The El-Nadeem Center
By Sankalita Shome
Post the 25th January Revolution, there has been an explosion in the number of initiatives taken by the civil society. Much is being said about the role that the civil society can play in transforming the nation.
But there is one civil society initiative that would be happier if it had no role to play after the Revolution.
“We were elated when we heard about the Revolution, we thought that there would no longer be a need for this Center, we could pack up and do something else,” says Mona Hamed, a psychiatrist associated with the El-Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence.
But they soon realised that the Center was still needed and they were going nowhere. The El- Nadim Center is the only organisation in Egypt to offer treatment, rehabilitative and counselling services to victims of torture.
The Centre was started by three psychiatrist friends in the year 1993; before that, they had already been treating victims of torture as doctors but they felt that treating torture was not only about medicine.
The first year, the Center concentrated on providing psychological rehabilitation to victims of torture but soon realised that it was essential to publicise the issue of torture, to raise voice against a practice that had become systematic and deliberate.
While documenting the instances of torture, the co-founders of El- Nadeem discovered that the torture victims were not only the political detainees as was widely understood. The torture victims could be just about anyone.
Since its inception in the year 1993, the El -Nadeem Centere has waged a relentless war against torture by fighting for redress or revenge for the torture victims. “Unless there is revenge, the recovery is not complete for the torture victim,” says Dr. Hamed,
The centre helps the victims that come to the Center to document the torture and when the victims are willing, it helps them to publicise the indignities that they have undergone, so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice. They help the victim to seek redress and civil remedies and to pursue criminal charges against the torturers. This approach extends beyond dealings with the police to obstacles in the legal system faced by lawyers working on these cases.
“The advocacy for redress is consistent with the services that the Center seeks to provide” explains Dr Hamed as “achieving justice is part of the healing process for the victim and also helps to prevent crimes against them in the future.”
But the Center leaves the decision for pursuing such recourse to the victim as the process can be traumatic for the victim and his family. The court proceedings are long drawn out and there have been instances when the torturers have resorted to intimidating the family of the victim so that they drop the criminal charges against them.
In fact, at times, the doctors associated with the Center, have also been the target of violence for their work but it has not dissuaded them from continuing with their path breaking work treating men, women and children tortured by the police forces and the security apparatus in the country.
In 2003, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) honoured Aida Seif Al Dawla, one of the original co-founders of the Center, for her work to combat torture and promote women’s rights and freedom of association in Egypt.
The same year, the Center had release a report criticising the excessive use of force and torture by the Egyptian security apparatus in its clampdown on anti-war demonstrations, at the outset of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
In an interview with the Time magazine in the year 2004, after she had been honoured by the HRW’s highest honour, Aida Seif Al Dawla had said that her next goal was regime change.
When she said that, she must have thought that it would mean the realisation of her goal of eradicating torture from the country. But post the regime change, the challenge is probably only beginning.
When the 25th January Revolution happened, we all thought that things would be good now; but we were proven wrong. Within a few days of the start of the revolution, we had the first wave of torture victims arrive at the clinic; in their case, the perpetrators were the army. We had the physical evidence of the torture in front of our eyes, but our hearts refused to believe it. And now the second wave is of those victims who have been tortured by the police,” says Dr Hamed.
The Centre released a report the mid of June which stated that at least four people had died in police detention since the end of the Revolution. Though cases involving allegations of police brutality may not have been dramatically reduced by the 25 January revolution, Dr Hamed feels that what had irrevocably changed was that ppeople were no longer willing to remain quiet and are coming forward in larger numbers to talk about the police brutality and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
The El Nadeem Center is credited with being the first of its kind in the region and it has gradually expanded its services to provide psychological counselling to refugees. It also provides a psychological testimony, which is used by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as a reference while deciding on the refugee status, on the basis of torture, for an applicant.
El-Nadeem has also helped to establish a similar center in Sudan with the help of former clients and has provided training on skills of management, rehabilitation of victims of torture and documentation of torture cases in Lebanon, Morocco and Sudan.
El-Nadeem’s work in Egypt and the other countries is commendable and a blessing for the victims of torture. But the real boon would be if there would be no need at all for such centres whether in Egypt or in any other country.
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