Look, Resist, Transform: First international Meeting of Survivors of Ocular Violence

Survivors of eye injuries from Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bolivia ,Chile, Colombia, Peru, Spain and the USA, human rights organisations, national and international experts, met in Bogota (Colombia), between 18 and 20 March 2026, in the framework of the First international Meeting of Survivors of Ocular Violence. The meeting was organized by the International Center for Research on Ocular Violence (CIIVO), a new survivor-led global center of expertise on Ocular Violence

A survivor-led space for global agency

The meeting was led by survivors. They shaped the agenda, defined the priorities, and spoke from lived experience rather than being treated as passive subjects of documentation or assistance. Their testimonies were not presented as isolated accounts of harm, but as evidence of systematic repression and as the basis for collective demands.

This approach enabled the articulation of a shared global narrative: ocular violence is not incidental, but part of a deliberate pattern of repression. It also fostered solidarity across borders, transforming individual trauma into collective agency and positioning survivors as key actors in advocacy, truth-seeking, and policy change.

At the event, participants discussed the contexts of repression and serious human rights violations in which these injuries frequently occur and how this pattern is deliberately reproduced in many countries around the world using a range of weapons and policing techniques. Ocular violence causes serious psychosocial harm to those who suffer it, with impacts that accompany the survivor throughout their lifetime. Beyond physical and mental health consequences, survivors shared how their life plans were abruptly disrupted, with common challenges in family, social reintegration and returning to work. At the societal level, ocular violence generates fear and discourages public participation, which has serious consequences for democracy and the right to protest. Likewise, those who have suffered this type of violence face stigmatisation from various actors in society, including employers and, in several cases, inadequate or prejudiced (biased) treatment within healthcare systems.

Rehabilitation as a right, not charity

A central theme emerging from survivor testimonies was the urgent need to recognise rehabilitation as a core component of the right to reparation, not as optional assistance or charity. Survivors emphasised that rehabilitation must be holistic, long-term, and survivor-centred, including but not limited to, specialized and continuous care, like surgeries, prosthetics, and follow-up treatment; psychosocial support; social and economic reintegration and community-based support, aiming at reducing isolation and rebuilding social ties.

Participants stressed that, in most contexts, such services are either unavailable, inaccessible, or left to under-resourced governmental bodies or civil society organisations. As a result, many survivors are forced to navigate lifelong consequences, without adequate state support.

Reparations and gaps in the accountability process

In terms of justice and reparation, accountability is rare despite the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Victims are frequently blamed or even criminalised, told that it is impossible to identify the perpetrators, and endure lengthy, revictimising legal processes, the vast majority of which end without convictions and usually without even going to trial. Most are not formally recognised as victims and have not received comprehensive reparations, at best, some receive limited financial compensation, failing to address the full scope of the harm suffered. Survivors strongly underscored that reparations must be integral, rights-based, and survivor-defined, stressing on the need to have an official recognition of responsibility and public acknowledgment of harm; guarantees of non-repetition; satisfaction measures, such as memorialisation and truth-seeking processes.At the moment, many of them must rely on third parties or NGOs for medical, psychological, and rehabilitation support.

18th of March, International Day Against Ocular Violence

Within the framework of the event, CIIVO presented two reports. The first report, titled “Seeing Beyond the Wound: Post-Traumatic Impacts of Ocular Violence,” compiles 35 testimonies from survivors in different countries, identifying common patterns in the post-traumatic impacts suffered after the aggression. The report includes recommendations for establishing pathways for comprehensive reparation.

A second report, titled “The Theory of False Less-Lethality: The Engineering of Concealed Harm,” provides a technical explanation of how the so-called theory of less-lethal weapons used for repression does not correspond with documented practices. The report technically describes the types of weapons used against protesters and how certain companies export models of repression across multiple countries.

During the event, ocular trauma survivors declared the 18th of March the International Day Against Ocular Violence. In a Declaration issued, survivors called for the elimination of rubber bullets from public order policing; independent investigations into cases of ocular trauma; and, truth-seeking processes in which judicial and political accountability reaches the highest ranks of the armed forces.

The United Against Torture Consortium (UATC) was grateful to have been invited, and honoured to attend the gathering in Bogotá, with IRCT, OMCT and Omega Research Foundation represented in person. UATC commits to commemorating the International Day Against Ocular Violence each 18 March and calls on civil society organisations and the international community to read the declaration, support the demands of survivors, and take action to end ocular violence.