Part of the mission of the network ReSST is to inform and raise awareness about torture and its consequences, to improve the availability and quantity of rehabilitation services for torture survivors, and to promote scientific research activities, training, and professional updates.

The Italian Network providing support to torture survivors (ReSST) was founded at the beginning of December 2024 with the cooperation of the Catholic charity Caritas, Kasbah, Doctors Against Torture, Doctors Without Borders, Doctors for Human Rights, Naga, and SaMiFo, a center run by Rome's local health authority (ASL) and the Catholic Centro Astalli,which works with migrants across Italy.

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'A reality that is often related to the migration experience'

Despite it being a universally forbidden practice, torture "is often a reality connected with the migration experience, and an extreme form of violence still particularly relevant in the context of people's forced displacement", states the Network.

"While some studies have shown how among the migrant and refugee population, the percentage of those who suffered torture varies between 5 percent and 35 percent, in Italy that percentage is surely higher because it includes people who were tortured in transit countries, in Libya and along the Balkan route," explains ReSST in a statement published on MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Italy website.

The network's aim is to promote information initiatives to raise awareness on the topic of torture and its consequences both in the short and long term on those who survived it and the wider community, reiterating at the same time the need to strengthen the implementation of laws and international standards at various levels against torture as well as the related instruments needed to prevent and monitor it.

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Specific initiatives planned to rehabilitate survivors

Furthermore, the Network intends to give visibility to the good practices launched in some territories, even to promote the full implementation of the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health in 2017.

The Network also proposes to contribute to the improvement of the availability and quality of services for torture survivors, to ensure they have access to adequate rehabilitation programs, to rebuild their lives, and that they have the necessary support to obtain other forms of support and reparation, where available.

To reach this objective, scientific research activities will be promoted, as well as training and professional updates, and specific initiatives will be launched for new rehabilitation programs for torture survivors across the entire national territory.

The network brings together public and private entities, and NGOs who in Italy manage programs or services specialized in looking after persons who have suffered violence and other serious forms of intentional violence.

In addition to the associated entities, who are directly involved in the services for torture survivors, observers are also part of the network, like A Buon Diritto, Amnesty International Italia, Antigone, and SIMM - The Italian Society of Medicine for Migration.