7,000 Victims of Torture Live in Tbilisi

7,000 Victims of Torture Live in Tbilisi

On April 30, the Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) organized a presentation on the results of an opinion survey called “Human Rights: Focus on Torture”.

According to Nino Makhashvili, the director of the center, Anchor Consulting conducted the survey to find out the frequency of incidents of torture in Georgia.

Anchor Consulting conducted the poll within the framework of “Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of the Victims of Torture and Prevention of Torture in Georgia”. The GCRT  has sponsored this survey since February 2002, with financial support from the European Commission. Researchers distributed the most recent poll in October 2003, just before the “Rose Revolution”.

The survey showed that 2% of the families (every 50th) in Tbilisi have a family member that is the victim of torture. This means that approximately 7,000 victims of torture live in Tbilisi.

Police victimized one out of every 12 Tbilisi citizens with degrading treatment during the last year, and physically assaulted one out of every 40 .
11% of respondants closely linked the words "police" and "torture". 90% of respondents believed that police both physically and mentally intimidate suspects and prisoners. Overall, 84% of respondants believe that police use of physical violence is an growing problem in Georgian society.

The research work is available on the web of Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT)