Background

 
In the past we found that for various reasons it seems to have been easier to work together on an international level rather than on a European level. On the other hand, everybody agreed that we needed a European Network because we share a common problem: European countries try to protect their borders against refugees, thus making it impossible for victims of severe human rights violations and torture to enter Europe. At the same time, Europe is very proud of the fact that Human Rights are their invention and it does not hesitate to tell the world so.

In Europe we have now had psychosocial and treatment centres for victims of torture for over 25 years, starting with Exil in Brussels, Belgium. There have always been differences of opinions, for instance on whether the centres should be strictly clinical or also psychosocial, or whether we should use our knowledge and documentation on human rights abuses to campaign, using the evidence we have gathered for the legal asylum process. However, big changes in the approach to treatment methods have never been made. It was clear that the most important aspect was the human relationship and how to stabilize trust after unspeakable manmade cruelty.

Nevertheless it took a long time for us to come together in order to take on the challenge of a European Network. In the end it was the conviction that we no longer had the right to waste our time, and that we have enough in common and enough joint expertise to allow us make progress, such as develop recommendations for the decision-making bodies by presenting the special needs of the most vulnerable groups of refugees (victims of torture and other severe human right violations) from our professional and human rights perspective. This objective was helped by certain developments within European politics and by a trend towards the harmonisation of asylum proceedings. We felt it would have been a shame not to use our common sense and knowledge to support political efforts, which were running parallel to our own.

We have decided to create a European Network (rather than an association or other such formal organisation) because we thought that this would most serve the purpose of giving everyone in the field the option of participating without our having to expend a lot of energy on structural decisions. However the time might have come to reconsider our original plans and look into how to make the European Network more efficient. Luckily we bring a lot of expertise and diversity together from all over Europe, so we will have no problem in finding a creative solution.


Elise Bittenbinder