Fighting torture

Torture tries to silence and break people. It is illegal, doesn’t work, and is always wrong. Yet it happens to people across the world. Using our in-depth evidence of torture, we work with survivors to hold countries who torture to account.

We challenge our leaders and governments when they turn a blind eye to torture and what it does to people. 

We believe that trade agreements should never take priority over human rights. Nothing ever justifies torture. 

In a world where the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and other leaders say torture works, we must fight this dangerous message. We stand with survivors and stand alongside them to defend human rights.

As a torture survivor, you carry the physical and psychological damage for life. President Trump, I respect your commitment and promise to Americans to make America great again. But a great nation doesn’t support or endorse the practice of torture. It respects human rights and upholds the absolute ban on torture.

Kolbassia Haoussou, co-founder Survivors Speak OUT

Victories in ending UK police training for torturing states. 

Freedom from Torture’s recent investigation revealed partnerships between London Policing College,  a private UK police training company with close ties to the UK Police Service, and Chinese police universities. We discovered that some of the Chinese partners have links to torture in China’s Xinjiang region, where human rights violations are carried out on a scale that may amount to crimes against humanity.

 After we told London Policing College about the findings of our investigation, they announced an immediate suspension of all of their China policing partnerships. And in another success, the British Council, which was funding some of these partnerships through UK aid money, committed to a review of the use of human rights checks across all of their projects globally. 
 The UK must not risk supporting torture anywhere in the world. Twenty thousand people made their voices heard in a petition to the Prime Minister demanding an end to all police training in China.

The success of our campaign to end  UK police training for China follows victory in the campaign to end Police Scotland’s training of Sri Lanka’s police force which is also widely linked to torture. These impacts show what a difference targeted investigations and people-power can have.  When we come together, we can stand against torture anywhere in the world.

Our work