OMCT's Guidelines for the submission of Urgent Appeals
THE WORLD ORGANISATION AGAINST TORTURE’S (OMCT)
GUIDELINES FOR THE SUBMISSION OF URGENT APPEALS
Click here for the full Guidelines document
Click here for the Urgent Appeals Questionnaire
Introduction
The guidelines for the submission of information for urgent appeals have been conceived in order to facilitate the rapid exchange of information or complaints between members of the SOS-Torture network and OMCT. The precision and fluidity of the exchange of information is vital in order to allow information provided by network members, concerning situations in which human rights violations have been recorded, to be used by OMCT to launch urgent appeals. Through its urgent appeals, OMCT seeks to intervene on behalf of the victims these abuses. As the name indicates, the element of time is of great importance to OMCT’s urgent appeals.
To this end, these guidelines provide a framework for action, along with an explanation of the urgent appeals system and how it works, in order to enable network members to participate more effectively in the program. The guidelines are followed by a questionnaire, which includes the types of specific information that are required by OMCT for the production of an urgent appeal.
The SOS-Torture network comprises local, grass-roots NGOs, covering the world’s regions, with specialised knowledge of the current, local human rights situations. OMCT benefits from the expertise of its network partners in order to convey precise information about these situations both to the international surveillance bodies and to a global audience, including international, regional and local organisations and individuals, in order to inform them and garner their support for the improvement of human rights conditions around the world. It is imperative that OMCT is provided with all the information it requires at the first time of asking, or else delays can occur in the launching of urgent appeals, if some vital element of information is found to still be required.
During their meeting on April 7th and 8th, 2001, OMCT’s Assembly of Delegates concluded that several members organisations of the network needed to have a better understanding of the urgent appeals system, in order to improve their participation in the program and provide conditions under which information can be handled and disseminated in an optimal way, which has lead to the formulation of the guidelines and questionnaire that follow.
One area of particular importance in improving the flow and impact of information given to OMCT, is the need for SOS-Torture network member organisations to systematically inform OMCT of developments which occur following the launch of an initial urgent appeal. It is vital that OMCT be informed, for example, of the release of a person who was being detained, or of developments in trial, so that a case can be closed or follow-up action can be taken, where required, in order to improve the use of OMCT’s resources and the results of specific campaigns over the long term.
This document has been prepared based on OMCT’s experience of collaborating with network member organisations and launching urgent appeals, which has been acquired over its sixteen years of existence.