a member of the SOS-Torture Network, filed a habeas corpus petition for a minor who had been detained without trial in an adult detention centre since 2021 and later transferred to a juvenile facility. AF also filed a joint petition with Public Interest Litigation to ensure the right to education for children in detention.