All victims of torture have an explicit right to rehabilitation under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT, Article 14). Rehabilitation should aim to restore, as far as possible, torture victims’ independence, physical, mental, social and vocational ability, as well as their full inclusion and participation in society. States have a corresponding duty to provide for as full a rehabilitation as possible, either through the direct provision of rehabilitation services or through funding private medical, legal and other services, including those administered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

This tool provides an overview of how states have implemented the right to rehabilitation through a collection of practices, supplemented with experiences from non-state rehabilitation providers. The practices included in this tool are intended to inspire states to learn from each other and thereby improve implementation at the national level, within the OSCE region and beyond. Promising practice examples from the OSCE region and from other parts of the world have been collected to illustrate possible approaches and steps on the way to ensuring torture victims’ right to the fullest possible level of rehabilitation. Their inclusion in the tool does not imply any form of validation of their full compliance with international standards, regional or global relevance and applicability, or superiority to alternative practices applied by other states.