Over the past 30 years, a number of important steps have been taken to prevent torture and other ill-treatment around the world. There has been, however, very little research into the effectiveness of these efforts.
In 2012, the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) therefore commissioned an independent, in-depth research to address the question: "Does Torture Prevention Work?" For the first time, a team of researchers, under the lead of Dr. Richard Carver and Dr. Lisa Handley, studied the impact of torture prevention measures, over three decades. The results were published in 2016 and include 14 country studies.
The research confirms, for the first time in a global quantitative and qualitative study, that torture prevention works and it provides us with a better understanding of which measures are the most effective in reducing the risks of torture.
In this briefing paper, the APT extracts the key findings from study and provides further insights in the need for a holistic approach to torture prevention.