Center for Victims of Torture

Description

The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization that works to heal the wounds of torture on individuals, their families and their communities, and to end torture worldwide. It was founded in 1985 in Minnesota as the first torture rehabilitation center in the United States. Today it provides direct psychological and medical care to torture survivors, trains partner organizations, conducts research, and advocates for an end to torture.

CVT has offices in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda and the United States, along with additional project sites around the world. Its healing center in St. Paul, Minnesota, offers counseling, medical treatment, and social services to survivors and their families. Internationally, CVT has worked in refugee camps and post-conflict communities, training local counselors to provide long-term mental health support.

The organization runs training initiatives such as the National Capacity-Building Project and Partners in Trauma Healing to build networks of rehabilitation professionals. It also leads New Tactics in Human Rights, a project that shares strategies and tactics with human rights defenders worldwide. CVT’s advocacy work has included pushing for US government policy against torture and support for survivor rehabilitation funding.