„Atlas of Torture“ WebsiteLaunch of Beta Version

29 April 2009

Why a Website on Torture?•Torture is not a phenomenon of the middle ages, but continues to be a widespread practice at the beginning of the 21st century.

•Torture remains largely unacknowledge in its severity, extend and structural causes; torture continues to be trivialized for political purposes

•Country specific information is often dispersed among various sources

•The existing international legal framework has been fundamentally challenged by recent attempts to undermine the absolute prohibition of torture in the fight against terrorism

The Purpose of the Website is to•raise awareness of the continuing practice of torture in the world and its underlying causes

•offer a useful source of information for research & advocacy addressed to human rights professionals, academics and the interested public

•compile information from various sources and provide analyses with a thematic and geographical focus

•track the latest legal and political developments relating to torture and ill-treatment

Media review

Thematic analysis

Country situation

Glossary & further resoures

About this project

Cross-cutting issues

Access to country profiles via the interactive world map to find information on

• political backgound • situation of torture• documents

Information on country missions by international monitoring bodies.

Information on the political context, the general human rights situation and other key facts

Synopsis of the legal framework and the situation of torture & ill-treatment, based on most recent information from UN bodies

Compilation of relevant documentation from

• UN bodies• Regional monitoring bodies• Jurisprudence

Links to relevant national and international human rights organisations and reports from leading NGOs

Analysis of various legal issues related to the fight against torture.

Written with the aim to provide a concise overview, a focus on contemporary challenges and introduction to specific fields of research.

Linked to excerpts of OUP‘s Commentary on Convention against Torture, and other relevant documents

Regularly updated in order to cover new legal developments.

Selection of most relevant news coverage on legal and political developments

Newspaper articles, audio and video files are included

Glossary on relevant international conventions, monitoring mechanisms and basic terminology

Further features: FAQs Linklist to online resources

We look forward to receiving your feedback:

contact@atlas-of-torture.org