Evaluation on support to prevention of torture and torture rehabilitation centres supported by EIDHR : Final report

The objective of this evaluation is to help the European Commission improve the impact of EIDHR support for torture prevention and rehabilitation centres. The evaluation focuses on the projects’ relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability and provides lessons and recommendations for their continued support. The evaluation covers rehabilitation centres worldwide including some within the EU. It puts particular focus on the financial sustainability of EU Centres (in Chapter 13), because of Council Directive 2003/9/EC on minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers in EU member states, and in view of the possible phasing out of EU financial support from 2010. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) is a financial and policy instrument of the European Union for “the development and consolidation of democracy and the rule of law, and of respect of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in third countries worldwide”. The EIDHR programme against torture embraces activities for the rehabilitation of torture victims and for the prevention of torture. It has funded centres for the rehabilitation of torture survivors since 1994, and a growing number of torture-prevention projects since 2001. EIDHR has a total portfolio of 142 anti-torture projects. Some 70 macro-projects against torture were implemented between 2001 and 2006: three quarters of them involved rehabilitation and one quarter-prevention. The rehabilitation projects often included a small preventive component also, worth up to 20% of total project costs, maximum. So far, EIDHR has committed a total of € 75.5 million to anti-torture projects. This evaluation covers around two thirds of the torture-rehabilitation projects4 implemented between 2002 and 2006. ...