Social workers from different municipalities of North Cotabato and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) participated in a study session on documentation and rehabilitation of torture victims in Kidapawan City on September 6 to 9, 2016. The learning event also highlighted the mechanism for monitoring, reporting, and responding to victims of grave child rights violations in areas affected by armed conflict in Mindanao.
Officers from the regional and provincial offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) also attended the four-day activity organized by the Balay Rehabilitation Center.
According to Balay Executive Director, Josephine Lascano, children in situations of armed conflict are among those who are vulnerable to atrocities committed by both state and non-state actors. She cited as examples the torture of two minors leading to the death of one of them and the serious injury of the other in a village in Basilan where government forces and members of the Abu Sayyaf Group had a deadly clash last April.
Lascano said that torture falls under the category of ‘killing and maiming’ among other grave child rights violations determined by the United Nations Children Fund and its partners.
Balay has documented those cases and have coordinated with the DSWD and a government hospital in Zamboanga City to attend to the medical and protection needs of the survivor.
The Balay Program Coordinator, Kaloy Anasarias, discussed the phenomenon of torture in the Philippines and introduced the Anti Torture Act. The participants also discussed case management and how social workers may provide psychosocial and protection services to torture survivors in line with the state’s obligation to rehabilitate them under the law.
The social workers also participated in a workshop on detecting and documenting the elements of torture and determine the legal, medical or psychosocial needs of the victims. They noted that torture remains to be a serious concern while some of them narrated their own experiences in handling torture victims in their respective localities.