How We Work
REDRESS has a small staff team based in its London offices with one staff member based on Brussels, Belgium. We do not have regional or local field offices, preferring instead to work directly with local civil society groups, lawyers and other actors already on the ground. At present, we have partnerships with civil society groups in a range of countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
What distinguishes REDRESS from most other organizations is the way in which it works and the different levels of its intervention. At the heart of REDRESS is its direct work with survivors of torture and related international crimes. We pride ourselves on our direct interaction with such persons and groups, in helping them to achieve justice personally and specifically, and in trying to bridge the gap between the often technical legal rights that survivors have with their experiences of justice in practical terms. In order to maximize our impact, we work at multiple levels. At the grassroots level we work with torture survivors directly, victims’ associations and grassroots organizations. We also work at the national level in a range of countries worldwide with local human rights organizations with whom we have partnerships, lawyers’ associations and often government ministries responsible for protecting, assisting and responding to torture and other related international crimes. We help build capacity, provide advice and direct assistance to local groups to enhance their interventions with survivors, to strengthen their advocacy work on legal or institutional reforms and the overall goal of preventing torture. At the international level, we work with intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and regional organizations such as the European Union, Council of Europe, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Inter American Commission and Court of Human Rights and international criminal justice institutions such as the International Criminal Court. Here, we work to strengthen the international policies of such organizations regarding torture and torture survivors, including increasing the access of survivors to such institutions and increasing the support provided by such organizations to survivors.
REDRESS’ values are to prioritise the interests and perspectives of survivors in all aspects of its work. The highest priority in decisions and interventions is given to promoting survivors’ well-being and the avoidance of further traumatisation.
